In the current debate regarding the foreign policy credentials of Hillary, her campaign is trumpeting her travel to 80 countries, and other "foreign policy experience".
It is clear that Hillary wants to claim at least part of the "success" in foreign policy from the Clinton years.
Unfortunately, the Clinton record on intelligence is very poor, bordering on abusive. Here are some observations:
What was the result of this Clintonian abuse of intelligence? Here are some of the effects that have been reported, many from the 9/11 report:
The result was that on 911, after 8 months of the Bush administration, but after 8 years of abuse by the Clintonites, the U.S. intelligence community was not what it could be.
What should be the Obama policy?
First of all, the National Defense Student Loan program which had a 1.3% interest rate should be restored particularly for study of foreign languages.
Second, provision should be made within any plans for national service for students that they can if they wish be trained to support intelligence analysis.
Third, continued emphasis should be placed on getting economies of scale throughout the intelligence community by looking for synergies across the many intelligence agencies.
Fourth, some additional emphasis should be placed on leveraging Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), including the use of the Internet and social networking technology to bring together communities of experts in various critical areas of study.
Fifth, even more emphasis should be placed on the inter-operability of intelligence systems that support Homeland Security and State/Local law enforcement.
Sixth, more scholarships should be provided to locate and train the most gifted students in cryptanalysis and intelligence analysis, including funding for internships.
Seventh. there should be continued emphasis on maintaining constitutionality of all intelligence gathering operations that may involve U.S. citizens.
The current debate on FISA is complicated by the current Democratic position held by entrenched hard-liners. Following those hard-liners without a second-look is not the most effective strategy to prevail in the upcoming general election.The major problem now is the granting of immunity to telecom providers who at the government's request assisted the intelligence community. The hard-liners want to bring into court all of this highly secret information. This would risk (1) compromising sources and means of intelligence gathering, and (2) almost certainly preclude telecom cooperation in the future. In my view, that is a policy that Barak should avoid.
The problems with punishing the telecom providers is two-fold:
This means that they are "innocent" actors, given that they relied on the government's word regarding legality.How to develop a reasonable national policy?It is a reasonable position is to avoid getting into the debate regarding past acts of telecom providers that were taken under promise from their government in the emergency atmosphere of the immediate post-9/11 period, and instead focus on any improvements that can be made in the future to help keep the process of intelligence gathering within reasonable constitutional boundaries.
One solution would be to support legislation that would strengthen the FISA review process in the future, including some type of coordination with telecom providers. No one wants to weaken our intelligence capabilities, but the way to improve things is to focus on the future of FISA, not going back and witch-hunting.In this way, Barak will avoid getting snagged into the current debate over past telecom immunity.
If Barak takes the same position as current hard-line Democrats who are holding up the FISA and other intelligence bills, and fails to distinguish his position, then in the upcoming general election he will become even more vulnerable to a plague of sensationalist fear-mongering attacks over national security.In sum, my policy advice is this:
Every President needs intelligence, so we don't want Barak to go into the Oval office as an enemy of the 85,000 or so intelligence professionals spread across 6 intelligence agencies. He too may need the telecom providers at some point.
It is only a question of getting the Constitutional balances right without burning bridges with important sources of intelligence.
One of the missing elements in our national intelligence efforts may be a lack of focus on industrial espionage, the taking by foreign agents of U.S.-created intellectual property, includiing trade secrets.
To a certain extent, a few of these issues are covered at the National CounterIntelligence Executive (NCIX), part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). However, these efforts appear to be under-funded. As a consequence, they must keep their focus on the highest priority items which are industrial espionage incidents targeted against our defense industry sector.
The result of this focus is that everything else by necessity gets ignored, or given very inadequate attention. There also are efforts within the FBI to investigate acts of industrial espionage pursuant to the 1992 Economic Espionage Act. The FBI also tends to focus primarily on national security related issues. There are only so many resources to go around.
Why is this important? It is important because the theft of technology and trade secrets has a powerful long-term effect on the economy of the United States. Ultimately, only a small part of this problem is national security related. Instead, it is a much broader and generalized problem that encompasses almost all major industries, both in manufacturing and in services.
One idea for intelligence reform, therefore, is to revive the role of national intelligence in helping the U.S. economy. Other countries do this extensively, and the U.S. also can do this.
