Is Greece The Picture Of Our Future?

To the Editor:

Currently Greece is having severe economic problems which stem from high unemployment, lower tax receipts, entitlement programs which are underfunded and completely unsustainable, and expanding government. However, Greece has known and ignored these problems for the past 25-plus years.

If we go back to the last paragraph, we can replace “Greece” with Connecticut and/or the United States. This is pretty pathetic considering how long we’ve known state and national entitlement programs are underfunded and completely unsustainable. Like Greece, Connecticut and the United States have done nothing to solve the problems. Actually, they’ve both increased entitlements which continue to make our problems worse. Fortunately, for the short term, Connecticut can borrow money from the US government, which borrows money from China (through treasury auctions), but how much longer can this go on? Eventually the government is going to auction off treasuries just to pay the interest on current obligations and has no way of paying off past principal. Then what will we do?

Hartford and Washington know and have known about these problems for decades. If we continue to allow this irresponsible behavior, the future of the US stock market, US economy, and US dollar will depreciate to unimaginably low levels. As a seasoned equity trader and investment advisor, I truly believe the catalysts above will bring the Dow Jones down around 4,000 sometime between 2011 and 2013. I hope that I am wrong, but if Hartford and Washington don’t change direction, that’s where we’re headed.

Daniel M. Patti

84 South Main Street, Newtown                                   April 28, 2010