Posted on 04/05/2025 12:01:11 PM PDT by Rummyfan
‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” That’s the quote from the late economist Herbert Stein. Some facts to consider:
- U.S. share of world population: 4%
- U.S. share of world GDP: 26%
- U.S. share of world wealth: 29%
- U.S. share of world debt: 35%
- U.S. share of worldwide military spending: 37%
- U.S. share of worldwide foreign aid: 40%
The above figures are not sustainable. Well, actually, they were not sustainable, past tense.
Many will look at the first three bullets above and conclude that America has been exploiting the rest of the world to get rich. In fact, that relative wealth has enabled the last three bullets. Truth be told, bullet #1 is shrinking fast, so bullets #2 and #3 can no longer sustain bullet #4, so bullets #5 and #6 must fall by the wayside.
What’s happening in the world today is that the short-run has ended, we are all living in the long-run. All of this becomes amplified because of fact #7: the U.S. has a 50 percent share of worldwide stock markets.
The classical reference in the headline refers to two Hollywood movies. In the comedy Trading Places (1983), Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy team up to defeat the Duke brothers, played by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy, in the futures market for frozen concentrated orange juice.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
People want to live like this in their cars and big f—- houses they can’t even pay for. The only reason that they all get to continue living like kings is because we got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and then the whole world gets really f—- fair really f—- quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do, but they don’t. They want what we have to give them but they also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from.
Applying this speech to the current situation: since the end of World War II, America has been underwriting the rest of the world, putting our hand on the scales in their favor.
The world is about to get really fair, very fast.
Yep.
U.S. share($36 trillion) of world public debt($102 trillion): 35%
Love Irons in that movie.
Every time I see US military spending verses rest of world I wonder what the rate would be if the commie countries and the rags were paying their military what we pay ours. As they say, the devil is in the details.
Bkmk
Margin Call is one of the most beautifully executed and underrated films.
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