Hey Takuan, Thanks for that mate, a good read, and onya Loki Pisces and Rjaadave for your comments n follow up. I agree, that the article is a good read and that he does cover a lot, not too bad for an old guy, considering he has probably covered maybe 50% of what Hotcopper and Hotcopper's Guru posters covered this weekend. (though partly tongue in cheek in that last statement... hmmm the reality is that is probably close to the truth if you ski p around and read the commodity threads the general threads the science threads the forex threads and the Mighty XJO thread).
I must say I am kinda interested in "what happens to us when the money runs out" question... and I do particularly like RJaadaves caution about always preparing for the last war... there are some wise words there, n once again I would like to point out that I have experienced first hand the "preparing for the last war" thing having grown up as a survivalist kid due to parental expectations that the last war would occur sometime post the 1970s fuel crisis... the fact that (for the tiny dot of Australian civilization, for sure) that this last war DID not occur makes me cynical as all get out about the next occurrance... though I would like to point out that had indeed we been living in the Balkans, or Afghanistan, the Gulf or Iraq instead of cosy old Australia, I would probably have a little bit of a different mindset now.
Okay, back to the question...
"what happens to us when the money runs out"
Not trying to be a smarty pants here, but who is "us" and what "money" are you talking about?
if you mean US as in US of A, the answer is most likely Revolution, turmoil civil strive.. (ref historical French Revolution, Germany pre world war 2 and Zimbabwe, what's going on in Egypt, what happened in Russia when it broke up)
If you mean us as in the global us then as per above, but localised between US and its warring partners, If you mean us locally hmmm a tougher view but I would say same as what happened to Ireland iduring the French revolution, Switzerland during the early stages of world war 2, Poland during the Balkans crisis, Pakistan during the afghanistan "troubles", we will be affected but unlikely that we will be swept up in the same personal pain as the US of A, perhaps we will become more of a refuge to US citizens at best, or a war partner at worst.
What should "we" do?
personal opinion... we as Australians?
stay informed, educate our kids in history, keep our heads level and be grateful we are on teh edge of the western world and a big component of the Asian economy. Maintain respect for who we are n where we came from, grow respect for what we are and what we do, and continue in that tradition of being hard when being hard is necessary n being laid back at all other times with a colonial (no offence nor exclusion meant to the "races" that came to this "Great Southern Land" before the latest European based colonisation) self reliant and piss taking attitude to all things that we cant control.
'Course there is a major point missed in the question, n that is... the money wont run out mate, it will just get so oversupplied that it will be worhtless... I'd prefer it if the money did run out, and conclusions could be met and a new cycle can begin.
(20min delay)