"I could just stand up here and say 'Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified.' The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect,"
"Nobody believes Senator Obama's plan is universal because it's not. Mine is,"
"There will be blood" makes me so aware of how ruthless businessmen and Special Interests are to protect their pockets, against whatever may be the best interests of the rest of us. I am reeling from seeing these movies ("No Country for Old Men" is another one that shows ruthlessness for money), and have a great sense of being trodden-over by these powerful groups. Texas has controlled our White House for decades in the 20th Century, and look at the mess we are in now as a nation, with dependence on oil, alternative energy technologies languishing in Universities because of the faulty claim that "we have too much infrastructure to replace", etc. All arguments which play right into the hands of Big Energy. Exxon Mobil makes $45B in profit this year, and Texan judges slap measly $5M fines on Big Energy when a plant explosion due to lax maintenance kills or maims hundreds of employees. This is Special Interests active at all levels of the Administrative, Legislative, and Judicial branches!
Now, it is the AIPAC meeting with Cheyney, where they've written all kinds of things into US Congressional Bills to protect, share, involve us in Israel's military matters. This is happening about now. AIPAC, the Israel Lobby is in the news a lot lately. People who challenge it are often called "anti-Israel" or "anti-semitic". So, the conversation doesn't go very far because of those good old fashioned US style racial politics. They evidently get 100+ things passed a year in Congress to aid Israel. This on top of the $3B a year in aid we have sent them for decades. Their tactics include pressuring Congressmen to vote for bills, threatening to support their opponents in next elections based on their "Israeli voting record". They are described as ruthless and highly organized.
Several years ago, the Anti-Castro lobby had the whole US Congress ready to vote for citizenship for that little boy Elian Gonzales who washed up on these shores with his mother, against the wishes of his living Father. Citizenship in the Common Law is not bestowed by legislation. Citizenship is bestowed upon an individual through certain processes, birthright, and immigration. Never legislation. Yet, that Lobby managed with its power to convince a House full of legislators who should have known better to agree to such a thing. This is subversion of the Common Law for Special Interests. You can't blame the Cubans for trying to get away with it.
The list goes on Big Oil, Big Auto, Tobacco, Big Pharma, HMOs, NRA, Wall Street. Just who has the interests of the average citizen in mind? Or, the interests of the Nation-at-large?
The truth is, no Special Interest group can be blamed for gaming a system that allows them to game it. You can't blame Special Interests for what they do to our legislation, courts, and administration with their money and power, when the system itself is corruptible.
But, Special Interests are not the interests of the nation at large. Just take AIPAC as an example. AIPAC has secured aid from the US for Israel for decades. $3B a year. But, all that money has not helped Israel solve its problems with the Palestinians. Instead, our giving them money, as well as money from other outsiders like US businessman Ron Lauder, and Russian Lev Leviev enable militant Israelis to build settlements or colonies in Occupied Territories which belong to Palestinians and should be part of the Palestinian State.
Our political leaders say they are not swayed by AIPAC and other Special Interest Groups because they verbally say they are against settlements. But, what are we doing with our money? How are we voting with our money? With our aid, Israel is able to divert its other resources to those settlements, and what do the American people have to show for that? Camp David failed because the Palestinians were not happy with the Swiss Cheese territory maps they were offered by the Israelis, because these settlements and the roads that connect them dotted their territory, and gave place for Israelis to be permanently in their land.
Is this situation advantageous to the American people? Had Camp David accords worked in 2000, would 9/11 even have happened? We can only speculate now. The terrorism was not exclusively the result of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, but it certainly contributes, and paints a picture to the Arab world of where US loyalties lie. Squarely with Israel and not with them. The irony is that average Israelis, like the Irish before them, are also victims of zealous Americans who fund their troubles. Average people in Israel want peace, but the US money allows the Right Wing to be intransigent. If you have a big brother paying you, why try to work or get along with anybody? They don't need to earn their own money. Now AIPAC are agitating for invasion of Iran. Is this in the best interests of the American people, to take on another war, with its human and financial costs?
