Quote Originally Posted by Kathianne View Post
I'm also thinking that if we hadn't built up the deficit by borrowing from the Chinese, language would not have been the major problem. I'm very uncertain that going into hock actually kept us out of a 'depression' in the first place.

It seems there is an argument to be made that we are and have been in what would be considered a 'depression' if there weren't so many 'circuit breakers.' The real question to my mind is, 'have we really avoided a depression or just delayed it, while building up this huge pile of debt?
I'm not worried about China as the Japanese have about as much debt and I'm not worried about a depression at this point either. What I see coming, without some tax cuts and some deregulation to get us more competitive globally, is the slow drip of '70s stagnation. I just don't see the 30's because there isn't any real protectionist fervor and the Fed is far more advanced than they were back then. The debt, and more the unfunded liabilities, is the wild card; it's unprecedented for us and I don't see us following the path of Greece, our fundamentals are quite different.