I want to discuss Tuesday night’s presidential debate.

I have already voiced my opinion that neither candidate will fix our economic problems.  It is too late.  It is simply mathematically impossible to fix the economy and balance the budget.  Bill Holter has often expressed the same.

I am not talking about social issues here, just the economic issues.  Of course neither candidate offered concrete solutions to our fiscal problems, because none exist.  The debate was all about slogans, or attacking the other candidate’s platform.  To hear Mit Romney state that he will balance the budget is an insult to our intelligence, yet a large majority of Americans blindly believe that he can do it.  Their brains are dumbed-down by the mainstream media, who refuse to present the real facts.

I have documented that it is no longer possible to balance the budget.  It is politically IMPOSSIBLE.  Instead, our candidates will continue to debase the currency (Sinclair’s QE to infinity) instead of opting for the more painful choice of defaulting on our monstrous national debt.  We can raise the tax rates to 100% on all individual income and corporate earnings, plus we can cut virtually every government expenditure except military, social security and Medicare and Medicaid and still not balance the budget.

Romney also promised that he would not raise taxes on anyone, even the top earners, and would cut taxes on the middle class.  Well, if you cut taxes from one area, you have to make it up from another, period!  It has to be revenue neutral.  This is pure double-talk!  Romney said he would reduce taxes by 20 percent across the board but he did not say what deductions and loopholes he’d eliminate to make up for the revenue shortfall.  No doubt, Romney would have to eliminate some deductions that are popular among the middle class, like the mortgage interest deduction.

Romney said he would give taxpayers a fixed amount of money to deduct, and they could choose which deductions they take so long as it comes in under that amount.

But Romney’s primary argument has been that the details will have to be worked out with Congress once he takes office, saying that unlike President Obama, he’ll reach across the aisle.  That is the same as raising taxes.  It is pure BS!

He said that he would pressure China to level the “playing field” by adjusting (up) their currency to make our dollar more competitive.  More BS!  If he were foolish enough to follow through with this plan the pain would immediately be felt throughout the country in every Walmart outlet.  Nearly all of the products that grace their shelves are made in China and they would all rise proportionally to the rise in the yuan.  If China allowed their currency to rise by 25%, prices at Walmart would rise by 25%.  This would devastate the middle and lower classes.  The reason we can’t compete with China (and other Asian and Latin countries) is because THEIR wages and benefits are much, much lower than ours.  They don’t have to deal with union wages, but we do.  The only way we could ever compete with China is to cut our wages to meet theirs.  Why don’t these guys tell the truth?!

Not to be outdone, Barack Obama proclaimed that we will compete with China by creating new industries and attracting foreign capital to fund them, which will create millions of new jobs.  Obama’s America is burdened down with taxes and regulations.  We can’t compete with China.  We can’t match their wages and we can’t match their regulation-free environment that fosters new business and profits.  More BS.

Millions of Americans believe that Romney – or Obama is the answer.  The two party system has morphed into no real choice at all.  Just look where we are today after two terms of Bush and one term of Obama.  The stock market is where it was at the turn of the century, real estate collapsed and never recovered, unemployment is at levels last seen during the Great Depression, we are mired in an endless war on terror, inflation abounds in food, energy, medicine, education, and according to John Williams is running at double-digits now.

Electing a president should not be about social issues like gay marriage or abortion.  We have far more serious problems that require immediate attention now.

David Walker, Comptroller General from 1998-2008 is frustrated by the fact that President Barack Obama says he has a plan but really doesn’t.  Challenger Mitt Romney has yet to provide enough specifics to make his proposals viable.

Walker said, “The biggest deficit we have today is leadership. The American people are smarter than the politicians realize. They appreciate the truth, and this is the time for truth, leadership and solutions.”   (I say most American’s don’t have a clue and are simply clinging to the HOPE that we can climb out of this mess.  I’ll take honest pessimism to irrational hope any day.)

No matter what the election outcome, Walker thinks there’s little chance for a so-called “grand bargain” on taxes, entitlements and defense spending in the post-election Congress. He thinks things are just too polarized to get anything more than a short-term fix on spending cuts and expiring taxes.

Jim Sinclair said, “Any person who takes the Presidency has extremely limited room to maneuver financially. There is no functional tool in any central toolbox other than QE to deal with national insolvencies.”

Ron Paul, where are you when we need you?  Not that he could solve the problems either, but we would ALL be far better off with him at the helm.  I am seriously thinking of either not voting or writing in Ron Paul as a protest.

You had better think seriously about taking care of yourself, because neither of these guys will, and that is a fact!  All of us will suffer a declining standard of living.  If you have a lot of money, you will end up with a lot less.  If you don’t, you will have very difficult time increasing your wealth, finding a better job or any job at all, and you will pay much more for your food, energy and medical care.  I cast my vote for precious metals as one of the few things that I can do for me, and those close to me, to shield us from the rising prices that will accompany a declining economy and currency.  If you think that the government, no matter which party wins the election, will take care of you, you are in for a big disappointment.

The election can’t come too soon for me.  I want it over and done so we can face up to the realities and they will test our resolve.

The following comments are from Richard Russell’s Dow Theory Letters.  He expresses many of my own feelings and does it very well:

October, 17 2012 — I guess this is confession time. I worry a lot about the future, and I’m referring to the future of this nation and the future of civilization, as we know it. I worry because I have five kids, and I worry about them and how they will fare in our unknown future. What I’m saying is that I would like this good earth to remain a happy place. In other words, from a standpoint of my deepest emotions, I’d like to see the world remain in a bull market phase forever. Of course, I know that’s an impossible dream, but c’mon, there’s no law against dreaming.

I know that as night follows day, hard times follow good times. The only thing worse than hard times is — hard times that come unexpectedly — when you are not worrying and not prepared for hard times. I saw this happen to many of my parents’ friends during the Great Depression.

For all these reasons, I feel it is my duty to guide, as best I can, my subscribers through the coming years. Maybe that’s why I’m alive and writing at the tender age of 88.

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