Sir Barken Hyena writes:
I’m not predicting who will win in November. We’ll see soon enough. I’m making a prediction about what will happen if the Romney/Ryan ticket wins.
- The economy will improve. But only a little. That portion of the slowdown that’s caused by regime uncertainty will end, but any on the right who think that’s the real cause will be disappointed. There are much bigger, structural problems lying underneath.
- This improvement will take the pressure off reform efforts. Ryan’s budget will never be implemented.
- Republicans will mostly work then to preserve military spending and will become fierce defenders of entitlement spending that goes to seniors: SS, Medicare part D, whatever.
- They will attack stuff favored by the left but this won’t be successful because the uptick in the economy will convince a significant number of swing voters that the gloom and doom of 2012 was oversold. There will be charges of Chicken Little.
- Mid terms will swing the Congress towards the Democrats, same as 2010 but in reverse.
- The fiscal situation will continue to worsen, for the simple reason that nothing will be done to reverse it.
- Eventually but not in this next term the whole system will seize up when the credit finally stops flowing.
- At this point, all bets are off, nobody knows what’ll happen.
So there you are, pretty bold, eh? My assumption is that the current political state of things is so sclerotic that there’s no hope of saving it. What’s required would tax a young system full of energy. What we have is more Grandpa Simpson than Jack LaLanne. Therefore the Ship of State will continue steaming Full Speed Ahead! It’s no more viable than the Ancien Regime was in 1789.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Very good insights. I agree that we are in the last days of a paradigm that started with Lincoln. What will come next is anyone’s guess. But here is what I would advise concerned citizens to do:
1) Establish an offshore bank or other financial account and move some cash offshore for emergencies. Uruguay, Panama, Demark, Switzerland and Austria are candidates with solid privacy laws.
2) Create an offshore asset protection trust, or a dynasty trust, outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. government and U.S. courts – the Cook Islands are a good location.
3) Purchase and store precious metals offshore (Austria, Switzerland and Singapore) – if they are in your name, they are not U.S. reportable.
4) Apply and get quick official residence in another country as a step towards eventual citizenship. Best bets for speed are Uruguay and Panama.
You have maybe four to eight years to get this done depending on how quickly the credit markets crash.
LikeLike
“I agree that we are in the last days of a paradigm that started with Lincoln. ” Now that’s interesting, I normally tie it to Fabian Socialism and the 1880s or so. Can you expand on this?
LikeLike
Fabian socialism needs a big, bad ass central government to flourish. Lincoln (unwittingly) gave it to them.
LikeLike
Oh, so the whole war effort built that up then. And after the war they must have found new uses for it. Very interesting. My American history is for shit I’m ashamed to admit.
LikeLike
Jefferson’s whole point was to avoid the situation that existed in Europe. With all the power piled up in a big central government (monarchies then), you would have rival interests contending for control. Socialism was perfect for Europe, but had a tougher time here.
LikeLike
Fun, smart posting, in a gloomy sort of way. It’s a marvel that they’ve kept the whole house of cards erect this long. Do you suppose they have a few more tricks up their sleeves yet?
(Scribbling down epiminondas’ suggestions on my to-do list …)
LikeLike