David Merkel on the five stages of grief. And next, he says, comes the death of the US welfare state. (And, I would add, the death of the empire as well.) As Ron Paul, like the Austrian economists, has long warned, the Federal Reserve’s chickens are coming home to roost. No matter how many guns and lies they have at their disposal in DC, they cannot repeal the laws of economics. (And thanks to Ken Langston.)