Today's Piece Of Doomer Wisdom

comes to us direct from renowned physicist Richard Feynman, who says

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But now it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."

As the Fed signals it's ready with yet another round of necessary, needless quantitative easing, it's long past time to ask ourselves some fundamental questions. The first is, of course, "how can something be both necessary and needless?"

This course of action is absolutely necessary if we wish to maintain the illusion that the economy is recovering, or failing that, that it can recover. And we so wish. We fervently, ardently wish. Right now our entire economy is being powered on wishes and fairy dust. It seems to be working, too, at least on Wall Street: the high muck-a-mucks haven't quite plundered all there is to plunder just yet. That this quantitative easing hasn't qualitatively eased the lives of very many people down on Main Street is neither surprising nor particularly concerning--unless you're Barack Obama, anyway.

The stimulus is unnecessary because--why else?--it won't work. The vast sums of worthless paper-wishes pumped into the economy already haven't done a damn thing except make a bunch of Wall Street tycoons even more obscenely rich than they already were. (Then again, I'm cynical enough at this juncture to believe that was the whole point.) What will even more wish-money do? Is there some magical amount of money that will bring all the jobs back and restore life to its lustrous sheen?

Republicans rubbing your hands together at the prospect of a rout in November, and the eventual expunging of all things Obama, take heed: you won't do any better.

You can't.

Because there are only three roads from here. The first, the one we're on, leads to hyperinflation and total economic collapse. Depending on which doomer you read, those places are still down the road a piece...or just over the next hill. (Me, I think it's still a surprising ways off, if only because, damn it, wishes are powerful things. But since wishes are not all-powerful, those scary places are drawing closer by the day.)

The second road involves taking your hands off the economy, rejecting further stimulus funds. This course would stop robbing a future generation of Peters to pay us Pauls--which means, in turn, us Pauls won't be paid. The economic collapse here would be sudden and probably even more brutal. I'm all for those Republicans and Tea Partiers who wish to acknowledge reality...except they are woefully ignorant of the reality that America is essentially bankrupt and has been for some time.

The third road is the one I'm pretty sure Obama's opponents have their eye on. It makes the other two look flat and serene: it's the road to all-out war.

War does wonders for the economy. It also does wonders for a national self-image that has taken a real beating in the Obama Era. Why, some traitorous Americans, among them the President himself, have taken to the ridiculous notion that Americans are no better than foreign people. A little shock and awe would set that notion straight, yessir it would indeed. The right in America has been laying the groundwork ever since 9/11...maybe even since just before 9/11, depending on how much tinfoil you like to wear on your head. Things are progressing nicely: we're not quite up to Kristillnacht yet, but we're getting there. If this Islamic community center, four blocks from Ground Zero, is even allowed to be built, let's just see how long it lasts before it's firebombed.

At least Muslims have helpfully religiously mandated their dress. It won't be necessary to tattoo the equivalent of the Star of David on anyone.

Think I'm way out on a limb here? I hope you're right. I hope I'm stark raving mad and that all we're facing is economic ruin. I'm hoping pretty hard.