Predictions for 2009
ajmoir: The US is going to be in a world of hurt.  With Europe not far behind in the pain stakes.  As always the countries with the most open markets will recover first.Un-fettered markets are not the end solution but they are far better than the current politically controlled markets.The handouts are damaging on two fronts.  Firstly, it rewards poor businesses and stops better firms entering the market.  Secondly, Joe Public who made dumb financial decisions are not punished but instead everything is done to allow them to make more damaging decisions later on.The current debt loading of the US currency is not sustainable at the current levels of productivity.  The US looks more and more like the USSR of the late 80s, running as fast as it knows and still sliding into bankruptcy.I rather think we are looking at the end of the US as a going concern.I'm hopeful that a short civil war will ensue and that out of that there might be the chance for a small Capitalist/Anarchist state to be founded.Feudalism, Democracy, Fascism, Socialism and Communism have all failed the acid test.  What other forms of government do we have?  It would seem that Karl Marx was the last political thinker to offer a new idea for governmental organization.