The Shape Of Things To Come

Not as big a tsunami as I had hoped, but no matter. It'll do.

Predictions:

The next wave of this depression will hit before long and it will be much worse than 2008. Several big banks will fail unless bailed out. They will not be bailed out. Big surprise: the world won't end. The gov't will guarantee nothing whatsoever except deposits. Shareholders, bondholders, and assorted plutocrats will be wiped out, greatly diminishing their political clout (and good riddance).

Private sector unemployment will hit 30%. The House, seeking fairness in terms of bearing the economic pain, will pass a budget which includes a 20% paycut for all federal employees. Neither the Senate nor the President will go along with it. But there will be no continuing resolution and the government will shut down. Unlike 1995, it will not be the GOP that loses this one. After a month or so of stalemate, federal workers will decide that 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing. The Dems will blink and approve the budget. Folks will notice that the world will not have ended with the federal gov't inactive.

The resulting unprecedented pay cut (which will only give citizens an appetite for more) will break the solidarity of the public sector. Intelligent government workers who feel that they are doing something worthwhile will resent having their pay cut in order to support useless featherbedders, parasites, and tin horn bureaucrats. We will then behold the spectacle of government workers agitating for smaller government. It will be entertaining in the extreme to see these vampires fighting over a shrinking pie.

Some of the leftist politicians, whose only enjoyment in life is gotten from lording it over others so that the others must bow and scrape before them, will find that it is just as entertaining to have public sector workers groveling at their feet, begging for their jobs. They will wield the axe with gleee as they realize that a smaller gov't will eventually result in a more vibrant society, with plenty of opportunity for empire building and riches later.

The ugly implications of Obamacare will continue to ramify and outrage. Even leftist judges will conclude that the thing is a generational albatross, and the best strategic course will be to put it out of the Democrats misery. It will be invalidated.

The leftists and MFM will ratchet up the hatestorm to levels heretofore unimaginable. By some miracle the GOP will find its balls and not knuckle under to it, thereby defanging the shrieking media toddlers. Some enterprising entrepreneurs will buy one or more MFM outlets and clean out the stables.

Obama will attempt to rule via executive branch decree, promulgating regulatory "laws" that would previously have taken an act of Congress or a Constitutional amendment to enact. Several states will point out that the laws are null and void because they did not come from the legislative branch. The states will prevent enforcement of these laws in their borders and will ignore any federal court rulings to the contrary. This will open the floodgates as more and more entities realize that they have the power to uphold the Constitution without delegating that task to usurper black-robed Philosopher Kings.