Barack has to take on the Special Interests. We can't continue this way. I see a country where families are poorer than 1970s, students are not getting educations, oil companies are richer and richer because poor families need to drive cars, judges rule in their favor, ruthless supporters of Israel influence our Congress for war efforts that do not help us and take money away from our own people, Cubans will go back to Cuba when Castro fils is dead, and take over their former properties, exerting their money and power again in another country which seems to be the Latin American way. Average Americans will be here. Suffering under a weaker dollar, and inflation, and no skills that can compete in the global marketplace. All because of bad government and spending habits on Special Interests who go their way, and cared less about America, Average Americans and any kind of American Dream for anyone.
He needs to take the money out of the equation. Access by Lobbyists to Legislators should be restricted. Lobbyists should use their considerable money to influence the VOTERS who can in turn tell their legislators what to vote for them. Legislators should only vote based on direct wishes of their constituents, not outside interferers. And, Congress should buy all the advertising and media for campaigns in congressional districts so that every candidate is heard equally in each district.
I will go to Canada if things don't change. I have skills and a great education fortunately, and some money in the bank. We may have "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", here, not that I know exactly what that means anymore (sounds kind of amorphous and unattainable, like a constant striving without really knowing what one is looking for) but in Canada they have "Peace, Order and Good Government". I think I am going to go for that in the very near future.
Just what is Barack's 'theory of change'?
He has a lot of ideas of things to fix in many sectors, but what about the big structural things holding back our democracy?
1. Unequal access to Washington (i.e. too much influence by big business in the name of "free speech"), and 'free speech' enabled only to those who can buy time on privately owned media networks. This is causing groups in self-deterministic states like Vermont and Alaska to agitate for secession from the Union. These people believe this corporate dominance of civic affairs violates the Constitution, and the rest of us are hardly even aware or able to articulate the issue and how it effects us as individuals and citizens, because media corporations rather than a true 'fourth estate' are one such corporate sector dominating the civic arena.
2. Communications infrastructure that exploits working Americans for their 'consumer potential' but doesn't give them back any dignity of self-determination and real choice (i.e. an FCC that instead of advocating for citizens, advocates for licensees of broadcast and other media franchises to grow and make their businesses more ubiquitous and profitable all the while diminishing the diversity of voices heard, and filling the 'passive media' space with nothing but entertainment, sports, and advertising messages; critical balanced news is non-existent for the average American unless he/she actively goes out the find it on the Internet, yet we're hated abroad because of policies hidden from us, and can no longer travel freely or expect our USD to be of any value), Barack has to re-enact the "fourth estate" as was envisaged by the founding fathers if he wants real change to the minds and behaviors of Americans in all sectors.
3. Misguided notion that the 'free market' can provide a 'public good' such as healthcare. Adam Smith didn't agree it could. The market isn't free anyway with the state licensing required for health insurers. They are limited competition licenses and as such should provide fair access to all risks like in auto. Catastrophic health risk cannot be pooled by individual small companies, and so people get priced out of the system as their risk increases, because the companies are not adequately pooling risk. We need new approaches to reinsurance in global financial markets to properly pool these risks, and new structures for participating companies, before we can get to universal healthcare solutions using multi-payer, and multi-provider solutions.
4. Pharma companies get to count their enormous inefficient marketing costs into the calculus for drug development. They have been off loading the scientific risk of drug discovery to Universities and other endowment or Federally funded programs for years, focusing instead on the costly and lengthy FDA process and marketing to millions of doctors as their raison d'etre. The FDA process itself can be improved by greater infrastructure for sharing clinical trial results to prevent mistakes in future and standards for human tissue donor collections and greater use of computer simulations of compound actions before going into costly animal and risky human trials. Meanwhile, we are being forced to pay for their inefficiencies and inability to change through our medicare/medicaid, not to mention our private insurance premiums used to pay for high prices of drugs in a few categories, and the non-existence of drugs in most categories.
5. Misguided notions that Federal tax cuts, and Trickle-down theories lead to job growth, when it is proven that state and local tax abatements do lead to business and job growth (and fortunes for entrepreneurs) at local levels, and Trickle-down has resulted in nothing but further disparity of the wealth landscape, and fewer resources and social cohesion for development of the middle class' human capital.
