I hesitate to even start on this and will not try to explain in detail for two reasons. One it would take a book to do it and two I'm probably wrong.

But my opinion is...................

There is no way to ever pay off the debt. Some of it has to be repudiated in one manner or another. There is no way to meet all our entitlement obligations. Not everyone is going to get what has been promised.

The question is "how will these events come about?"

Money printing is what is keeping interest rates low. We do not have enough demand for the debt the Treasury is selling so we have to monetize (create new) a lot of it. Even the thought of this would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago and now we are doing a majority portion of the current spending. If we quit printing money with not enough demand for the debt being issued, interest rates go up enough to create the demand. That is the way a free market works.

The only reason money printing is able to keep interest rates low is people still have confidence in the dollar. Bernanke is playing a very dangerous game of chicken. Should that confidence be lost in significant amount, either here or abroad, it is game over. The Fed will no longer be in control of interest. Think Greece. Confidence is already being lost as China and others are no longer adding to their holdings of US debt and as issues mature they are not adding enough new to offset all the maturities. But it has not been lost enough to cause a run on the dollar.

dpilot83 said:

"The President and Congress and the Senate would have to get up in front of the American people and say, look, here are the numbers. We've screwed up, but we're going to start working towards a firm foundation for our children. We're all going to have to experience a great deal of pain to get to the other side, but it's going to be better this way than if we wait for things to implode. We need you to get behind us and do what you can to help us get back on track."

This hopefully will happen some day but it will not be this president nor this congress and it will be more likely after we have already had a currency crisis and there will already be plenty of pain so the "it will be painful" will be rhetoric because the public will already be feeling it.

He also said:

"Is that what righting the ship would look like?"  I believe so. Part of it. It will also take reform in a lot of places including government, banking, and probably others.

"To me that would ensure a really rough time for the ag sector"  ..............Yup.

"and would spell doom for my silver investment."  ...............Depends on your time horizon. Not necessarily. Silver is also an industrial metal with expanding use and mines that are mining continuing lower grades. The really easy stuff has already been dug up. Are we running out of silver? Not at all. But like we have exhausted the cheap oil, we are running out of cheap silver. Lower grades mean higher mining costs. Silver has either no substitutes or the substitutes are higher priced. Many products simply can not be made without it. Silver has as bright or brighter future under a good economic outlook than a poor economic outlook. Short term in a deflation, yes silver could drop significantly in price. Five years after the SHTF one way or another? No. Unless the East sinks back to barbarianism, we will need lots of silver. They have just begun their consumption phase.

"However, I'd be all for it. My approach to marketing and my business and investments would change significantly. People would band together in hopes of a better future for our children."............ I would agree.

You did not mention gold. I will comment on gold because it is more of a crisis play than silver. Silver has demand both as a crisis play but also an industrial demand so arguments can be made for both cases for it. Not so much so for gold.

The reason to own gold, In my opinion, is as an insurance policy. If paper money goes up in smoke having five or ten percent of your liquid assets in gold could mean the difference................... well between having a really, really horrible time to simply having a pretty bad time. When I buy crop insurance I do not say "man, I hope I have a crop failure so I can collect crop insurance". I don't know about you all but we just did projections for 2013 and crop insurance only income assuming a total crop failure doesn't look like anything I want to have. I don't buy car insurance saying "man I hope I wreck this car so I can collect the insurance". In both of the above examples it is always better to raise a good crop at a good price or to not wreck the car. Same way with gold. I would much rather loose "paper money" on my gold if it means the dollar becomes sound and the economy recovers. My business would do good in the long run and my other investments would turn out better. To wish otherwise is foolishness.

The problem right now is, as I see it, the "right thing to do" has nothing to do with what we need to do to protect ourselves because there is no way politically of achieving it. Not only the lobbyists and politicians not do it, even the public at large would not support it. Witness the last election. I don't think the outcome would be much different had the election went different anyway, but what I am talking about is the message the public sent to the elected officials. Pretty much the message the Greek public sends the Greek parliament. Keep the money flowing and the party going.

And so it will be until it can't be any more. Then there will be a big bang, a stoppage of things working, then we will see both the public and the public officials address the problem. Nothing will be done to prevent it. It will be a crisis that brings about change.

My opinion, worth what you paid for it. Plan your own plan according to your own analysis.

John