The world's 8th biggest economy is in trouble:

[jk3006]

The USA's problem is that it has spent money it didn't have to buy things it couldn't afford.  It can't repay its loans from those creditors ,and neither can it survive much longer with the excessive printing of paper (Federal Reserve Notes).  Now it's all coming to a head because it's so far leveraged in debt that foreign nations see that we can't repay them, which in turn further encourages them to dump the massive amount of our dollars that they've been holding on to.  Bretton Woods II is in the horizon since the dollar is not a very trustworthy currency anymore.  When those dollars come pouring back in and there's nobody willing or able to pay the interest on our national debt, then the game is over. 

Unfortunately, most people are too ignorant to know any better.  We've been told to trust paper, that paper is good.  We've been told that paper is real wealth.  Wrong!  Paper leads to excess.  That excess is further fueled by greed.  Then the top blows off, and those who think they gained something out of nothing are hit with the reality that their something simply returned back into nothing.  Sad, but hopefully people learn from their mistakes. 

These bailouts only delay the inevitable.  When the corrections in the market are finally made, it will probably be too late to save the currency.  Those who have investments and are foolish enough to leave them in US Dollars will learn a very hard life lesson.   

[jk3006]

Still, I believe the USA has the largest reserve of Gold in the world by far. Yes, this is what happens when you have a class of people that make their money from money. I'm sure you see the Biblical significance in this. All this economic malaise could have been simply avoided had LAW and Regulation been followed and not ignored. Eg,,,funny paper/derivatives are actually forbidden by law...but the last 30 years have been resigned to ignore Law, now reaching a crescendo in the Bush years.



..TM7

Good point!

[Syncerus]

let 'em sink, maybe they will open their eyes and close their mouths!

This is one of the great quotes of all time.

[Syncerus]

I guess 4 dollar gas had nothing to do with it or the war.

If you're looking for an excuse, any one will do.

[rex6666]

Califruity has been way to smart to do anything like the rest of the US for years.
I guess this is because a lot of them live in a make believe world.
Why don't they make themselves a movie where they are rolling in money, i mean
just throwing out the window rich, then they will be OK.
Price of gas in other states was $4.00 and the war was there too.
like the man said if you are looking for excuses you can look anywhere.

[Questor]

I guess it's worse than we thought. The latest CIA fact book lists California as the 10th largest economy.

[Dee]

If you think that's something check WalMart. It is about number 8 in the world and yes, I am comparing WalMart to COUNTRIES.

[torpedoman]

speaking of gas do you realize that the government makes more profit off each gallon than the oil company that drilled for it , refined it, transported it , and marketed it. Headline news on the oil company profits called "OBSCENE" not one word on the governments cut that must go into a black hole. Cal going broke is super news i think they should be declaired insolvent and taken over by the fed government and a California Czar appointed.

[Dee]

It's not just the Feds. The tax on commercial diesel in Texas is .20 per gallon, and higher than that in states like Illinois.

[SouthernByGrace]

Why not just break Kaliforni up into at least three states? It's too dawgone big anyway. It's bigger than a lot of countries. The separate economies should be a heck of a lot easier to manage that way, not to mention all 55 of them electrical votes. Shoot, since we're fixin to be spreadin the wealth around, we can't forget they got a whole bunch of them little boogers.    I mean, look at the different regions in the state. It's always cold up north, always too hot down south, always foggy in the middle.
North Kaliforni could be for the folks that don't know they ain't in Oregon anymore.
South Kaliforni could be for all the people who think they're still in Mexico. We could call that part New Mexico, but...we already got one of them... it could be NM, part dos ,  Nah...
and the middle part, we could call it New London, since we already have a New England and a New Jersey and a New York and a new almost every city in England... and since the London Bridge was moved to Lake Havasu City, Arizona in 1971, we could get them to donate it to New London, so they could have a bridge over the creek just before you get to the Golden Gate Bridge... , that way when I go there again next June I won't have to get my feet wet... and since the last big rain they had in Arizona washed out that canyon 10 gazillion years ago, they don't need the bridge anyway. Talk about wishful thinking... Hey, they moved it one time, the second time should be a "charm." LOL

[Rustyinfla]

   Gee that's too bad.

[GGaskill]

$4 a gallon gas lasted for about 6 months; it's down to $1.65 a gallon now.  The state fiscal problems have been going on for years because the legislature spends more than it receives (a sure ticket to bankruptcy.)  They are afraid to raise taxes because they would get voted out of office.