6. Undying loyalty to allies who are following outmoded methods of resolving their own political problems. EU is showing that soft power using economic influence can end terrorism (i.e. Northern Ireland, and IRA), and expand sphere of allies from the terrorist axis (i.e. Libya). Relying on outmoded models is only leading to further violence, for which mounting huge occupation forces, secret policing networks in contravention of US constitution and Geneva conventions, and building actual walls remains the only and eternally costly solution. Soft power applied to Iran can encourage the political reform groups working in great isolation and danger by offering greater potential economic security than can be offered by the hardliners, who must resort to shooting off rockets, and bellicose anti-Western rhetoric to show their teeth to voters. Greater economic security and closer association with positive aspects of alliance with the US can begin to change minds poisoned by hardliners, and our own misguided support of the Shah's totalitarian dictatorship.
7. Wars on drugs and immigration using endless outmoded notions of police forces and walls, paramilitary forces inside sovereign countries, and stringent imprisonment for petty offenders and users, without addressing the root causes of demand in affluent classes, and poverty and poor education which causes people to act as foot soldiers out of desperation, or flee across the border to the US. What about 'soft economic power' applied to business and wealth leaders in Mexico to force them to provide developmental policies for their own people? We make it too easy for them to 'out-source' the hard work of their own economic development by sending their poor to the US. What about 'treatment' programs for users, to cut demand, and rehabilitation/job training for petty offenders? What about pharmaceutical markets for opium in Afghanistan like in Turkey to provide legal cash from the West to farmers to engender trust and connection to us?
8. Reliance on and pride in the Foundation sector for addressing social ills in America, which are uncoordinated and unaccountable to any standards or metrics to justify their tax-exemption status. Many highly successful programs could be replicated across America by Foundations to spread success, but because there are no clear channels and 'ideas markets' for this cross-pollination, many successful ones are never transferred to new markets where they could achieve success. 'Whimsy' and 'pet' projects get funded by well-meaning novice philanthropists and then die due to non-success, which is a waste of tax-exempt money.
We need to hear more 'structural ideas' that can blow the Republicans out of the water, and stand up in the coming debates.
McCain's ideas on the economy are not tried and tested. He espouses Federal Marginal Tax rate cuts, when state and local abatements prove they generate business and jobs. Not Fed tax cuts, all they generate are deficits, and a shrinking dollar. His 'proven ideas' are simply Reagan era Voodoo economics misapplied again 30 years later. I for one, don't want to pay any more for that. See: The Boom Was a Bust For Ordinary People By Barbara Ehrenreich in the Washington Post
to find out what happened with 'trickle-down theory' since we elected Reagan. Far removed from Wall Street, most Americans have been living in their own personal recession for years. McCain's done some good things grilling civilian appointees on Abu Ghraib, but he needs to stick with that.
I agree Barack's got to get down to some details about what is going to make America grow and pay off that deficit before the rest of the world takes the dollar even further down by starting to sell US dollar denominated Treasuries into an already flooded market.
Fight back with him on this point in the debate Barack. Voodoo is zero!
POWER to ALL the PEOPLE - WE VOTE and the results are NOW CREATING the NEW United States under Obama. CHANGE is HAPPENING already and causing HOPE in TAKING OUR COUNTRY BACK from the greed and stupidity that has run rampant for way too long. Corporations and Wall Street will have to conform to OUR MAIN STREET. Money, money, money does NOT make a nation - RESPECT for each other and anti-greed DOES. What WE are part of now - is a once in OUR lifetime experience. This campaign is doing amazingly well - THANK YOU ALL. THANK YOU Senator OBAMA for having the WISDOM to have the faith and trust in not only yourself, but in us too - in having you elected in November 2008 and beyond! I believe Barack Obama will most definitely be the greatest President of the United States and Commander In Chief in OUR lifetime. The last time I felt this energy was with John F. Kennedy. OUR cause to Bringing Back America to reality and decency is working! Let OUR efforts continue this way in the Obama administration and the next generation will inherit much better. Isn't it AMAZING how OUR country is being TRANSFORMED to make a better life for us ALL.
There is a widely published quote from a captured Al Qaeda letter stating that: "prolonging the war is in our interest." Articles such as the one by Robert Parry, piece together several other smaller admissions by Al Qaeda reach the same conclusion, that "Bush’s strategy is helping al-Qaeda, both in Iraq and globally." Parry's article concludes that Bush has benefitted politically from doing so, and laments the damage to basic constitutional freedoms that have resulted. Posted by the Consortium for Independent Journalism: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/100306.html
Below I have attached excerpts from a captured letter that goes into detail on the matter. I can’t believe that no one has reported on this much more explicit letter, but then again, it is harmful to virtually all of our elected leaders, except Obama. It is a great counter to the bi-partisan argument that regardless of how we got there: "we can’t withdraw and leave Iraq to the terrorists."
