Posted on 03/20/2008 2:56:09 AM PDT by Fennie
The Bush administration forecasts a $410 billion federal budget deficit for this year, an indication that, as the US saving rate is approximately zero, the US is not only dependent on foreigners to finance its wars but also dependent on foreigners to finance part of the US government's domestic expenditures. Foreign borrowing is paying US government salaries--perhaps that of the president himself--or funding the expenditures of the various cabinet departments. Financially, the US is not an independent country.
A troubled currency and financial system and large budget and trade deficits do not present an attractive face to creditors. Yet Washington in its hubris seems to believe that the US can forever rely on the Chinese, Japanese and Saudis to finance America's life beyond its means. Imagine the shock when the day arrives that a US Treasury auction of new debt instruments is not fully subsribed...
Ping
That's probably the worst characterization out of the article. The biggest benefit from free trade is for the poorest in the world (provided their governments aren't too corrupt). The rich generally don't do as well under free trade and the rich includes American union laborers.
How has free trade helped labor unions as millions of jobs both union and non-union have been outsourced to low wage nations around the world?
Damn but it’s early in the morning for this dumb ass labor bashing.Every sector of working households have suffered because of free trade.
How many agricultural innovations have been given away to other countries?
How many electronic innovations have been given away to other countries?
How many health/medical innovations have been given away to other countries?
Or at least sold cheap, fractions of pennies on the dollar.
America: The Freebie capitol of the world
My last post was in reply to Fennie. However, I didn’t post it in such a fashion.
from the rest of what he descibes, they'll be better off staying there anyway.
I feel strongly at this point that we need a big course correction. Whatever it is that we think we're doing is not working very well. It makes me wonder whether anyone has a plan beyond the next election, or the next business quarter.
” I feel strongly at this point that we need a big course correction. Whatever it is that we think we’re doing is not working very well. It makes me wonder whether anyone has a plan beyond the next election, or the next business quarter. “
Bravo!!
And that is a fault with American society and especially business. The farthest out our companies seem to be able to see is at most a year. Rather than plan for the long haul. Part of instant gratification I guess. On a more general note, sending the arabs living in Gaza 150 million dollars is not the way to get ahead.
And that's exactly why it's wrong, and why we should be against it.
Benefitting "the poorest in the world" is not the purpose of the American economy.
Saddam Hussein was trying to get OPEC to slow production before the War began. We would have been paying $5/gallon for gas 4 years ago if Saddam was still in charge of Iraq. Removing Saddam from power was to the US as removing Gray Davis from power was to Kalifornia. It bought us a few more years before inevitable progressive financial collapse. Basically the US is fighting wars for benefactors [House of Saud-Islam Rift, Japan-Oil Supply, China-Oil Supply]. These benefactors in return finance our progressive deficit spending. Stop the foreign funded wars, and the progressive DC gravy train goes belly up. This explains in part why our borders are so poorly defended and why our progressive cities are under siege from gang warfare. DC has to service its foreign debtors before it can service its domestic citizens.
“How many agricultural innovations have been given away to other countries?
How many electronic innovations have been given away to other countries?
How many health/medical innovations have been given away to other countries?”
Absolutely spot on. in a competitive world you have to benefit from what you do best. We don’t. For example, we spend billions and billions of dollars on research and development of drugs and biomedical devices in the US. Instead of making this a focus of US exports around the world, we let foreign governments turn a blind eye to (or perhaps participate in) blatant patent infringement. At the same time we decide politically that we need to take apart our medical system, which in large measure drives the innovations in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors.
In general I think we have become self-flagellating apologists to the world and have stopped making the ongoing efforts that are necessary to protect ourselves against a world that has long been envious of us. Many have wanted us to fall for a long time. One of the best weapons they’ve had against us is our own sense of shame and guilt. It’s gone too far and has to stop.
End the corporate tax (enact the fair tax) and stand back and watch us grow out of any debt problems. They will be beating down our doors to bring manufacturing back to America. America has the second highest corporate tax rate among our trading partners. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot.
Of course the politicians would have to restrain themselves from going nuts.
It is early. American labor is rich by world standards, that's why they are losers in free trade. Not a bash, just a fact.
To me it’s very simple, buy quality American products. Instead many people will run out to buy a disposable DVD player from China. I say turn off the TV, buy an American tool and go work outside in the yard.
Free trade in respect to commodities, is discernible from free trade with respect to labor.
IMHO, US production is hampered by codified regulations in every aspect of our economy, which have prudent justification, but aren’t required to produce efficiently. This applies to labor and commodities alike.
Once those codes are in place, IMHO, it is a heck of a lot more difficult to politically justify their removal than their adherence.
Depending on the culture of the foreign developing nation, their laws will probably become more codified, but perhaps not identical to ours. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to lose marketshare due to our lack of competitiveness.
