o Civil Unrest

Japan’s economy may unravel in the next two to three years if its interest payments on debt will exceed revenue. Greece and France are dealing with riots in 2010 This is what happens when governments over spend and then need to cut back programs drastically.

The civil rest will continue, its just taking a little more time to trickle down to the average person. Governments kick the can further down the road with their "quantitative easing". The days of overspending will lead to austerity measures that will catch up to them eventually. The political backlash could lead to future violence.

o Role of the Federal Reserve

Allan Meltzer, professor at CMU and author, talks about the history of the Federal Reserve.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/217674

o Government Agencies

For most people, the four most common 'windows' into how government agencies operate are going to the post office (US Postal Service), filing income tax returns (IRS), voting (Board of Elections), and getting a drivers license (Dept of Motor Vehicles). I can't think of a worse torture than wasting time filling out confusing forms and standing in long lines. Pain and suffering epitomize all of these agencies. Now the government has expanded its scope and scale by taking over companies and blowing out the budget. The US government wants to be a health care provider when it should focus first on reducing health insurance costs. Allow for competition among health insurance companies, similar to what happens for auto insurance. And then start providing coverage one piece at a time. The government should concern itself with streamlining the agencies under its control rather than expanding its responsibilities.