Sadly, there are still core groups of arch conservatives out there who will take Palin's pronouncement as gospel truth! And when they do, those people will become more and more fearful and that in and of itself may trigger a bank run and crash our economy - all by itself!

Would it have crashed anyway? Who knows? Yes, the US is in a mess financially. But - and it's a major 'but" - we have always been one of the most productive nations on earth. And one of the most inventive. Maybe it's time to release some of the "black project" inventions, license them round the world, and reap the profits those fees will bring in. A few key inventions could easily - if released and licensed for manufacture - bring in enough revenue to pay off the entire US debt in a year or so. Yes, they are that valuable. What would Ford or GM or Nissan pay for an automotive engine that ran on electricity and had a 500 mile range and recharged in 20 minutes? Or what would a washing machine-sized device that provided all the power for your home for a year at a cost of $200/year in maintenance be worth? And the list goes on.

We have the means to solve the financial problems. Whether the greed of the "elite" and the paranoia of the military industrial complex (the one Eisenhower warned about) will allow us to access and sell the tech that we've long ago paid for in development costs with our tax dollars from the fifties until the present, is anyone's guess. But if we (the middle class) are destroyed - the "elite" won't be far behind. Whether they can see that fact or not is only speculation. But they'd be well advised to get their heads out of their collective asses and get some of this amazing and expensive technology into the public and profitable hands rather than keeping it sitting on a shelf for some eventuality that hasn't come along for fifty years and probably never will.