Who's in charge?

Who's in charge?

The Republicans claim there's some shadowy force behind Obama, controlling events, pulling the strings. They suspect it must be that dastardly Jew George Soros. And certainly there must be some other dastardly One-Worlder types (whatever the hell that means) pulling the strings behind the Wall Street Protests.

The Democrats are sure that those greedy Koch brothers and Rupert Murcdoch are out there organizing the Tea Party and funneling all sorts of money to whomever the hell is in charge of the Republican Party these days. Could it be that fat spluttering high school dropout Rush Limbaugh?

And over in Europe everyone's speculating who will eventually take control of the sovereign debt fiasco that's sure to snowball from Greece to Italy to Spain to Portugal.... Will it be Angela Merkel? Sarkozy? Will it be the ECB?

And of course, out here in Gold Land we all think Bernanke and a smoky cabal of international Bankers are pulling all the strings. They're in the back room somewhere plotting ways to keep the game going long enough to suck all the remaining productive capital out of the world economic system right into their own pockets.

But what if we're all wrong? What if nobody's really in charge anymore? What if the debt and debt derivative problem has grown so enormous - that all these shadowy figures pulling all these strings are just as bewildered as everybody else? What if the numbers are not a mirage and all these governments are actually broke? What if the mobs that are starting to assemble all over the country and all over the Western world are just the first drops in a tidal wave of resentment and anger that's about to engulf a leaderless, rudderless economic and social void?

What if Peter didn't kill wolf, asked Grandpa? What then?

I have this terrible feeling we're about to find out.