If Something Cannot Go on Forever, It Will Stop
In thinking about Barack Obama's recent personal revelation about the evils of deficits (he worried aloud in a weekend speech about other countries "tiring" of lending the U.S. money), as well as the edge of budgetary apocalypse situation here in California, I got to thinking about one of my favorite Herb Stein quotes:
If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.
What things are currently going on in the world -- financial/economic, environmental, political, etc. -- that can't go on forever, and so will stop? I'm particularly interested in the things likely to stop sooner than most people expect.
My current worry? Too many things that should stop won't, at least not right away. The U.S. seems on a path to barbarize its reserve currency status by impatiently using every last bit of financial capital it has built up over the last few decades in an attempt to prevent failed institutions -- states, companies, banks, individuals, etc. -- from failing. We may even get away with it, briefly, but the risk of a sudden stop in our future is large and growing.