[Greg]

American geo-political and domestic conflict, Russian/Ukrainian and Chinese/Taiwanese chess games and posturing, extraordinary Australian and Canadian government overreach, covid mandate and mask politics, socialist, racial, cultural divides, political disillusionment, global inflation….. the list goes on and on and on beyond anything I have experienced in my lifetime to date. Interesting times indeed. To my mind, the world is balanced precariously on a (full tang) knife edge. What are your most informed views as to what we can expect for the rest of 2022 and beyond?

Discussion

[TJ]

I believe the global economy has been running on reinflated bubbles since at least 1999. The longer we kick the can down the road the worse the final bursting will be. When the bubble finally gets too thin to reinflate the politicians will do their best to divert attention from the mess they made. War is a great distraction. Ukraine and Taiwan would sure fit the bill.

You can’t run an economic system that relies on perpetual growth on a planet with finite space and resources forever. The cheap oil, fertilizer, and rare earth metals are being used up rapidly. The competition for these limited resources is just going to increase. Will the bottom fall out in 2022? I think it easily could. But also wouldn’t be surprised if they keep using their increasingly bogus accounting to kick the can for another decade or so.

[Samuel J]

The death of the dollar will be swift when it happens many nations are in communication. When the dump signal is given the flood of dollars will cause hyperinflation. When the conservatives win big it will be triggered.

[TJ]

Think hyperinflation is a distinct possibility with the increasingly likely unwinding of the petro dollar. Though stagflation and even the slight chance of significant deflation could also be on the menu with our increasingly fragile economy.

[Buck]

We're almost ready to start predictions for 2023, ha ha.

I'm very concerned about both the inflation and the prospect of war. This newest idea to start sending gas money to people just creates more dollars to chase the same low supply, creating more inflation. Not good.

[TJ]

I agree that inflation is likely going to be a major issue going forward thanks to decades of Voodoo Economics with current events added on top. Governments are likely to come up with bigger and bigger money printing schemes to try kicking the can a little further down the road. But that will just increase the likelihood of hyperinflation.

[Author]

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