Subprime nation

WND ^ | Patrick Buchanan

[jpsb]

Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody's has rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world's great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril.

[jpsb]

Good read.

[Travis McGee]

"This self-indulgent generation has borrowed itself into unpayable debt. Now the folks from whom we borrowed to buy all that oil and all those cars, electronics and clothes are coming to buy the country we inherited. We are prodigal sons, and the day of reckoning approaches." ~~Pat Buchanan

"I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future."

~~E. H. H. Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928

"Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months."

~~Irving Fisher PhD, leading U.S. economist , New York Times, October 17, 1929

"If recession should threaten serious consequences for business (as is not indicated at present) there is little doubt that the Federal Reserve System would take steps to ease the money market and so check the movement."

~~Harvard Economic Society, October 19, 1929

"This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan... that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years."

~~R. W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929

“Several brokerage houses tumbled; blue-sky investment companies formed during the happy bull market days went to smash, disclosing miserable tales of rascality; over a thousand banks caved in during 1930, as a result of marking down both of real estate and of securities; and in December occurred the largest bank failure in American financial history, the fall of the ill-named Bank of the United States in New York.”

~~"Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s" by Fredrick Lewis Allen

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

~~Ludwig von Mises

[ArrogantBustard]

Not once does the phrase "illegal alien" appear in Pat's essay.

I think he's missing something, there.

[jpsb]

Things are not looking good.

[STONEWALLS]

thanks Travis....I especially like the quote from “Only Yesterday” by Frederick Lewis Allen....I’ve owned that book since the 1960s and think it’s one of the great works of American non-fiction....for me it was a glimpse into the lives and times of my parents and grandparents.

[mr_hammer]

Hope you have put on your fire suit...your going to need it.

Article is a good read.

While I don’t agree with P.B. on many issues, his read on our economy seems to be accurate and many of his predictions are coming to pass.

IMO, we have kicked one too many supports to our country in the name for free trade (i.e. globalism)and now things seem to be perched precariously atop of the fence.

Which way will they fall...?

Beats me...

[jpsb]

"Hope you have put on your fire suit"

Always. LOL, Pat dead on right in this article.

[milwguy]

Democrats, with entitlement costs drowning the federal budget in red ink, are proposing a new entitlement – universal health coverage for the near 50 million who do not have it – another magnet for illegal aliens.........You were not reading carefully

[STONEWALLS]

P.S.....if you’re thinking about buying gold and silver take my advice.....buy the metal and take possession of the metal....there’s all kinds of guys out there who claim to sell gold and all they offer is a piece of paper saying you “own” it....I buy gold to GET THE HELL AWAY FROM PAPER!

[Travis McGee]

I haven’t read the book, I just found the quote alone. It does sound like a great read, as history may soon be repeating itself.

[webschooner]

For myself, I usually find Pat to be off the reservation, but I feel he has made some pretty accurate points in this piece.

In an annual Heritage Foundation study just out, the U.S. fell from 4th to 5th, due to high taxes and high gubmint spending. That article is on a thread here

[Mr. Jeeves]

We are thus in the position of having to borrow from Europe to defend Europe, of having to borrow from China and Japan to defend Chinese and Japanese access to Gulf oil, and of having to borrow from Arab emirs, sultans and monarchs to make Iraq safe for democracy.

We borrow from the nations we defend so that we may continue to defend them. To question this is an unpardonable heresy called "isolationism."

And I'm surprised we haven't seen any "Die, heretic!" replies yet. ;)

[Thorin]

An outstanding column by Pat. He addresses the issues the candidates are afraid to even mention.

[jpsb]

I think it is now generally well known that globalism as practiced by Clinton/Bush is a miserable failure for the USA. Not too many left that are willing to defend the failed policies of Clinton/Bush.

[canuck_conservative]

Pat's always a good read. He's also right 99% of the time.

We borrow from the nations we defend so that we may continue to defend them. To question this is an unpardonable heresy called "isolationism."

A quick glace shows that most of the Great Nations in history were defeated, not because of external military conquest, but because of internal decay. And bankruptcy remains a sure way to get there.

[STONEWALLS]

“....He addresses the issues the candidates are afraid to even mention....”

Exactly!.....nobody wants to suck it up and tell the American people “folks, we’re in a helluva fix....now here here’s what we gotta do...and we can and will do it”

.....a politician who would do this would get support I think....because deep down inside the country is uneasy...it senses that fundamentally all is not well.

[jpsb]

"folks, we’re in a helluva fix"

Ron Paul (whom I am not supporting) is saying "we're broke". "Where is the money going to come from","We can not continue to spend like we have been". Etc.

[chimera]

As scary as the narrative/predictions are in the article, which I think are reasonably accurate, what we really should be concerned with is the electorate’s reaction to the recession/crash. History teaches us a lesson here. How did the country react to the ‘29 crash and subsequent depression? It turned hard left into socialism, FDR style. If a crash comes this time, Hillary and Obama are waiting in the weeds. They’ll sweep into power on the heels of misery like FDR did, and ‘Pubs will be shut out of power for another generation, if not longer.

[GaltMeister]

Ross Perot and guys like Harry Figgie have been saying as much for years. If you don't know who Harry is, take a look at 'Bankruptcy 1995' which he wrote in 1992 or so.

http://www.amazon.com/Bankruptcy-1995-Coming-Collapse-America/dp/0316282065

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I fear you are correct. Additionally, assuming the sub-prime fiasco is seen not only as the [primary] cause not only of a slipping economy, but personalized in the form of so many losing their homes, there is bound to be a serious backlash against Wall Street, probably the main symbol of capitalism. Not that it isn’t largely deserved, but I am (and I believe you are) talking about the effect and not the philosophy.