Great post Tec & follow-up EOD ... no surprise I am always ready to pontificate ... lol ... in any case I think the risks you both identify are very real but, If I were a gambler, and any one invested in a rigged market must be, here's my guesses.

QE2 carries on providing ongoing support for stocks & commodities up until the election. Post election the president and congress with a new face get down to business which will likely increase the tensions between US and China and also indicate spending cuts will occur. Both will place downward pressure on expected world GDP hurting commodities. On the other hand gold remains strong as the only real currency but unlike your concern Tec over silver, it will remain strong despite industrial demand reduction because 1) Bart Chilton appears to be getting antsy (and I think he may be a bit of a loose cannon) and either position limits wil be imposed or he will go public with manipulation exposure by JP and company 2) Silver will be seen as a co currency along with gold 3) as commodity price weakness hits silver primarily produced as a by-product will have a reduced supply as commodity production decreases.

China is winning/won the war over currency with the US. As the US artificially reduces their dollar through QE, China's peg goes along for the ride ... China will eliminate that peg after the world recognizes that they are the new world economic superpower (which could happen sooner than later) since the US is done.

It is too late for the US!!!! Policy makers and the fed have done everything wrong because they are corrupt or stupid! Protectionist measures will not save over spending, only hyper inflation and inevitable collapse will be accepted by other countries who hold US reserves ... The US has had their cake and eaten everybody elses through massive over extension of credit. Whatever cake they have left will be payment for their debt and the American public will not be allowed to be the grand consumers while their government defaults through worthless currency.

Corporate/government interests will merge and a totalitarian/fascist state will emerge from the ruins since civil unrest will make the European strikes look like tea parties.

NOT a pretty picture which I hope and pray is dead wrong! Given this though, it is pretty obvious why I'll take my chances down under ... I do hope this misfortune does not occur and I do hope my move is completely wasted effort and that I'm paranoid to an irrational level.

Those who have said what if global warming is right and we will wipe out the planet without action should use the same thought process about what happens if Economic Armageddon occurs in the USA and prepare for the worst ... after all if you are prepared for the worst anything better will be a bonus.

mournfully,

orgy