How about a nice war to take your mind off the economic collapse?

It's a time-honored strategy.

The "great depression" didn't really end till WWII.

Viet Nam masked America's industrial over-capacity and sundry other economic woes for a generation.

Time-honored, tested, and true. If the masses are getting too antsy about their declining standard of living, scare the beejeezus out of them with a war.

Or even the prospect of war.

I mean look how this strategy is panning out for Netanyahu over in the Holy Land.

Everybody in America knows that Arab Spring was sparked by that poor Tunisian fruit-vendor who had given up all hope of making a go of it in such a repressive society that he set himself on fire.

Virtually nobody in America has heard of the two Israeli Jews who have set themselves on fire in the past month in Israel because they have given up all hope of making a go of it.

All Netanyahu has to do is mention "Iran" and "nuclear" and "existential threat" and self-immolating poor people are immediately forgotten.

So that war with Iran has got to be pretty tempting for a lot of politicians.