America's Superpower Status Coming to an End

Newsmax.com ^ | 3/1/05 | Paul Craig Roberts

[beyond the sea]

The U.S. economy is headed toward crisis, and the political leadership of the country – if it can be called leadership – is preoccupied with nonexistent weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

The U.S. economy is failing. The afflictions are serious. They could be fatal even if diagnosed and treated. America is losing the purchasing power of its currency and its ability to create middle-class jobs. Story Continues Below

The dollar's sharp decline and projections of continuing trade and budgetary red ink are undermining the dollar's role as reserve currency. A number of central banks have announced that they will be diversifying their currency holdings and will not be buying dollars at the same rate as in the past. This will put more pressure on the dollar. At some point, the flight will begin. Instead of buying fewer dollars, central banks will sell dollars, hoping to get out before the dollar hits bottom.

Suddenly, the advantage of being the reserve currency becomes a nightmare, as the world's accumulations of dollars are brought to market. An enormous supply and weak demand mean a very low exchange rate for the once almighty U.S. dollar.

Overnight, those cheap goods in Wal-Mart, which are the no-think economist's facile justification for Wal-Mart's decimation of communities, small businesses and employment, shoot up in price.

[Petronski]

Don't answer the question if it's too incriminating.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

"Not found" does not mean "never existed".

I know that as does Paul Craig Roberts.

I believe in the "they were shipped to Syria" scenario. However, Paul Craig Roberts is still correct in his statement about WMDs.

[iconoclast]

RCA's 32" HDTV. Features a Truflat picture tube, digital 3 line comb filter and progressive scan, all working together to deliver the best possible picture to your screen.

Nuff said!

I'll trade my nation's sovereignty for that big boy in a NY minute!

[iconoclast]

They sell dollars back into the US, when it is weak. Meaning we wipe out the overhang on relatively favorable terms.

And we push a wheelbarrow full of dollars to the corner for a loaf of bread.

[Howlin]

Simply a website that publishes work that Howlin seems to have has a different opinion from what the authors that publish there do.

So does Jim Robinson; I guess he's has a problem with facts, too, huh?

[William Terrell]

I look in all the retail outlets and I don't find many, if any, American made goods. Those that I find, the components are made overseas.

Regardless of the dollar doing this or that, or the dollar is worth this or that, people have to eat, wear clothes, travel, heat their homes, use a vast variety of goods. How can our economy, whatever its instant state, remain stable when we become dependent on the goodwill and continued "friendship" with foreign economies that are set up and governed differently than ours?

And the forms of governments thereof are antitheses to our form, and don't particularly like us very much, anyway? Some trade with these nations to get products we can't or don't make here, yes, but dependence?

I have figured on the subject of foreign trade. Why do we need foreign trade to any great extent for the good of our country? Why not just produce what we need and sell to each other, exporting excesses where appropriate and importing specialty items?

[Howlin]

it's not fair!

I see that to you, "fair" means sniping at somebody behind their backs.

That's very telling about your posting skills.

[Petronski]

In his opening statement, he says they're nonexistent. If he stated they hadn't been found, that would be correct. His statement might be a safe presumption, but it cannot be said to be 'correct.'

[FreedomAvatar]

What domestic things would that be?

Was at ChiMart with my girlfriend last week. Managed to find a plastic ashtray made right here in the USA, probably in a 7th grade shop class.

[beyond the sea]

Is it possible to remove the first sentence? -------- Possible? Yes. Wildly inappropriate? Yes.

I hear you.

Could we have removed the first half in that Steeler playoff game with the Patriots?

Yoi!

[Petronski]

I'll trade my nation's sovereignty for that big boy in a NY minute!

That would be idiotic, since it only costs $644.

[hobbes1]

I'll trade my nation's sovereignty for that big boy in a NY minute!

Hey no Fair. I went through the stack to get an RCA, which is of course owned by GE...lol

[iconoclast]

Paul Craig Roberts is correct.

You may or may not agree with me, but I believe we have been lied to repeatedly by this administration and will be again.

The fact there is no outrage at this, particularly at a place like Free Republic, is perhaps the most frightening thing to me about our present circumstances.

BTW, and not coincidentally, lies are an integral part of the political philosophy of Leo Strauss.

[Petronski]

Ouch.

Yoi and double yoi. You've fried my gorgonzola.

[Petronski]

And we push a wheelbarrow full of dollars to the corner for a loaf of bread.

You seem to pay too much for a lot of things.

[Howlin]

I'm perfectly happy to be associated with some of the remarks on this thread that completely disagree with you.

As for this:

Howlin, you continue to exhibit zero common sense and a distaste for facts. He does not "post at VDARE". Others republish his works. Your reputation precedes yourself, Howlin. You iignore facts and cheer baseless opinion.

I'm just as glad you don't "approve" of me, since I don't with much of what you say most of the time anyway.

BTW, he could tell VDARE not to publish his stuff, just like Jim Robinson tells us not to post anything on VDARE or LewRockwell.com.

[jps098]

The dollar's sharp decline and projections of continuing trade and budgetary red ink are undermining the dollar's role as reserve currency. A number of central banks have announced that they will be diversifying their currency holdings and will not be buying dollars at the same rate as in the past. This will put more pressure on the dollar. At some point, the flight will begin. Instead of buying fewer dollars, central banks will sell dollars, hoping to get out before the dollar hits bottom.

Think stocks. The time to buy an item is when it is low. If no one wants the US Dollar, it will be because ALL other countries' currencies are based on a more stable economy than the US. Are you kidding? You think the Euro is really stable? Just look at their demographics and the pervasive unemployment in France and Germany for example.

Unless the US collapses, the Dollar will be the currency to buy. And if the US economy does collapse, our currency will be the least of our problems.

[beyond the sea]

Those who bet against the continued vitality of the US economy are always wrong. As wrong as those who bet against the US military, proclaiming quagmires everywhere. They do not understand the underpinings of US successes. They imagine they are all some kind of trick, smoke, exceptional and temporary. They are nothing of the kind.

Here's hoping you are correct.

[William Terrell]

I don't "choose to believe" what he predicts. I just find automatic reactions, based entirely on simple partisanship, to reasoned analysis unwise and potentially destructive. This is the way liberals deal with conservative thought on the various dangerous moral, societal and financial paths we are taking now.

I don't think this strategy is any more positively effective when conservatives do it.

[sport]

And every Democrat said: HooRay!