Tony, I was a kid in high school in 1971. I lived through the Nixon shock and the devaluations followed by inflation, the economic stagnation, unemployment and inflation. It could happen again there is a generation with little memory of the stupidity that occurred.

Argentina is about to default again on their foreign held bonds. That in itself is not a harbinger of an ugly future but if Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece or an other more substantial country should default -- this may bring down the house of cards as we know it.

Remember, the USA housing value collapse set off the "Great Recession" around the world, a recession that many of us have not recovered from.