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The man who can set interest rates and create money is more powerful than the man who can move armies and change laws. By conferring that authority on the Federal Reserve we have assured that the policies that govern our economy are decided by unelected members of the ruling elite whose choices will naturally reflect the interests of their class.

The wealth gap that has opened up like a yawning chasm between rich and poor in America originated with the class-based policies of the Fed. The massive equity bubbles which arose from artificially low interest rates and the deliberate destruction of the dollar by reckless increases in the money supply have shifted trillions of dollars from working class Americans to the predatory aristocrats at the top of the economic food chain. The gulf between rich and poor has grown so wide that it now poses a direct threat to our increasingly fragile democracy.

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We are so foolish as to think the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the future of our species and human life and dignity are more important than the wealthy getting wealthier.

Oh, when will we learn? War without end is the sane thing to do to keep us in line. Poverty and ignorance must prevail in order to keep the short sighted but powerful in their rightful place.

We need to back North American “harmonization” and give up universal healthcare, think of the poor US health insurance companies!

We must trash every social program there is so there’s more money to spend on bigger armies and more prisons!

We must obliterate every environmental program we know about to protect the oil companies!

We must undermine our educational system. People who know how to read and think pose a great threat to institutions founded in greed and the lust for power!

Buy the biggest luxury liner SUV you can find, drive to your local polling station and vote Conservative !!!!

(did I mention I fell on my head today?)

Read the article

[ 07 February 2007: Message edited by: Noise ]

[ 07 February 2007: Message edited by: Noise ]

Sorry, I missed your serious intent. I have now read the article.

[ 07 February 2007: Message edited by: oreobw ]

quote:

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Did you read the article? Or do you think you are funny?

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Lil of both... I was responding to the title of the thread more than anything... I dislike any critism that implies the target cannot do anything right whatsoever. The US does export more than bombs and misery unlike the title does suggest, such as my silly little orange comment.

Though if you wish to discuss the article some... It does raise the implication that the only thing keeping the US afloat is it's populaces stupidly extreme rate of consumerism... When the consumerism gives way, down plummets the greenback:

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The central banks around the world are now watching for any sign that the American consumer is about to give up the ghost. As soon as that happens, bank managers everywhere will swing into action, ditch their U.S.Dollars and head for the exits.

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Sadly, thats exceedingly self distructive and I don't think other central banks would make a 'breaking point' move like that. Like it or not, China has several trillions invested into the American dollar as well as several other nations. The US dollar devaluing rapidly extremely degrades the value of their investment... Several of these nations have vested interests in keeping the Dollar elevated and I don't think Whitney is putting that segment together:

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The other reason the dollar hasn’t succumbed to hyperinflation is because the current account deficit is running at roughly $800 billion per year. The Asian giants (China and Japan) and the oil exporting countries are mopping up more than $700 billion of our red ink every year!

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It’s blackmail, pure and simple; and yet, the Chinese, Japanese etc. continue to play along knowing full-well that we neither have the inclination nor the resources to pay them back in kind?

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Besides, how long will China and Japan continue to abet Washington’s war-mongering adventurism? My guess is that the daggers have already been sharpened in Beijing, Caracas, Delhi and Moscow. Everyone is just waiting for Bush to cross that invisible line in the sand before they fling their greenbacks into the jet-stream and wait for Goliath to tumble.

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Lil of both... I was responding to the title of the thread more than anything... I dislike any critism that implies the target cannot do anything right whatsoever.

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Though if you wish to discuss the article some... It does raise the implication that the only thing keeping the US afloat is it's populaces stupidly extreme rate of consumerism... When the consumerism gives way, down plummets the greenback:

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It raises far more than that. The implication of your argument that it does not, implies you really have no interest in discussing the merits of the essay so much as finding mole hills out of which to build mountains.

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It's an interesting situation for China to be in... I'd be curious what writers from China's perspective would have to say on this topic. A period of hyper-inflation for the US dollar is potentially destructive to all these nations investing within the US dollar, including every nation Whitney has listed so far. What exactly would China's motivation be to devalue their investment by that much?

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Critical to the essay is that the US economy is in decline while an eastern based economy is in ascendence. From the Chinese perspective, it would be better to cut and run than to anchor themselves to a sinking ship. There have already been news reports indicating the Chineses have already begun the process of limited divestment.

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On the other side I find the argument that China is afraid to divest in the U.S. because they'll lose money by causing a crash, rather weak. A gambler whose up 200% isn't afraid to lose some money to put on a good show - and China doesn't need to totally divest. They only have to THREATEN it to scare the world.

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Why China is rising

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Renewed fears that the Chinese central bank may be poised to start liquidating its $1-trillion stash of U.S. dollars briefly drove the greenback to a 20-month low against the euro and a two-year low against the British pound in trading yesterday.

