Debt is one of the primary underpinnings of the economic turbulence we are now experiencing.  In the last 50 years debt has gone from something occasional to something universal, embraced and now endemic. Borrow against the future to pay for today.  Debt, debt, debt, debt is like the drip, drip, drip, drip of a faucet that slowing fills up a sink and overflows.  The four debts referred to here are personal, corporate, city and state and federal.  All of them feel as though they are beginning to come home to roost and the outlook, if not faced and dealt with, will come together with dire consequences.

Personal or consumer debt is a relatively recent phenomenon.  Diners Club launched the first widely used credit card in 1950.  Before that, consumers paid cash or made a down payment and had a short term low interest payment.  The idea of the Diners Club card and then seven years later the American Express card was to allow people who entertain or travel to not have to carry large amounts of cash.  It was expected that bills would be paid in full every month.    Up until this point, consumers bought goods when they had the money to pay for them.  Now of course people buy things with cards as they often don’t have money to pay for them.  Immediate gratification in a materialistic society that bombards consumers with literally hundreds and thousands of advertising messages a day.

Companies have long used credit and debt to build enterprises …

Thinking a lot about the future as I do, I keep coming back to the fact that there are five or six fundamental and critical issues that face America in this still new century. The degree to which we begin to face these key issues and to start to do so right now will determine whether our greatness as a nation will continue and build upon our magnificent history. 

Will America continue to be the great nation we still think it is?  As a nation will we be able to adjust to the rapidly changing realities of the world?  As we move from the Information Age to the Shift Age will we have the resolve to make some really difficult choices and rise up as we have in the past to meet our national promise and legacy? 

In just the last 18 months the awareness and acceptance of global warming has gone from a minority to a majority of us.  This issue is one that we now see is something that while not greatly disrupting our lives today, might have catastrophic effects for our children and certainly for our grandchildren.  The question for America is how and how quickly we can move from a society and economy based upon formerly cheap fossil fuels to one that is based upon renewable energy sources that are sustainable and non-polluting.  We now see we are at risk and we are starting to take action. 

The issue we must now also face is the alarming issue of …