You must read the attached translated letter from Zarqawi (the former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq) which reveals that Al Qaeda’s strategy in Iraq required that US troops remain long enough for Al Qaeda to provoke a civil war. Zarqawi, feared that the US troop withdrawal would lead to "peace" and "democracy." Zarqawi wrote that the absence of Americans would lead to a "gap" between Al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgents (who have a strong dislike of foreigners), and concluded that Al Qaeda’s options upon our withdrawal would be to (a) face a losing battle or (b) leave Iraq.
Below are excerpts and links to the lengthy document. The first part (omitted) is intended to incite hatred towards the Shia, and to justify the strategy of inciting civil war by attacking them. Next (omitted) is a description and criticism of every other ethnic group in Iraq, that also supports Al Qaeda’s need for the unifying hatred provided by the US presence. Given the unflattering description of the groups Zarqawi was seeking to enlist, it is obvious that this letter was not intended to be discovered, and represents Al Qaeda’s true strategy in Iraq. It shows that Bush (and the Congress) have unwittingly aided Al Qaeda!
Text from Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi Letter
Translated and posted by the Coalition Provisional Authority " We know for certain that these Crusader forces will disappear tomorrow or the day after...."....1. The [Sunni] Masses: These, even if in general they hate the Americans, wish them to vanish and to have their black cloud dissolve. But, despite that, they look forward to a sunny tomorrow, a prosperous future, a carefree life, comfort, and favor. They look ahead to that day and are thus easy prey for cunning information [media] and political enticement whose hiss rings out.........This matter, with the anticipated awaking of the slumberer and rousing of the sleeper,... along with the anticipated incitement of the wrath of the people against the Americans, ........drag the Shi`a into the battle because this is the only way to prolong the fighting between us and the infidels. We say that we must drag them into battle for several reasons, which are:...the Americans, on whom you find a quasi-consensus about killing them as an assailing enemy.....When the Americans disappear from these areas - and they have begun to do so - and these agents, who are linked by destiny to the people of the land, take their place, what will our situation be?......If we fight them {and we must fight them}, we will confront one of two things. Either:1 - We fight them[the Shia], and this is difficult because of the gap that will emerge between us and the people of the land. How can we fight their cousins and their sons and under what pretext after the Americans, who hold the reins of power from their rear bases, pull back? The real sons of this land will decide the matter through experience. Democracy is coming, and there will be no excuse thereafter....2 - We pack our bags and search for another land...."Formerly posted at: http://www.cpa.gov/transcripts/20040212_zarqawi_full.html now found at: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2004/02/040212-al-zarqawi.htm
The GOP is certainly not our grandfather's party any more.
McCain would have been great --- 8 years ago, but now his 1980s notions are way out of date. I won't mention the President at the time, since his name is holy in many circles.
We've got way too much debt, with no clear way to pay it off to go for these voodoo economics strategies from David Stockman.
Just what have the great American Universities created with science lately --- can we pay the treasury debts with a tax on Iphones? Ipods?
The whole marginal tax rate discussion on Federal Income tax is so tired. Don't these smart people know that business owners have been making fortunes on tax abatements at the local and state level on property, sales, state, county and city income tax...for years?
And, besides what good is a low Federal Tax rate if the Federal deficit is so big that the dollar goes down in world markets?
Just how are we supposed to buy all those products we don't make anymore and the commodities that everybody else suddenly needs with a shrinking dollar?
This doesn't look like a wealth creation strategy to me. Constant erosion of the long-term purchasing power of the US dollar should also be a consideration when setting marginal rates for Federal taxes (more posts on this).
The college, high school and law students need to get ENRAGED about this. This is the biggest lie being perpetrated by, well not YOUR parents, but somebody's.
You know the Voodoo argument, we'll pay off these debts by the brilliance and dynamism of our economy and the brilliance of the techology created by our Universities. Aaaah...excuse me, it has been more than twenty years since we first heard this...are we paying them off yet??? People seem to be making fortunes over night with tech companies. What about the public debt? When do we pay that...who...sorry I am getting confused.