The euro surged to $1.3172 (U.S.) against the greenback and the pound to $1.9469, before losing ground by day's end. The loonie and the yen have also gained on the U.S. dollar in recent days.

The sudden weakness of the U.S. dollar began late last week, soon after Chinese officials suggested that holding a lot of dollars might be a losing investment strategy. Investors read that as a signal that the massive trade and financial imbalances between Asia and the U.S. may be about to unwind.

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G & M

[ 07 February 2007: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]

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Thread titles are like packaging; intended to entice not to be the conversation.

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Heh, fair enough and I apologize for making ya grouchy... I mistaked this packaging for a misc American wealth gap bashing thread I'll edit that out and link your article one more time. Now 'scuse me, I've got 3 other ones to read.

[ 07 February 2007: Message edited by: Noise ]

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Originally posted by Noise:
Several of these nations have vested interests in keeping the Dollar elevated and I don't think Whitney is putting that segment together

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I think those same nations are beginning to realize that U.S.-style consumerism is unrealistic for the other 95 percent of humanity, and that the largest single country source of GHG emissions is the U.S.

As well, most of those countries, including China, have been worried about increasing U.S. military presence in that region of the world. The U.S. and Britain once believed they would divide China up for their respective colonial-economic interests.

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FWIW, a recent commentary by Ken Rogoff, who's probably in most observers' Top Ten List of People Who Know This Stuff.

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Similar in content, but maybe not as stuffy:

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The dragon twitched. The dragon, which is China, twitches every so often, and when it does, ears prick up across the world of trade and finance. Dragons can, as you know, breathe fire when they choose to, and should the Chinese dragon emit a plume or two of flames, ordinary people living as far away as Ashtabula, Ohio, may get their fannies scorched.

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"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation."

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Originally posted by Fidel:
If he were any dumber, there'd have to be two of him.

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Although I don't think we can discount the importance of rank stupidity as a benefit for being a politician.

Bush for instance accusing neighbouring Persian/Shi'ite Iran of meddling in the affairs of Iraq.

Ralph Klein bombastically supporting the policies of Augusto Pinochet.

Harper stating his position on Hamas & Hezbollah is in support of democracy in the middle east.

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This year Americans will spend over $1 billion on Christmas ornaments from China. And in perhaps the greatest irony of all, even nativity scenes are made in China. Last year Americans spent more than $39 million buying nativity scenes shipped in from the East. China’s success in attracting foreign investment capital and mobilizing this huge workforce has made it the workshop of the world.

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For the Chinese, the manufacturing bonanza means record profits, rising incomes, and, in a society where people save some 40 percent of their income, a sharp jump in savings. In the United States, Christmas shopping expenditures, headed for another record high this year, contribute to rising credit card debt and a soaring trade deficit.

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The Japanese are similarly bad consumers themselves with an average of $100K USDN in personal savings. With Canada's banks creating 95 percent of our money as debt with interest attached, we can never pay off the total amount of Canadian debt owed to private banks. The west is now concentrating money into the hands of the superrich at unprecedented rates while personal savings rates are at all time lows. Capitalists dislike "piggy bank pinkos."

[ 09 February 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]

preface:

With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that American democracy has spawned a global empire.

excerpt:

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Its overseas bases, according to the Pentagon, contained 32,327 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and 16,527 more that it leased. The size of these holdings was recorded in the inventory as covering 687,347 acres overseas and 29,819,492 acres worldwide, making the Pentagon easily one of the world's largest landlords.

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So the Pentagon is landlord to a discontinuous total landmass slightly larger then North Korea in area.

And puh-leeze, are you calling Hollywood "misery"??? Come on, it's the exact opposite! Hollywood exports provide an escape from the drudgery of thinking about misery, man, the movies relieve the masses of their misery.

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Originally posted by Fidel:
And they're still in Europe, supposedly to protect them from a cold war threat that doesn't exist anymore.

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Vicenza already houses the US military base called Ederle, which has about 2,900 active duty military personnel. With the new base at the Dal Molin airport, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, a rapid reaction unit now spread between Italy and Germany, would be united. (Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade were among the first troops involved in the Iraq war.) The combined force would bring the number of US military in Vicenza close to 5,000. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year and to be completed by 2011 at a cost of $576 million.

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EUROPE’s biggest bank, HSBC, is to write off $11 billion to cover mounting losses in its troubled American offshoot, HSBC Finance Corporation.

Stephen Green and Mike Geoghegan, the bank’s chairman and chief executive, are making the huge provisions — which will be announced alongside tomorrow’s full-year results — in an attempt to draw a line under the bank’s miserable experience since buying the business, then known as Household, for $14 billion (£7.2 billion) four years ago. The duo are under unprecedented pressure from shareholders over ballooning bad debts at its US mortgage business.

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