"Even the kindest physicians don't put corpses on life support" - James Kunstler

What it comes down to, apparently, is a leadership elite across all sectors -- politics, business, academia, media -- that is incapable of processing the truth, and then conveying it to the broad American public.

Alas, this also appears to be a common theme in history, with a commonly tragic outcome, which is that elites get ruthlessly dumped and replaced by new elites, often composed of zealots, maniacs, nincompoops, and others generally ill-disposed to the able management of complex affairs. It's called the "circulation of elites," and in times of crisis it tends to take on a kind of downward spiraling flavor, with each gang of discredited leaders tossed out for a progressively worse one until a kind of exhaustion is reached -- whereupon the archetypal man-on-a-white-horse arrives on the scene.

Readers think I joke about the Hamptons going up in flames. But the antics of the bankers, hedge funders, the CEOs, the Madoffs, and even the P. Diddy's of our time, are liable to attract murderous attention as the public mood moves from sour to wrathful.

The truth is that we're comprehensively bankrupt, and no amount of shuffling certificates around will avail to alter that.

But grandiosity is just another way that we lie to ourselves about where we're at and what is really possible. - JAMES KUNSTLER

SHOOT: As usual Kunstler paints a startling glimpse of the day after tomorrow. Read more by following the link to his blog immediately below.

clipped from jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com