On the topic of sovereign debt, some countries that have restructured in the past may have gone on to do well, but a great number of them are repeat offenders. I’m thinking specifically of Argentina and Greece. I think the number of countries with excessive debt and the sheer volume of that debt is too large to not create problems.

Further, the players and components of the financial system are more interconnected than ever through a web of credit default swaps and other derivatives that cause the structure of our economy to look more like a house of cards or a Ponzi scheme than I’d like. There are just too many hidden obstacles.

In the past, the U.S. has been a stabilizing force as their balance sheet looked a lot better than it does right now. Consumer spending in the U.S. drove a lot of economic expansion globally. Now, the U.S. consumer is just as over-leveraged as their government and that is unsustainable. The position of the U.S. as the largest economic power and home of the reserve currency makes the situation even more tenuous.

I think that eventually we will reach a healthier place economically, but I think we will need to experience significant pain to get there. I just don’t know when that will happen, so I choose not to participate at the moment. That may not be the right choice for everyone, but I’m sticking with it for now.

Glad to hear your personal balance sheet looks better than most! Thanks very much for your thoughtful input Brian.

To fix city debt, and county debt and state debt and country debt all they have to do is CUT TAXES and CUT SPENDING. The influx of new money will be huge and the debt can be paid of rapidly. Reagan did that in the 80s and the economic expansion lasted for 20 years!

The city of Windsor is CUTTING taxes by .6% this year and I guarnetee that their inbound revenue will increase by .10% from that simple,realistic jesture.

Inflation is going to be held in check and here in Canada the rate will just increase modestly as the economic expansion improves rapidly.

Indiana cut its health care costs by giving OWNERSHIP of the health care fund to its employees. Since the money was theirs if they did not spend it, the state saved MILLIONS in costs.

Debt is large in some areas, I concur. But in all past areas where debt was large they simply rtestructured the debt and it is these very economies that are leading the world market.

We live a relatively debt free existance, but we have both retrained and there is a touch of debt on the books that we need to erase. When I start working in May we will have the debt cleared in a matter of months.