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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, July 18, 2016 7:28 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] I Miss The King of Extropia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#222222'>I sure can explain it to you. If an entity continues to spend more than it takes in, and does it long enough, that entity will eventually go bust. spike</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black'>Well, how about those who say that we have been in debt since 1835? And what does GDP have to do with it? And what about the article? Debt is a good thing? I understand what you say, but it seems that that is irrelevant somehow. I am with you and it scares me.</span><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black'>bill w</span><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>BillW, did you study the banking crisis of 2008? Experiment: go into your local public library, find the section on economics. Notice how many books have been written about that crisis. As in wars, the history is written by the winners. In this case, the winners were those economists and investors who realized that whole system could fail, and eventually must fail. They were right. They made fortunes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>I wasn’t following it then, but I made plenty of firsthand observations. Banks were giving out risky loans that they knew were risky. They were selling the debt to organizations which were mixing the high-risk loans into the low-risk mortgage pool, under the reasonable assumption that the whole system wouldn’t ever fail; it was too big to fail. They could externalize risk by pouring the toxic waste into the big fresh-water pond and make big money. Well, eventually we learned the system is not too big to fail. Neither is the US government. If it does the wrong thing long enough, it will go bankrupt and it will fail to meet its obligations, even as it pretends to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>My prediction: the fed will start by publishing phony manipulated inflation numbers. (Oh wait, never mind, they are already doing that and have been for a long time.) Federal pensions, including (or rather especially) Social Security will be increased at that number, a percent or two, as prices increase at a far higher rate. In this scenario, it isn’t entirely clear exactly when the system failed, but it will be clear enough that it did at some point. The evidence will be the numbers of elderly living in poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>A PhD in economics is not necessary to see this coming, and in some ways, already here.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>