OUR TWO PRESIDENTIAL OPTIONS…

On the one hand, you’ve got a guy who thinks we’re “out of money”:

“SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we’ve made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we’ve seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.”

On the other hand (for now at least), you’ve got a guy who thinks we’re Greece:

“Mitt Romney said that the United States would experience a financial crisis similar to that of Greece or Italy if President Obama were elected to a second term, and hit rival Newt Gingrich’s plan for the federal judiciary as unconstitutional during an interview Monday night with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly.

“I think we hit a Greece-like wall. I think before the end of his second term, if he were reelected, there’s a very high risk that we would hit a financial crisis that Greece or Italy have faced,” Romney said.

“I think it’s also very possible that we would continue to see very high levels of unemployment. I think you would see industry in this country, entrepreneurs, big and small, decide to go elsewhere, to take their investment dollars to other nations. This president has put together the most anti-investment, anti-growth and anti-job series of policies that I’ve seen since Jimmy Carter,” he added.”

These two men are so far from understanding how our monetary system works that it’s not even one bit surprising that we’re entangled in the biggest economic mess since the Great Depression.  It’s looking more and more like 2012 is going to be the year of flip a coin.  Heads we lose, tails we lose.

Addendum – If any of this has you confused for any reason please see the following:

• America Cannot Go The Way of Greece

• Not Technically Bankrupt, But Economically Bankrupt

• 10 Economic Myths That Persist