Maybe this is a little simplistic for some, but I thought it was a good explanation of our dilemma.  The link is to Yahoo finance.  - Arlen PREDICTIONS ARE A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME...THERE IS NO FIX.. http://tinyurl.com/n744qm NEVER WAS, ISN'T AND NEVER WILL BE...DELAYING ACTIONS ONLY All money is debt. All money comes into creation via debt. No money is ever, or can be, created other than through debt. Fractional banking is making money out of thin air...debt creation All debt carries interest To pay back principal and interest requires the creation of more money which only comes into existence via debt Therefore the creation of money demands the creation of yet more money at a compound rate (the reverse of compounding interest to savings) Compounding eventually goes parabolic...ex. if you saved at a compound rate of interest you would over enough time have all the money Compounding to the debtor also goes parabolic...the more debt you have and take on the more is needed to service it All previous "recessions" were "cured" by either inflation (asset bubbles) or the creation of greater and greater debt to fuel consumption Since compounding eventually goes parabolic (to savers or debtors) the point in time comes where "peak debt" is reached "Peak Debt" is the point, public or private, where the cost of debt service is so large because the debt is so great, that all new money is consumed servicing it No money is available for anything other than servicing debt and no further inflation (bubbles) can be created to forestall the inevitable It is not a zero sum game. If the lenders, on the good side of compounding, sit on the money, none is available to the debtors and they default If the lenders continue to lend to keep money in the system, then more debt is created with interest and peak debt is reached faster and sooner It is a fundamental flaw in fractional banking (usury) a fatal flaw that was doomed from inception. It took a long time to reach peak debt and its coming was held off by the creation of ever larger inflation (bubbles) dot com, housing (the mother of them all) Now debt both public and private has gone parabolic. US total debt is close to 400% of GDP and the curve has gone parabolic, straight up All new money creation via debt (principally government now) is being sucked into a black hole of debt service and none reaches the consumers This is peak debt This is the mathematical conclusion to a fractional banking, debt as money, debt with interest system There is no fix, will be no fix, can't be a fix no matter how many experts tell you things will return to normal...they will not because they cannot Only a greater asset bubble than the housing market could forestall the inevitable and that is not going to happen All other conversations ie... inflation, deflation, the fed, Obama, plans, quantitative easing etc are moot....noise only All the experts are wrong and delusional This explanation cannot be contested. Many have tried to no avail. It is mathematics not opinion. We are at peak debt There is no fix