Re your @ 16:25 “But how many times in the entire history of the world has that scenario arisen? Probably just the once.”
In my lifetime it was the 1945 to 1975 era. The post war boom they called it. I think the USA deserved it, since we saved Europe’s asses. I assume after the depression after 1934 people may have been well off, because they established a decent valued minimum wage, I guess to help get the country out of the great depression.
re your part “you want it to be the USA that gets there at the expense of the rest of the world.”
YES. The Lord givith, and the Lord should takith back. 🙂 Haven’t we done enough? Its their turn to reciprocate. I think they can afford to go backwards for a few decades. They have a loaf under each arm. Our loaf. 🙂
Like I heard Wilber Ross say…..”It was nice that we helped rebuild Europe and Japan after the war, but they forgot to put a time limit on it.” The bank made those no doc liar loans to save their own asses. The R/E market should have collapsed WAY before 2008. They prolonged liquidity to prolong the trend, or put off the crash.