That may be, but that's not a political call. It's up to Americans as a whole to determine the purpose of the American economy. If Americans determine the purpose to be buying cheap disposable crap from China, that's stupid, but that's the purpose.
” I believe 40% of American workers ARE shareholders. “
I love you people who throw that number out as if it ends the discussion..
Let’s look at it —
It means that 60% (That’s a significant majority) of us are NOT shareholders — we’re down here on the streets paying the price - in stagnating wages and decreased purchasing power - of the manipulations of the vaunted 40%.
And of that 40%, the vast majority are NOT ‘active traders’, and are left holding the sack when the tottering edifice built by the ‘experts’ collapses under its own weight...
In most incidences, American unionized labor has simply priced themselves out of the game. A prime example is the UAW, but there are many, many other examples.....
“I say turn off the TV, buy an American tool and go work outside in the yard.”
I think you make an excellent point that goes beyond just the purchase of a tool from an American company. Turning off the TV and doing a ton of other things, like furthering our education and skills, spending more time with our children, being more actively involved in things like community service that help strengthen our country, these are all things we should be doing more of rather than concentrating on entertainment. It seems that we don’t want to ‘do’ anymore. We just want to be entertained.
Trouble is there are way, way too many who want to make a buck first.
Instead of making what’s right and letting the bucks follow.
I’m guilty. Most of us are.
Wall Street? Bear Stearns, anybody?
BILLIONS have been made because all people think is that they can just “invest” it.
That’s not investing. That’s inflation. Why do you think those characters down on the Street keep begging for rate cuts? Cause they ar playing a numbers game where as long as the numbers keep getting bigger and bigger, whether or not they actually produce anything, they profit.
And I understand Freepers conservative bent. Hell, I’m here because I consider myself conservative.
A big, no a VERY BIG part of being conservative is putting your nose to the grindstone and finding better ways.
I think Americans are up to it.
I hope.
Cut me some slack, bro! I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to get some work done over the next few days...yeah, I have a terminal case of March Madness!
Excerpt:
The fact of the matter is that the US is bankrupt.David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the US and head of the Government Accountability Office, in his December 17, 2007, report to the US Congress on the financial statements of the US government noted that "the federal government did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding assets) and compliance with significant laws and regulations as of September 30, 2007."
In everyday language, the US government cannot pass an audit.
Moreover, the GAO report pointed out that the accrued liabilities of the federal government "totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007." No funds have been set aside against this mind boggling liability.
Just so the reader understands, $53 trillion is $53,000 billion.
Frustrated by speaking to deaf ears, Walker recently resigned as head of the Government Accountability Office.
What really, really rankles me is that Bush is out of the loop in regard to Russia. The Russkies smuggled Saddam's WMD to Syria ! . . .
Not one word of protest from the White House . . . Of course, Putin is GWB's 'good friend.' Unless somebody speaks up about the active conspiracy between Russia, Iran and Syria, hardly anybody will know what really happened . . . Protesters chant 'Bush lied, people died' in the streets. National media cover the protests every day.
Somebody needs to tell McCain he may lose the election. Unless the White House tells the truth about Russia.
From what I saw in my Fortune 500's, this started unravelling in the mid-1980's when we started calculating Manager Bonuses based on making the Current Quarter look good at any cost.
Then, in the 1990's, we all discovered that one did not have to actually DO or MAKE anything, because you took a piece of technology and did an IPO or spinoff. All that was made was paper.
By the late 90's, there was no real money in R&D, because most of these contracts were CPFF 8%, and there were too many easier ways of making 8%. So future products were abandoned, and more paper was made instead.
In the end, after years of this. we had no new technology to base Science Fiction on for further IPO's, no new products to sell, and no longer knew how to make anything.
Some divisions were closed, others sold off, the stocks collapsed, and there is nothing left but paper.
This "progress" was helped tremendously by trendy things like "Matrix Management" and other such bullshit, that concentrated credit and dispersed blame.
” another Doomer comes out to crow about problems and usually provides no or bad solutions. “
Here come the ‘Baby Ducklings’ (”Problem?” “What Problem?” “I don’t see a problem.” “Do you see a problem?” “What’s a problem?”)....
As for your demand for ‘solutions’, my FRiend, “Wilful Denial” is not a viable solution - even when accompanied by gratuitous name-calling.
LLS
I think you've nailed it. I was slammed on another thread for suggesting we raise rates. But right now I literally can't invest in a local business in a long term investment with the risk of inflation. Instead I have to speculate in short term stuff like the big boys. There are many people in denial who think they are investing for the long haul in some fund or other, but in reality the fund is engaging in short term speculation based on the certainty of lower rates.
