Sorry, I am multi-tasking, and that poorly. I will look up some of the references, the names that seem to be coming to mind (looking over my RSS feeds) are Kup

Sorry, I am multi-tasking, and that poorly. I will look up some of the references, the names that seem to be coming to mind (looking over my RSS feeds) are Kuppy from Adventures in Capitalism, Chris Martensen from Peak Prosperity, Simon Black of Sovereign Man, Charles Hugh Smith of Of Two Minds, I think less-doom-prone authors on fee.org and mises.org. It is highly likely a biased list, I seem to have been gravitating towards the overall message of decay/decline, helped along by the citations of urban areas not doing too well in various places throughout the US. I live very rural along the northern coast of California, so more selection-bias there, as well. Yes on my debauchery reference, QE, TARP, increasing debt (temporary removal of the debt ceiling - oh boy), increasing obligations incurring more debt (social programs, retirements and benefits), the general idea of borrowing from our future to live for today that seems to be the current m.o. And now apparently little in the way of an anchor for US currency (or other central bank nations, for that matter) since removal from the Gold standard, and recently the demise of Bretton Woods as other nations seek ways around being forced to use US currency. This leads me to conclude that we are on the down-slope of Charles Hugh Smith's S curve: https://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar19/empires-collapse3-19.html https://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar19/empires-collapse3-19.ht... Have to run, cooking (experimental tomatillos, tomatoes, and Cilantro sauce) as well as doing some remote tech support.