Reply By: Don BemontPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Happy New Year to all ye trolls of all political stripes.

may I be an ogre instead??? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee happy new years to you too.....

From Wikipedia : "The United States is the world's largest contributor of foreign aid in absolute terms ($15.7 billion, 2003), but the smallest among developed countries as a percentage of its GDP (0.14% in 2003). However, private foreign aid donations in the United States are on the order of $35 billion a year (2003), dwarfing the governmental aid of not only the US but many other countries."

I guess private donations bump us up to 0.45% of our GDP? Still half of Denmark's and (GACK!) just about even with France's government outlays alone(something definitely has to be done about that!) I've heard it claimed repeatedly that our private donations drastically outstrip those of other developed countries, but have yet to see or find any figures backing this up, and imagine they'll be pretty tough to come by.

Not saying that we should be doing more, or that foreign aid is even effective in many cases, much less that our military expenditures couldn't often in themselves be considered foreign aid... I'm just admitting that we aren't winning the bullshit global beauty contest against some of our european allies in this particular area (% of GDP.) Hell, we have to let them exceed us at something. Or do we....

I think the US should make a compromise. It shouldn't offer any military support whatsoever, but replace it with a boost to the % of GDP it throws away to the UN. Surely that'll make everybody happy.

I'm not sure which part of 'The USA owes its creditors about $4.4 trillion right now' you guys don't understand, but I'll try to explain.

The USA owes its creditors about $4.4 trillion right now. Paying all that interest means more borrowing – which requires still more loans to keep “rolling over” all those 10-year Treasury notes as they become due for repayment plus interest.

But with the dollar plummeting in value and inflation rising, foreign lenders are losing confidence in the worth of Bush’s IOU’s. Oil-producing nations are saying they prefer payment in Euros, gold dinars (at left), or yak hides – anything but more bogus bucks.

Until a few months ago, Asia’s central banks – particularly the big commercial banks in Japan and China – have been financing America’s huge appetite for consumer products, weapons and warfare. The interest alone on all those loans is unpayable. With total state and federal government debts currently passing $14 trillion dollars in a near-vertical climb, US taxpayers have shelled out $15 trillion in interest payments since 1960 – while the principal continues to rise.

Higher interest rates means more interest on the national debt, which is really the debt of American children, and their children – just as climate change really kicks in with increasingly costly catastrophes.

But despite a decade’s prediction of economic doom, financial meltdown hasn’t happened yet. And it won’t, runs the counter-argument, because global interdependence means that everyone must maintain the illusion of solvency – or go down together.

Still, if someone blinks, all those debt bombs blow up at once.

That someone could be China.

Unhappily, the self-restraining domino theory of Mutually Assured Financial Destruction has a fatal flaw. As a financial blogger writes: “Asian central banks don't have to sell their existing Treasuries for the dollar to come under pressure. All they have to do is to stop buying new Treasuries.”

This is already happening.

Foreigners have stopped buying US stocks. From net purchases of $9.7 billion on Wall Street in July, offshore investors turned to a $2.1 billion sell-off last August. Private foreign investors also sold $4.4 billion more in T-bills than they bought that month. In fact, all foreign investment into the United States has fallen off sharply. The Institute for International Economics’ John Williamson says that foreclosing on Uncle Sam “wouldn't be in the interest of the world. But any one country might think, ‘I'll beat the crowd and diversify first.’”

The Catch-22 dilemma is that whether acting individually or internationally, the smartest precautionary moves – curbing spending, reducing personal debt, reducing “exposure” in the US stock market and the US dollar – could also crash a global casino dominated by debt and the dollar.

The collapse of the greenback and America’s faulty empire could come as quickly as the fall of the former Soviet Union – and for many of the same reasons. You might want to plant a winter garden. And throw a few cans of beans in the cupboard.

