Posted on 11/14/2008 3:40:27 AM PST by IrishMike
THERE IS a symbolic significance to the Washington summit beyond economics, reinforcing as it does the place of the US at the heart of world affairs. "Without question the American economy is still as influential on the rest of the world as it was," historian Niall Ferguson says.
"There was this notion that some economies around the world, most notably China, had decoupled from the American economy. I think we're seeing just how unlikely that claim was."
The crisis represents some economic weakening of the US, but is affecting other countries more severely in relative terms; while the US stock market has fallen by a third, its Chinese equivalent is down two thirds.
The US has long derived as much power from its financial institutions as its military ones: "Wall Street is every bit as important as the Sixth Fleet to the American Empire," Ferguson says.
The US military, the biggest in the world, is not the most expensive in relative terms. "The defence budget will be squeezed, that's almost always the case in a recession, but as other potential rivals to the United States are going to be affected worse, including Russia and China, it may be that the United States doesn't need to feel too nervous . . . As long as potential rivals are hit harder than United States, the US cannot be said to be declining."
For the president-elect Barack Obama, this weekend may affect what he can achieve during his first term in office.
"There used to be a theory in political science classes that Republican administrations run large deficits in their final year to rein in the incoming Democrats," says Ferguson. "[US Treasury Secretary] Hank Paulson must have read that at college, because that's exactly what has happened."
There have been two bubbles during George Bush's presidency, the dotcom mania that burst as he came in, and the real estate bubble that is bursting as he leaves. There is a third - the Obama Bubble - which carries the hopes of people globally, and the shadow of which hangs over this weekend's talks. "If reality intrudes in this global love affair," says Ferguson, "it's going to be very painful waking up."
Awwwwwww.
Isn't it interesting how, even before Obama won, we didn't hear nearly the amount of America-bashing as usual since the financial crisis hit?
The rest of the world wanted us to get kneed in the groin financially--they figured they could deal with China, India, South America, after taking something of a hit.
Well, we got kneed, and are being kneed again and again, but we're still standing, and those in our shadow are getting a lot of the fallout. And they're starting to mewl about how the big, bad US has ALWAYS been their friend, and we'll help them out in this crisis, right, right?
And they’re starting to mewl about how the big, bad US has ALWAYS been their friend, and we’ll help them out in this crisis, right, right?
rest of the world will need to get inline for handouts.
Probably will be nothing left after Obama fullfils all his campaign promises
So painful have been the global aftershocks of the credit crunch that French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for nothing less than a new Bretton Woods Agreement, the 1944 meeting which led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and other global institutions.
British prime minister Gordon Brown has talked of this being a “decisive moment for the world economy”. Across the world, government intervention is back in fashion: European governments have so far committed over 2 trillion in cash injections, bank deposit guarantees, inter-bank loan coverage and partial or full nationalisations. Last week there was agreement to more than double the EU’s own crisis fund to 25 billion.
The US can cope with this fiscal shock in a way that the European Union simply can’t,” says Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money, and holder of senior academic positions at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford universities. “The current crisis is the biggest test of European economic unity ever.”
The United States, he says, has a single unitary fiscal system that can support a substantial increase in public borrowing in the form of finance payouts, costing trillions of dollars. “The European Union only has a partially unitary monetary system - the euro - and no unitary fiscal system worth talking about. So what we’ve seen, and Ireland led the way, has been a series of individual actions by governments trying to prop up their banks.”
I’m still curious to see if many US military officers resign their commission in the wake of the Obama insult, or if enlistments begin to fall.
Of course, you’d think the Obama worshipers would now be lining up at recruitment offices to support their master...
No, those people will sign up for his “Civilian Security Force”, aka SA because you will get that nifty little armband.
Coyote ugly.
These people will NEVER wake up....NEVER.....they are the Jonestown followers....SUICIDE BEFORE SENSE!!
Good, objective observation, Ireland. You are a welcome addition to The forum.
dotcon bubble broke in early 2000.....telecom crashed Q1 of 2001
Obamania is like a teenaged girl’s infatuation with a rock star, and we know what happens when she’s scorned.
Yes STDs from such affairs are hard to deal with. Hope all those in the “love haze” had their shots. :/
Barry Soetoro has demonstrated that he is a shenanigans man:
1)He usually gets it wrong on the first attempt and then starts modifying his positions. Sometimes you have to take the first position most seriously, as it may be based on some sort of core belief, before that position gets doctored and manipulated by advisers and pollsters.
2) He is willing to say and do whatever it takes to achieve some electoral objective, including dumping core principles, such as public financing of elections, and such as refusing to help reform the corrupt Cook County Chicago political machine he supports and is a part of.
3) He is so loosely anchored to core principles that he is a perpetual motion machine, constantly flip flopping, sidestepping, somersaulting and back-pedaling as the latest crisis or electoral problem demands.
So the best way to understand him is to look at his core beliefs and record to date,undistorted by the electoral gyrations of the moment.
4) He is a far-left liberal, with radical and extremist ideas. He has a heavy slant toward redistribution and socialism.
5) He is weak on national security and national defense. He tends to run with anti-Americans, racists and bigots and favors a European world-view (bowing to international organizations and favoring talking and appeasing rather than strength and victory).
These people will NEVER wake up....NEVER.....they are the Jonestown followers....SUICIDE BEFORE SENSE!!
I firmly believe that. It is unbelievable how out of touch
with reality they are. Never in the history of the world
has a country gone down the suicide path like this. And a
people with the most to lose don’t even seem to realize it.
I really am amazed OBama is not attending this meeting. He needs to be there to meet other world players, to listen and learn firsthand- not via Albright or Leach.
I don’t get what the reasoning is behind the decision- but getting inside his head is impossible.
.
Learn ?? From THEM? Good Joke....
Yep! That sums him up nicely.
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