NEW AGE FREAKOUT: 1997 Book Predicts Our Current Debt Crisis

"An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics."

The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy — What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny: page 273, Ch. 10, by William Strauss.

Here is Amazon's Summary of the book:

Human history moves in cycles. A full cycle lasts from 80-100 years, the length of a long human life. These cycles have what might be considered seasons, or TURNINGS as the authors call them. Each turning has its own characteristics and lasts between 20-25 years.

A first turning is a HIGH a time of building up of institutions. A second turning is an AWAKENING at time of spiritual renewal and the beginning of questioning the instiutitons created or valued in the previous turning. A third turning is a period of UNRAVELING when all those institutions that were valued in the first turning are coming apart slowly but surely as a result of the questioning of them during the second turning. The FOURTH TURNING is a CRISIS period. A time when the old institutions no longer get the job done, and must be replaced by new more effective institutions.

At the core of these seasons of time, are the four generational archetypes the HERO, ARTIST, PROPHET, and the NOMAD. It is the movement of these various generational archetypes through the four stages of life, Childhood, Young Adult, Middle Age, and Elderhood that sets the stage for the FOUR TURNINGS. Each time one of the archetypes moves to a new stage of life, a new turning begins.

Mark Twain said it best "History never repeats itself, at best it sometimes rhymes."

That's exactly what this book is about.