I see the USA like an investor having a third mortgage on a house in a very desirable neighborhood yet still invested heavily in GNH. You don't move or declare bankruptcy because people keep bidding up the surrounding houses in your neighborhood, raising the average sale thus the value of your house. All the while, your neighborhoods a mile off have topside houses. So now your starting to lean towards bankruptcy because your taxes keep rising, because yours is the only income your city has, however you are morally opposed to bankruptcy, so you continue to dabble in penny stocks to get out of debt, hoping for the homerun. In the US's sake, they are cheating with the homerun by giving stimulous money instead of something real worth making money on. From an investor's POV, one is wondering when this stimulous package will result in demand for ore. The point is, the US is in fine shape to operate, but their time is running out.

For me, buying up the cheap houses in the lesser desirable neighborhoods depends on the economy picking up or on foreign money. I talk to folks from India, China, and Japan, and they feel the same. US is a risky investment and you've really got to do research before making a move. What good is making a move into US if your partners and clients can't get loans to do business. They are curious now if Obama's promised infrastructure will actually come to fruition. Obama's Buy-USA green machine promise will need raw materials, and the US is 10 years from being vertically productive on their own soil. US will have to get their ore and rare-earths from somewhere else. Canada perhaps?

The point is: US is a hub platform to make money and develop business. China, India, South America, and now Vietnam is a place to reduce the cost of a product ultimately refined in US. I suspect US will continue to act as a hub, only the old residence of the platform will shift to new residence of the platform. And US will move ahead.

The third mortgaged house will increase in value. The houses bought cheaply in less desirable neighborhoods ten years from now will make good profit.

But who wants to wait 10 years. Some need to help the kids get ripped off at overpriced colleges. Go GNH, FNC, TBM, NOT, UC...and others.

-sg