3 things worth watching in 2009

From thedoomletter.com:

National Debt and treasury bills - It took W 8 years to almost double the national debt. My guess is O will be able to do it in 4. Treasuries have become quite popular lately, but at some point investors will start looking at the long term solvency of the government and take it into account when deciding whether or not the secondary market will be able to continue to finance treasuries. As an aside, it will also be interesting to watch what will happen to interest rates - which are at record lows - as the stock market starts to rally. The reason I am interested is because a big portion of federal debt is securitized in short term bonds and as interest rates climb, these could get very expensive. Fiscal year 2008 the government gave $450 billion to bond holders in interest payments, and that was with fairly low interest rates.

Food security - As America continues its slow slide into joining the global south, will we continue to be able to maintain and afford our complex food supply lines?

The real economy - At some point, Americans are going to wake up and realize that there will be no further credit extended to them to keep up unrealistic levels of personal consumption. Credit cards are already cutting back up to 40% of their credit lines, car and home loans are in limbo waiting for another shoe to drop. I am interested to see what happens with student loans as I think the higher education racket might be the next bubble to give way. If the economy gets worse and more student loans go into default, something will have to give eventually. I think that will be the point when Americans pick up on the fact that we are overeducated in all the wrong stuff (fewer engineers and agricultural experts, more financiers and specialists in pointless unsustainable fields).