The economy.

Feels somehow different today.  The world may finally have grasped that there are no silver bullets; that Europe is tanking; and that it will bring the US down with it.  I am watching the market and the usual boost that comes whenever all the politicians in the world say everything is fine isn't happening.  The truth is that everything isn't fine and the clock has ticked down on the huge piles of debt that no one can pay.

But golly-gee...where is the stuff all that debt BOUGHT? I mean...isn't there anything to show for all that money?  There are a few things, sure.  There are a bunch of B1 and B2 bombers that cost trillions of dollars but can't be used.  They don't actually work that well and they are too expensive to fly.  Like the F-22s.  They were grounded for awhile because they keep falling out of the sky...and they will be grounded again when they KEEP falling out of the sky.  And we have some nice submarines and aircraft carriers...and we support - I mean COMPLETELY support the economies of most of the countries which hate us the most.  Americans who complain are arrested or shot, just like the citizens of Syria.  

But a whole lot of that money was 'invented'.  Let's use the housing bubble as an example.  House prices kept going up and people kept getting loans based on income they didn't have.  When the bubble burst, the banks, which were stuck with all that bad paper, were bailed out by the federal government with tax money they didn't have.  But the people who owed the mortgages weren't bailed out.  So trillions of dollars in equity - MOST of the money an average family had - simply disappeared - along with their homes and, in many cases, their jobs.

What is happening right now, today, this minute, is that the market has quite possibly realized the jig is up.  There are no safe havens.  No government bonds in the world are safe.  Gold isn't safe.  Silver isn't safe.  Your life isn't safe.  Surprisingly, no one cares very much that their food and water supplies aren't safe.