Ok, let's start over. Here's what I think:
-The economy has sucked in the last decade. I like it when the gov't spends money when nobody else will, because I guess I'm a Keynesian at heart. So I'm ok with deficits. If we have to run big deficits to give the boomers a nice retirement, I'm ok with that too. We're rich. If we decide we want to spend less we can cut SS and Medicare benefits a few % and pretty much be done with it.
-The pessimistic folks I speak with are often the same folks who were ridiculously optimistic during good times, OR people who are *always* talking about gloom and doom. This makes me think they're just emotionally not capable of understanding that sometimes the economy sucks, and sometimes it booms.
-Nobody ever wants to talk about *when* the giant collapse/hyperinflation is going to happen. I mean, you can make tons of money in currency markets. If the dollar is going to collapse, it's a profit opportunity. Why aren't you acting on it?
-The pessimism/collapse worldview has a parallel for-profit industry of gold-hawking shills that have a vested interest in making money off of fear.
-We've been more indebted/run deficits this high relative to GDP before and growth/innovation/awesomeness has always ridden to the rescue. In order for me to believe that's not the case this time (or next time there's a downturn), I'd need extraordinary evidence. Not ridiculous comparisons to Weimar/Zimbabwe/Spain/etc, which IMO aren't even vaguely comparable.
-The US (and the broader world) has a very diversified, giant economy full of the smartest, most capable people on the planet. I see no reason for endless pessimism in this context.
-W