[mickeystoysz16]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

I believe the country's economy has already collapsed, but they just aren't telling us. They are fighting to RAISE the dept ceiling over 14 TRILLION dollars? There isn't a snowball's chance in hell they will ever be able to balance the books. How do you define "bankrupt"?

I am not sure just from what I have read, no real proof to back this up but $14T is anywhere from 25-45% of current GDP. So we are nowhere near default. It is more like overdrawn spending wise on the credit card and congress is asking for a credit increase on future growth. If we were 100-150-200% leveraged to GDP like some European countries then I would agree.

As far as economic collapse here in the us I am not sure because the accepted definition of recession is 2 qtrs of negative gdp growth and a depression is 4 consecutive qtrs of negative gdp growth. In the 2008-2009 recession we had 3 consecutive. 3rd and 4th QTR 2008 and 1st QTR 2009.

The first QTR of this year 2011 was a final of POSITIVE 1.9% GDP Growth. So I do not think we will collapse like Lehman and Bear Sterns in 2008. I do believe that we are going nowhere with 1-2% annual growth for a long time.
I call this screwflation, where corporate profits, especially those that benefit from commodities inflation will remain strong but personal balance sheets are screwed.