The Fractional Reserve System

If you want to be scared -- really, really scared -- watch the following video.  It excellently, and understandably, explains serious flaws in our system of commerce and finance.  Most chillingly, it explains:

1. That all the debt we have (as a nation) can never be repaid fully, because we must repay debts with interest, and nobody creates the "interest" money - it just drains the money supply over time.
2. Without an ever-increasing spiral of debt, the economy would not be able to function.  How can we have an ever-increasing spiral of debt, where we are now?
3. In the long term, banks must eventually (by the math) hold all "real" money AND property, leaving nothing - money or otherwise - for anyone else.

U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It

U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It
(Laurence Kotlikoff - Bloomberg)

Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. President Richard Nixon, coined an oft-repeated phrase: “Something that can’t go on, will stop.” True enough. Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme will stop. But it will stop too late.

And it will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast quantities of money to cover its bills.