“…when we can no longer lie to ourselves & simply print up whatever amount of cash we need to save us from the problems we caused ourselves previously by printing up too much cash.”

Excellent point, Herring405,

…but the more I hear citizens using “we” to describe the actions of our principal movers and shakers, market forces, oh hell, just say it, gov’ment, the more it rings unreal ~~ the more totally disenfranchised…

……………….

Look, say it how you want to, how you will, …your point is well taken, but…we, the people, are so far out of the “actual” loop …for who knows how long, maybe all along, that…

“we” have no more say how our government brokers spending than we do about saying when it rains, showers, thunderstorms over the great lakes, or all-out floods. 

Sorry, my fellow Americans, but it really ain’t “us”, it really is “them.”  & until we straighten that out, we will remain steadily twisting in the cold winds of dominion.

That said, I cannot imagine, personally, how “we” could EVER straighten that out.   

(& that's not to say that "we, the people" don't cause a lot of smaller, more local, tightenings of the chain with varried irresponsibility, petty usages of our own, occasional road-rage, cheats here and a deceptions there, disrepute & disregard of all sorts, ...the buggers who leave their shit (any shit) on the river's edge, etc., but it doesn't cost the taxpayers billions upon billions, nope.)