Reply #34 By: GrooveDygger - 12/30/2004 6:04:45 PM I'm not sure which part of 'The USA owes its creditors about $4.4 trillion right now' you guys don't understand, but I'll try to explain.

one more time owe is used in my post in the sense that they are entitled to americas aid ENTITLED get it yet?

Reply #31 By: Moderateman - 12/30/2004 5:49:52 PM Reply By: Don BemontPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Happy New Year to all ye trolls of all political stripes. may I be an ogre instead??? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee happy new years to you too.....

POOF!!! Your an orge!

Technically I owe my bank money for the mortage on my house. Do you think they provided the mortage based on mercy or charity?

Treasury bills and other such "loans" are forms of investment.  You also seem to have serious problems grasping the difference between the public and private sectors.  Do you think the trade deficit is a form of "loan" too? You seem to think so based on your statement about appetites for "consumer goods" as if that DVD player I purchased was actually a "loan" to me.

I hate to break this to you but the US isn't getting charity from the third world.  But you do bring up China. Perhaps as an example? Would this be the same China that STILL gets free food from the World Food Program? I.e. they get charity from other countries such as us.

While sementical games are popular with the quasi-intellectual side of the left, the spirit of the original article is pretty apparent to anyone with basic reading comprehension and it's this: The US has given out vastly more aid than it has ever received in return. 

The world isn't bailing us out in any sense. Anyone who thinks differently on that matter is..well just not familiar with economics. I hate to sound that arrogant but this is pretty basic stuff.

BTW "Groovy" which largely populated nation state on the planet is also the world's most self-sufficient.  Go ahead, take your time and guess.

If there was some worldwide economic collapse, I know which country I would rather be in to be well fed.  Probably the one that exports the most food. Probalby the one that is also the world's largest oil producer (bigger than Saudi Arabia). Probably the one with the capability to produce all its own transportation products AND at the same time provide all the raw materials for said products.

The US debt is the same kind of debt many savvy investors take when they borrow money at 5% interest so that they can invest in higher yielding areas.  I could, for instance, easily pay off my mortgage on my home. But I have it at 5%  Instead I used that extra capital to buy things like Sirius Satellite stock at 2.10 that now trades, 6 months later, at 8.

Those who show such scorn for would be delighted if the US had to stop deficit spending. It wouldn't harm us in the least. It would just cut off aid programs to various dependents both foreign and domestic (that's where 60% of the US federal budget goes, another 15% on interest and another 15% on military).

Reply By: drmilerPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Reply #31 By: Moderateman - 12/30/2004 5:49:52 PMReply By: Don BemontPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Happy New Year to all ye trolls of all political stripes. may I be an ogre instead??? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee happy new years to you too.....POOF!!! Your an orge!

thanx drmiler I knew i could depend on you! tff and If I remember my myths properly orges eat the bones of the far left and pick there teeth with the splinters.. bwahahahahahahah

Hey Moderateman. Yeah im a bit slow sometimes. You quote from MY quote was refering to GrooveDygger and not to me. Damn im stupid but hey I try

brought to you by the Archie Bunker school of diplomacy

may we have more of the same! Nice to see the smacktards out in force here too! Get out that lunatic leftist position! way to lose votes for your own party!

then I suggest you move to one of the above listed countries... enough already

America love it or leave it, and you think the Archie Bunker comparisons aren't fair, moderatewannabeman?

thank you for telling the truth. it's nice to hear it every now and then. i'm sick of being told how bad americans are. the french would be goose steping to the germans if not for the usa.

Reply By: DysmasPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Hey Moderateman. Yeah im a bit slow sometimes. You quote from MY quote was refering to GrooveDygger and not to me. Damn im stupid but hey I try

no offense taken here and I am slow on the uptake myself at times

Reply By: greywarPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004brought to you by the Archie Bunker school of diplomacymay we have more of the same! Nice to see the smacktards out in force here too! Get out that lunatic leftist position! way to lose votes for your own party!

shhhhhhh We want the left to keep doing this I can see thew day when congress has 60 republicans then the left will be totally powerless as well as useless