I don't know what parents tell their kids today about money, but my grandparents told me "your net worth is how much money you have in the bank, the value of the things you own, MINUS all the money you owe banks and other people". That is pretty simple math for five year old, and I still remember it.
Just when are we going to ...sorry, when are YOU going to start paying these debts. I am almost out of here remember?
BUT, I am more than happy to share all of the 'experience' I have with how this insidious financial system works and will post more before I die
In my work as a change consultant, the biggest obstacle I have identified to change is 'indifference'.
Few of us want to do bad things (except sociopaths and narcisists who do exist). Most of us would want to alleviate suffering if we knew it existed or knew how to. But, most of us really only know about our own little worlds. Suffering for my crowd is usually of the psychological nature. We talk about how miserable we are and go see our shrinks. Why would we know what about how other people are suffering? Are we 'suffering hunters'? Not by nature.
So, I thought of a great idea the other day while listening to Barack at the Meadowlands. The only way to address the indifference of Congress to the suffering of the American people concerning healthcare, is to wipe out the budget line item that pays for the Congressional Health Plan!
Barack can stand before Congress and the American people and pledge that together, they will all construct a health plan that is equitable and addresses the changing needs of the American people. Only when the Congressmen and women, who are all millionnaires anyway, are denied coverage for pre-existing conditions for themselves and presumably their beloved family members, will they finally get it, and move beyond their indifference.
This is the Symbolic gesture that is needed to unite this nation on this divisive point.
They will all be truly incentivised to create a plan to solve all of our problems together. In change consulting, we call this 'alignment'.
Justice in health care is no longer simply a dream for liberals and bleeding hearts. We may have long-held cultural views about 'self-determination' and ' government involvement in private lives' , but the issue of our health status as a nation is starting to show up in the data that describes our competitiveness as a nation.
I for one cannot listen to any more of these outmoded arguments harking back to some mythic time in our history. The truth is we are dropping in global rankings of health and fitness of our human capital, the very thing we claim is our strength, and that will somehow manage to pay off our enormous public debts (more on that in another post) owed to our trading partners.
We are no longer enjoying monopoly power as a nation with the only post-war industrial complex still in place to rebuild Europe and develop the rest of the world. These were the conditions enjoyed by most of the Billionnaires on our Fortune lists during their lifetimes when they started out in business. For us, for me, my children and nephews and nieces, we have to compete with nations that are rising in the ranks of health and education, and beat us with sheer numbers of university graduates in engineering and other important fields.
We've got to adapt our ways of thinking for the new world we live in. And, fixing health care in the US is the first step. That is what Chairman Mao did for the Chinese, during his reign after the wars in the 1940s that threw off the Emperors. He improved their health and fitness as a nation. Now, look where they are.
Check this out. It is very enlightening about beliefs and long-held assumptions, new tools and ways of thinking that can advance us, and also hard facts about what we have become.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w
I dug out my old Foreign Exchange books from my Citibank days. The big takeaway is that currencies don't go up when interest rates go down, EVER!!! Currency rates follow interest rates. That is an easy rule to remember.
We'll never get the dollar back without severe austerity here and much higher interest rates. And, no politician is prepared to tell the American people that after they've allowed the Financial Institutions to gorge them on credit all in the name of "growth".
Whatever that is! Growth in retail sales seems to be the main thing lately. That is really creating a lot of wealth.
Growth of the money supply is very bad for currency rates. That is in the book. That is the outcome of all those subprime mortgages, home equity, and plastic credit lines created by banks and credit card companies and investment banks selling subprime bonds to their best institutional clients (and boy are they mad now). The most inflationary thing to do is grow the money supply, but we don't say that. The Fed doesn't say that, they just say they are lowering the rates again. Growing the money supply and easy credit like that is inflationary. Could rising house prices be inflationary? Housing isn't in the CPI, so I guess not?...(well, you can guess what I guess).
One sure way out of our debt is continued USD de-valuation and inflation at home. That is the course we're on unless we stop this madness.
We may just be printing a lot of zeros on those Benjamin's like Argentina in the past, and Zimbabwe today!
But, that is one way to get rid of our debt, and piss off all our trading partners who bought our Treasuries. But Caveat Emptor right? Oh, but by the way, when that happens the price of a barrel of oil will be like $500 a barrel, or worse. That really is black gold.
Let's have a contest...who do we put on the $10,000,000 note. Oh, the $10,000,000 coin?
