news.yahoo.com— WASHINGTON - Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day ? or nearly $1 million a minute.
Dec 3, 2007View in Crawl 4
This is hardly surprising. We had a nice "peace dividend" going on and then Iraq/Afghanistan smacked us up like a drugged up ho getting tuned by her pimp. I won't hurl blame at any one party because they both work together to keep this absurd situation going. Make no mistake, it is globalization that has enabled this situation. Our current account deficit means, by definition, that foreigners need a place to put US dollars. As long as foreign nations are willing to trade us "stuff" for "paper" then this tango can continue.Since the world is more globalized now than it has ever been it is difficult to say "this is unsustainable". However, Washington finds itself in a paradox. IF they get what they claim to want (a lower trade deficit) then who is going to buy all the bonds the treasury is issuing? I won't claim to know where the breaking point is or how fast things could go very wrong but there IS a lot of "potential energy" in this situation. It has the possibility of crashing very very quickly.The US is currently in the enviable position of being able to shift what should be our inflation on to foreign nations via currency devaluation. The equivalent of Joe Sixpack in China is holding dollars (through his government) that are losing purchasing power almost every day. Yet he keeps tirelessly sending us goods in exchange for those depreciating dollars. Further, since he lives in a mud hut he does not really notice that he can't buy as much with all those dollars he owns. The real Joe Sixpack, on the other hand, can still buy all the stuff that Joe "East" Sixpack is producing.I've said many times on Digg that the stuff hits the fan when the peoples of the 3rd world start wanting to buy stuff. They'll probably need democratic governments first. Ya know, the kind that don't, as a common practice, gun down citizens.
Not us... we won't be beggers... the American people themselves aren't liable... we didn't borrow it. The people who borrowed it to build weapons and pay for soldiers... they are the ones up s**t creek. You are not liabiable, simply because you own none of that. You can't walk onto a military base and say "hey, I'm the public, my taxes paid for this tank, so a piece of this tank is mine." Same goes for a national park, or government building, cop car, all that crap.. you don't own any of it and you're not liable for any of it. No, every American is scot free and clear of the national debt. Its the government that is f**ked, and rightly so that it should be. It kept spending well beyond its means, and that usually is a recipe for bankrupcy. In which case, it won't be able to pay the salaries of all those politicians, who will be out of work, and will have to go out and get real jobs like the rest of us.
Closed AccountDec 3, 2007
This is hardly surprising. We had a nice "peace dividend" going on and then Iraq/Afghanistan smacked us up like a drugged up ho getting tuned by her pimp. I won't hurl blame at any one party because they both work together to keep this absurd situation going. Make no mistake, it is globalization that has enabled this situation. Our current account deficit means, by definition, that foreigners need a place to put US dollars. As long as foreign nations are willing to trade us "stuff" for "paper" then this tango can continue.Since the world is more globalized now than it has ever been it is difficult to say "this is unsustainable". However, Washington finds itself in a paradox. IF they get what they claim to want (a lower trade deficit) then who is going to buy all the bonds the treasury is issuing? I won't claim to know where the breaking point is or how fast things could go very wrong but there IS a lot of "potential energy" in this situation. It has the possibility of crashing very very quickly.The US is currently in the enviable position of being able to shift what should be our inflation on to foreign nations via currency devaluation. The equivalent of Joe Sixpack in China is holding dollars (through his government) that are losing purchasing power almost every day. Yet he keeps tirelessly sending us goods in exchange for those depreciating dollars. Further, since he lives in a mud hut he does not really notice that he can't buy as much with all those dollars he owns. The real Joe Sixpack, on the other hand, can still buy all the stuff that Joe "East" Sixpack is producing.I've said many times on Digg that the stuff hits the fan when the peoples of the 3rd world start wanting to buy stuff. They'll probably need democratic governments first. Ya know, the kind that don't, as a common practice, gun down citizens.
Closed AccountDec 3, 2007
Excuse me, Mr. Debt......if I could have just a minute of your time.....
anarchytvDec 3, 2007
Not us... we won't be beggers... the American people themselves aren't liable... we didn't borrow it. The people who borrowed it to build weapons and pay for soldiers... they are the ones up s**t creek. You are not liabiable, simply because you own none of that. You can't walk onto a military base and say "hey, I'm the public, my taxes paid for this tank, so a piece of this tank is mine." Same goes for a national park, or government building, cop car, all that crap.. you don't own any of it and you're not liable for any of it. No, every American is scot free and clear of the national debt. Its the government that is f**ked, and rightly so that it should be. It kept spending well beyond its means, and that usually is a recipe for bankrupcy. In which case, it won't be able to pay the salaries of all those politicians, who will be out of work, and will have to go out and get real jobs like the rest of us.