Free Republic

Nothing significant will be done except amnesty.

Rohrabacher nails Bush.

Better learn Spanish. (!Aprende espanol para no se lo arrepentiras, gringo!).

Five years after 9/11 we are going to do something to secure one of our borders against terrorists. We are going to about double our pathetically small border patrol, adding some technological whizbangs (after the usual lengthy development period).

We'll try to intercept 85% of aliens close to the border, after which they will be home (our home) free and ready to claim with assorted witnesses that they've really been here for ten years and deserve to be in the "temporary worker program", the new name for amnesty, which we will allow them to purchase for maybe $1000.

Sheesh! Thank God Tancredo isn't buying this. (Gracias Dios que Tancredo no comprarlo.)

In 2004 3 whole employers were fined for hiring illegal aliens.

That about says it all.

Expect more baloney tonight.

So where does someone like me fit.

Wherever you feel most comfortable when the anti-establishment party gets going, assuming it does as it has in France and Britain.

Incidentally, when you say you are a strong supporter of immigration, what do you mean and why are you?

Do you not worry that a fragmented conservative base has allowed itself to become marginalized and isolated around polarized perspectives?

Yes, but I think the only way to save the country from conservatives losing slowly is to offer a clear alternative to what we've been getting. Both parties are under the control of egalitarian ideologies that simply have to be confronted. Yes, for a while we will drop faster, but when the disastrous consequences appear, and it is clear that "real" conservatives are not part of them, because they are constantly attacking the establishment on fundamental issues and the establishment media is constantly attacking them, then conservatives will at last gain politically.

In Britain and France now you have a situation where nationalist parties (the BNP and the National Front) are gaining ground quickly precisely because they have endured the negative media barrage and stuck to their nationalism and traditionalism in opposing illegal immigration, etc. My guess is that the counterpart to these organizations in this country will be the Constitution Party. It might also be the Republican Party if there is a conservative takeover, but the odds seem against it.

“The President has an opportunity to reach beyond the elites and identify with the American people and commit to these things,”

Fat chance.

The Fed is not all powerful. There is only so much you can do for a country that is borrowing almost all the world's savings and spending it on consumption.

The original was in farsi.

Discussing the national debt without mentioning America's GDP is either a demonstration of ignorance or an attempt at deception.

Depends on how it's discussed.

Thanks for your very interesting graphs.

The significance of debt varies from country to country. (Should I accuse you of ignorance or deception for not pointing this out?) For example, in Japan there is an extremely high savings rate with corresponding extremely low interest rates, whereas in the US there are negative savings (last time I looked) and a real estate market increasingly in trouble. Japan also has a very large trade surplus where we have an even greater trade deficit.

Your second graph shows that under the current administration debt growth has exploded. It's rising faster than GDP now. An unsustainable rate, I think you'll agree. Don't forget that in addition to the national debt (what the government promised to pay with an instrument of indebtedness) there are other promises to pay not accounted for by it (medicare, medicaid, social security, etc.). When you add these up you get $43T last time I looked, but that is probably way too low now. Not good for your daughter or almost anybody else.

Basic question: Does our national debt and/or foreign ownership of it contribute to devaluation of the dollar ('inflation')? If so, how?

To avoid default, the government must pay interest on its debts and pay off maturing debt. It can pay from a budget surplus, pay with newly created money, or pay from the proceeds of selling yet more debt. We don't have a budget surplus. Creating money leads to inflation, in anticipation of which the currency tends to fall. Selling more debt becomes harder as the total debt burden rises, because lenders begin to suspect you might default on your debt and begin to demand greater interest rates or to simply refuse to lend to you at all. Ultimately, you are faced with creating more money (leading to devaluation) or cutting spending (leading to loss of political power).

Foreign owners of debt are affected by devaluation in a very immediate and unpleasant way. Foreigners have been very badly hurt by dollar devaluation in the past. That's why they are looking harder for alternatives - the euro, the yen, precious metals, etc., in which they can hold their foreign reserves. They drawn down their dollar balances to pay for the alternatives, putting downward pressure on the dollar. The larger their share of the total debt, the greater that pressure will be when confidence declines.

Technically, a devaluation doesn't require large scale selling of the currency. Price can fall on very little volume. What is likely to happen is that some large holder of dollars will start selling, others will see what's happening and join in, and, finally, after the dollar has fallen as far as it should, others still will panic and force it down even further, creating a great buying opportunity for those not invested in the dollar.

The Argentine peso in 2002 (I think) was devalued by a factor of 3 overnight relative to the dollar when they ran into a debt crisis. Our debt is worse than Argentina's was then. Our superpower status and our technological lead have been holding us up. Both of these have been deteriorating. Most foreigners see our use of force in Iraq as ill advised and a debacle. Other countries are catching up with us rapidly in technology as well.

$9 trillion in debt equals:
--- More than the GDP of China, the world’s second richest nation.
--- More than the combined GDP of Japan and India, the next richest nations.
--- The equivalent of all monies invested in all U.S. mutual funds.
--- Four times the combined net worth of the nation’s 691 billionaires.
--- $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
--- $120,000 home mortgage for a family of four.

Time span of U.S. debt accumulation:
--- 213 years for the first $3 trillion (1776 to1989)
--- 10 years for the second $3 trillion (1989 to 1997)
--- 5 years for the third $3 trillion (2000 to 2005)

Foreign U.S. debt holders:
--- In 1970 foreigners owned about 5% of our national debt
--- In 1980 foreigners owned about 17% of our national debt
--- In 1990 foreigners owned about 18% of our national debt
--- In 1995 foreigners owned about 22% of our national debt
--- In 2000 foreigners owned about 31% of our national debt
--- In 2005 foreigners owned about 45% of our national debt

Puts the failure of the US government in perspective. Something's gotta give.

Don't knock the source. Tell me whether what they're saying is false.

Personally, I prefer my gold bars. Especially lately.

Stampede to gold? Not impossible given the unreliability of paper currencies.

More good news for gold, bad news for dollar.

It's the lack of ANY reliable currency these days, rather than dollar weakness, that is contributing the most to the soaring price of gold IMHO.

Don't let the Dow go to your head. Trouble's brewing as government spending rages unchecked in the US. Also, here on China and Japan collaborating on an Asian Currency Unit with China on top. A common Asian currency down the road?

The real deal here.

Murdoch's a neocon, You know, that's a socialist smart enough to pretend he's conservative, usually accomplished by just calling himself one. Now that they've corrupted the Republican Party, they can all get behind the even more corrupt Hillary Clinton to complete the murder of America.

Fox News won't do an immediate 180, but slowly, slowly they will start putting Hillary in a friendlier light. The memory of the never-ending scandals of the Clinton administration will be buried.

There is almost no hope. Even with an excellent Republican or third party candidate, there is little chance against a fully united mainstream media manipulating the minds of America's hard-working, open-hearted, positive but easily manipulated majority.

The MSM rarely reports divisions among Democrats, but here we find it discussed. The immigration issue cuts across party lines, but in both parties the pro-immigration-even-when-illegal forces are in control.