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A Bankrupt Superpower: The Collapse Of American Power
Intelligence Daily ^ | March 19, 2008 | By Paul Craig Roberts

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...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1929; america; assclown; bush; china; congress; crash; dow; economy; iran; iraq; islam; israel; manipulation; paleonotconservative; paulcraigroberts; pcr; pitchforkpat; sellouts; shorting; surprise; treason
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To: palmer
It is early. American labor is rich by world standards, that's why they are losers in free trade.

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.....

21 posted on 03/20/2008 4:02:55 AM PDT by Thermalseeker (Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a Mark of Folly. - B. Franklin)
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To: palmer

“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.


22 posted on 03/20/2008 4:03:05 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: pieceofthepuzzle

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.


23 posted on 03/20/2008 4:04:05 AM PDT by djf
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To: pieceofthepuzzle
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.

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!

24 posted on 03/20/2008 4:10:24 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Forget it...I'll never be able to pull the lever for McCain!)
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To: Fennie; Travis McGee; M. Espinola
The most important part of the commentary was redacted:

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.

25 posted on 03/20/2008 4:13:44 AM PDT by ex-Texan (Matthew 7: 1 - 6)
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To: Fennie
Paul Craig Roberts another Doomer comes out to crow about problems and usually provides no or bad solutions...this guy has gone around the bend on many occasions...read with prejudice!
26 posted on 03/20/2008 4:14:14 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: doodad
he 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.

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.

27 posted on 03/20/2008 4:17:04 AM PDT by Gorzaloon
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To: iopscusa

” 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.


28 posted on 03/20/2008 4:19:51 AM PDT by Uncle Ike (Sometimes I sets and thinks, and sometimes I jus' sets.........)
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To: Fennie
It seems our impending collapse was just more BS... sell it like soap and algore’s globull warming.

LLS

29 posted on 03/20/2008 4:23:13 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Could I ever vote for mcstain? osamabama hussein may convince me yet!)
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To: djf; pieceofthepuzzle
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.

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.

30 posted on 03/20/2008 4:23:54 AM PDT by palmer
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To: palmer

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.


31 posted on 03/20/2008 4:28:03 AM PDT by rbg81 (DRAIN THE SWAMP!!)
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To: rbg81; Uncle Ike; palmer
“We have absorbed a little more than half of the expected losses in the housing decline. We have seen only a third of the housing price decline that we expect.”

- Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, March 2008

32 posted on 03/20/2008 4:34:52 AM PDT by ex-Texan (Matthew 7: 1 - 6)
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To: palmer

American Labor is actually American Organized Laziness.

Union labor has lost its market because of laziness.


33 posted on 03/20/2008 4:37:54 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Never say never (there'll be a VP you'll like))
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To: palmer

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.


34 posted on 03/20/2008 4:38:36 AM PDT by djf
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To: justa-hairyape

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...


35 posted on 03/20/2008 4:40:54 AM PDT by DB
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To: Uncle Ike

You got any answers that make a bit of sense or do you just want to crow?


36 posted on 03/20/2008 4:46:23 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: rbg81; Travis McGee
From farther down in the article:
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.

37 posted on 03/20/2008 4:47:48 AM PDT by meadsjn
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To: Fennie

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.


38 posted on 03/20/2008 4:48:16 AM PDT by ReleaseTheHounds ("The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.")
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To: Thermalseeker
American unionized labor has simply priced themselves out of the game.

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.

39 posted on 03/20/2008 4:50:32 AM PDT by justa-hairyape
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To: DB
If a democratic and peaceful middle east emerges from all this it will have been worth it. If not, well...

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.

40 posted on 03/20/2008 4:58:22 AM PDT by justa-hairyape
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