Th*nk*ng Control

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I’ve been thinking about control.  Actually, I’ve been thinking about 2013, the “cliff,” predictions, our federal government, outside factors, money, and debt. I normally focus the last column of the year upon the year that was, and my first column of the New Year on what I feel we can expect to happen. As 2012 comes to an end, I am totally at a loss. My predictions have been pretty good in the past only as far as what I feel will occur and why, but too many times I have been wrong about when the things will happen. I have been fascinated by, and studied history and economics almost all of my adult life, but now all bets and predictions are off; there are just too many uncontrollable variables. The rock solid events and underlying principles seem to no longer apply; at least what we as a people are “fed” makes no sense to a TH*NK*NG person, much less to a rationally TH*NK*NG one!

 

You see 2013 will be completely about control —- Who really has it? How it can be solidified? Who will lose it? We are about to see the most bloody (and costly) wars of all time in the coming Armageddon to be waged over who can do what they want. Our times have become simply a matter of the here and now, maintaining our power elites, and keeping way to many sinking (and unjustified) “boats” afloat.  It will be truly something to watch even though the implications will be devastating to most of us.

 

As I write this, our leaders in Washington DC are feverishly working on a solution to their own created problem of “automatic” tax increases and spending cuts. This came about when agreement could not be reached about dealing with our escalating debt crisis. Another year has passed and we have added another TRILLION and a half to our debt. The “cliff” was conceived as a punishment/ solution for our government not controlling our state of economic affairs. This was much like the doomsday plan of controlling nuclear weaponry by “mutually assured destruction” as depicted

in the movie, “Dr. Strangelove” … to save   ourselves, we must destroy

 

ourselves. The year passed and no solutions/ answers came; now the back-up of the “automatic” tax increases and spending cuts is looming over our heads. The best analysis of these increases and cuts show how even “if”

executed, we will be left with increases to our national debt of a TRILLION a year for at least another decade!

Control comes from power, power comes from having money.  Our federal government looks like the hero when they are shelling out money in the form many federal programs. The era of big government is not over. It has continued to balloon, but nobody wants to pay for the party. Nobody could begin to pay for this party the world has enjoyed these past fifty years.

Without massive spending Congress loses its power; without power, Congress losses control. Congress does not want to give up control — especially to the Executive branch. This past weekend, we have seen Congress strut its stuff and hold the people of this nation hostage, but the strut is full of sound and fury and signifies nothing. This is tragic for the people of these United States. Whatever happens, control has been lost by our government!!!

 

We are now in a global economy, and even though the US is the last of the super powers, we clearly no longer are in control of global events. China is a sleeping tiger who holds over a TRILLION and a half of our debt, and its share of the global markets continues to grow; Japan holds a TRILLION of our debt, but its population is aging itself into long term oblivion, the Arab OPECS hold a TRILLION of our debt, but they hold the US dollar as the official currency of energy in their grasp and are in the midst of their own internal jockeying for control over all energy; and the EURO zone holds a TRILLION of our debt, but they are about to implode because of their own economic excesses. Any one of these (independently of the

others) can bring down devastation upon the American economy given the dictates of their own “sovereign” situations.I see no room for compromise here on any of these fronts.

 

Our problems rest in our excessive debt. Whoever has control over our debt, controls us as individuals, as states, and as a nation. The sun is about to set on debt as we have seen it; whatever comes will lead to shifts in power and in the so-called “control” as we have known it. 2013 should prove to be the year of control shifts — who has it, who will consolidate it, and who will lose it. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

 

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