Murray Holland - A Nation in the Red: The Government Debt Crisis and What We Can Do about It

Copyright 2014 by Murray Holland. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Dedicated to my wife, Kim, the love of my life.

The federal government debt and deficit problem has been in the news over the last few years and has reached a fever pitch. There is no doubt the United States is in serious financial trouble. This book presents all the information necessary for you to understand how the country got here, how bad things are, and what can be done about it. As I listened to all the news over the last five years, I realized that I didnt have enough information to determine if the nation really was at risk or whether the media was exaggerating. Sound bites could not give me enough information to make a decision about whether or not the U.S. government would collapse from its own debt or whether all the news was just sensationalism and the government was really financially solvent. I decided to find out for myself all the information necessary to make a decision about my own investments and assets in the long term, whether to cut and run (sell everything and move to Singapore), or keep all my assets in the United States denominated in dollars. I also thought about what I should do about my family and living in a world after an economic collapse, if that was even going to happen.

In early 2011, I started studying all the information I could get my hands on to make an informed decision. My financial background, analyzing hundreds of companies and running a few, was the perfect background to plow through the literally thousands of pages of government financial information; hundreds of thousands of pages of reporting on the European problems, currency issues, and economic issues; and millions of pages of blogs, academic viewpoints, and public opinions. I was determined to figure out what was going to happen in the United States so that I could decide what to do with my family and assets. I have reviewed detailed government budgets since the country was founded as well as prepared analyses by multitudes of government and banking agencies, including the Treasury, Federal Reserve, Congressional Budget Office, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget, and independently produced analyses and opinion.

It never occurred to me to write a book about the problem until I started having discussions with friends who are themselves financial professionals. Many of them asked me to share my work, as they had not done the work themselves. They wanted to see my analysis. When I realized that many of my very smart colleagues were not fully informed, I decided it was time to convert my work into a book that everyone can understand and from which everyone can benefit. In this book, I have set out all the information necessary for an understanding of how and why the country has gotten to this point. There is a debt crisis in the immediate future that will cripple the United States; there is no doubt about that. Anyone who reads this book should be able to take the information and determine on her or his own what is getting ready to happen and what the U.S. government should do at this point. How it affects each person is a separate issue, since everyone has a unique financial, family, and psychological situation.

In this book, I have set forth the steps necessary to save the nation from collapse and the government actions necessary to get us there. Whether Congress and the Obama administration over the next few years can make the necessary changes to save everybody from the Debt Trap is something that is purely speculative. I have set forth the options (five of them) now that the country is caught in the Debt Trap. If you are a prepper (the modern version of survivalist), you will find all the evidence you need in this book to conclude there will be an economic collapse. If you are an eternal optimist, you probably will not be after reading this book. If you believe the government will always be there to take care of you, you will not think that after reading this book. I have endeavored to provide actual government data in a form that will be understandable to most people so that you will have the resources you need to decide whether to start taking action to protect yourself and your family.

To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.

George Washington