A comment by Susan at The Archdruid Report:

I work in the financial services industry, and I can tell you without reservation that it is all a big crock of $#!+... If you can get your local financial planner to have a few drinks he might just tell you what a big game it all is.

Starting about two years ago (just after the financial meltdown of 2008), several hedge fund managers that my company deals with started telling us that we should advise our clients to start thinking seriously about getting out of municipal bonds and into buying arable land, preferrably a safe distance away from the nearest big city.

At first I thought they were just being paranoid, but when they walked us through the numbers it became obvious that they understood early on that our whole economic system is going to collapse (not might collapse, or could collapse, but WILL collapse).

How that collapse will happen is the subject of great debate. Depression and deflation is what lots of people, including Mr. Bernanke, seem to fear the most, but it could go the other way just as easily.

The least politically painful way out of our current mess is to simply print money. Sure, it destroys savings, leads to hyperinflation, and ultimately results in massive social upheavals, but it doesn't require anyone to pay more taxes or accept cuts in their entitlements before the next election, or the next one after that. Thus the politicians get to keep their jobs for a few more years, or at least until the mob comes and stands them up against that proverbial wall...

Then the new government, which still owns most of our mortgages (through Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac), as well as millions of acres of federal land, can issue new money backed up by land (instead of gold or other commodities). This is what Germany did in the 1920s after their terrible wheelbarrow inflation. Look up something called the rentenmark.

Slightly off subject, I recently finished reading The Long Descent, and I am now about half-way through The Ecotechnic Future. Wow, I think you pretty well nailed it.