Bad Moon Rising

More evidence that we all need to pay attention to what's going on. In the past, I've said politically. Now, financially--locally, nationally and internationally.

For several reasons, I do, indeed, think there is at least a "bad moon rising", if not out-and-out financial turmoil coming down the pike, unless I'm mistaken and/or unless we do things differently, and very soon. I usually say the same thing, too, and that is, I hope I'm wrong.

The several things that make me think this are the following:

1) High household debt, per household, here in the States. In fact, it's at record levels, as we've heard for years. (http://www.occ.treas.gov/qj/qj24-1/3-SpecialStudies.pdf)

2) High national debt of the United States: Right now it stands at approximately 9 trillion dollars, and rising fast (thank you, Mr. Bush)(http://brillig.com/debt_clock/);

3) High deficit spending in by the United States due to the Iraqi war and the wide expansion of government, mostly in the past 7 years (thanks again, Mr. Bush) (http://www.deficitsdomatter.org/);

4) The housing crunch in the United States (and really, the world), right now (http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/BIZ/801020387&sfad=1);

5) The credit crunch (intertwined with the housing crunch) right now (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/;

6) Low household savings in the United States (http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2002/el2002-09.html):

7) All the "baby-boomers" about to retire--with all that debt and low savings rate--and the huge costs to the Social Security system on the United States (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/aging-boomers);

8) All those same "boomers" having crappy health care coverage, given the state of health care and how weak and nearly non-existent it is here in the States (http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=353);

9) The Medicare and Medicaid systems will both be tremendously burdened by these same "boomers" retiring in all their numbers (http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm875.cfm);

10) The huge expansion of troubles in the American auto industry right now, in part due to the housing and credit troubles but also due to the extremely high prices of oil and the lack of competitiveness of the American automakers (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/06/gm-death-watch.html) and, finally,

11) The extremely high and really, explosive cost of oil internationally. This speaks for itself and drives up the cost of virtually everything, either in manufacturing and/or the delivery of those same goods (http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm).

Given all these factors, it seems like, virtually, the "perfect storm" for financial calamity, frankly. Honestly, I don't think the Great Depression of the 30's and 40's had this much going for it's creation, so many years ago.

I hope I'm just getting old and crotchety and all these things aren't really such a big deal after all.

But I don't think it's just me. I think I'm right about all this and, again, hope I'm wrong.


(As a side note, for an important, brief but poignant article on another aspect of our collective futures, go to this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91681112. It also has the original audio interview it came from.)