I have never understood why its our national interest to transfer our jobs & wealth to other countries. Maybe it made some (very limited) sense during the Cold War, but not since. Our massive wealth transfer to the Chinese has been particularly puzzling.
- Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, March 2008
American Labor is actually American Organized Laziness.
Union labor has lost its market because of laziness.
I misspelled ar. No, actually, I got it rite.
I mentioned on another thread that maybe if you just want to break even, that should be good.
But realistically, that might not work. The problem is that TRILLIONS of “dollars” are leveraged in some sort of pyramid scheme that counts on not just you, but your descendants and all the cars or wide screen TV’s they might want or all the education of your grandkids might ever get...
And it’s not leveraged so that it will hurt the guys on the Street or the lawyers.
It’s leveraged so that if anybody loses their ass, it will be Mr. And Mrs. Peoria
Meanwhile, the elections go on, dim or pub, same outcome...
Cause they have no control. More than 3 million folks work for the federal government. Voting for 536 ain’t gonna change crap.
It will probably take 20 years before we really know if it was really worth it or not.
If a democratic and peaceful middle east emerges from all this it will have been worth it. If not, well...
You got any answers that make a bit of sense or do you just want to crow?
The US will never repay the loans. The American economy has been devastated by offshoring, by foreign competition, and by the importation of foreigners on work visas, while it holds to a free trade ideology that benefits corporate fat cats and shareholders at the expense of American labor. The dollar is failing in its role as reserve currency and will soon be abandoned.
Millions of US have been pointing this out for over a decade now.
Paul Craig Roberts has turned into a loon over the years... and it appears that his “loon disease” is catching among Freepers looking at some of the replies on this thread. That’s very frightening. No wonder the Huckster and Obama are doing/did so well in this election cycle.
Unions are definitely counterproductive. Employees should be given part ownership of the company. There are other significant factors affecting our economy obviously. Right now we are seeing entire markets being priced out of business. For example, the next day shipping market costs have recently skyrocketed due to fuel surcharges and higher labor costs. That market however is pricing itself out of existence primarily due to the high cost of fuel. The rise in oil price perhaps has a large roll to play in our financial calamity. The dollar seems to be falling as oil rises in price.
We have not had a peaceful Middle East in a very long time. Adding all that valuable oil into the mix in more modern times is certainly not contributing to the peace process. At best, we can buy some time. The rising power of the Islamic Shiite Persians however could potentially set the entire region off. We had the chance to stop Iran when the price was low, the peace at all costs Progressos however stopped that and GWB basically allowed it to happen. Now the price the Free World will pay to Stop Iran could potentially end up being catastrophic.
The House of Cards has collapsed, and you Free Traitors are still sitting there naked in front of God and everybody. Sober up.
as good old ronald reagan used to say, federal money is just recycled money. it does not create anything. borrowing for it is not a good idea. if you cant pay for it yourself, you cant have it.
govt costs worldwide are black holes for money. sort that out and you are on the road to fixing the problem. it is most interesting that both dems are talking about adding healthcare to this deficit...keep in mind that healthcare in europe is an enormous monster that cannot be fed fast enough...if one thing will crash the US economy its free healthcare...
It was early in the morning back in the 70s when the unions played their own very large part in the flight of American industry to other countries.
I know, because I was a member of the IEW and then the Steelworkers of America.
Unions were the dynamic for the ending of American industry, pure and simple.
We can barely even manufacture an auto anymore.
And those labor unions are mostly all international organizations with straight out Socialist agendas.
>Every sector of working households have suffered because of free trade.
They also benefit from free market goods made without the distortion of politically dominant unions skewing the worth of service.
And all of this is said by one who is not a “free trade” advocate at all. - I just see very clearly what has happened over the past 35 years in these industries.
We have to both "make things" *and* be able to sell those things for more than what it cost to make them. We have to understand that increased competition drives down the price of everything, including labor.
[It was early in the morning back in the 70s when the unions played their own very large part in the flight of American industry to other countries.]
The unions are also part of the problem with the corrupted America in their need for greed, you can drive the streets of Detroit and see the end of the unlimited greed they had part in by driving the industries out.
But they think of themselves as victims and refuse the truth. So be it. They sowed the wind and have reaped the whirlwind and will not own up to their part in the destruction of America.
Is this also why the GOP is going to nominate such a piss-poor candidate?
The poorest countries in the world are very much too corrupt, and the folks who benefit are cronies of the politically powerful, which is how the politically powerful stay that way. Crony Capitalism. BTW Crony Capitalism is not capitalism at all for those about to accuse me of being a Marxist. Again.
It's because there is, and always has been, an inverse relationship between the dollar and the price of oil because oil is traded, worldwide, in dollars. Every time the Fed lowers interest rates, they lower the value of the dollar and the result raises the market price of oil. Its for the banker's children, dontchaknow?
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