The USA's financial State

[ernie wrenn]

Always remember:

The USA government spent several million dollars to produce a ink pin that would write in outerspace... The Russians used pencils..

Keep it simple stupid...... KISS... Something governments do not understand! Would any other country want OBOMA.... We will take ANY offer, guranteed to fu*k up your economy over night.

ernie

[propellanttech]

Aug 27, 2011 9:18:11 GMT -5 ernie wrenn said:

Always remember:

The USA government spent several million dollars to produce a ink pin that would write in outerspace... The Russians used pencils..

Keep it simple stupid...... KISS... Something governments do not understand! Would any other country want OBOMA.... We will take ANY offer, guranteed to fu*k up your economy over night.

ernie

Oh.....I totally agree.

But there are times that the simple direction isn't always the best for success.

James

[racket]

Hi Ernie

Comments here from a non partisan foreign observer..................

LOL.........I think most countries would prefer to take him than the previous incumbent , your economy was in a bad way long before he was elected , its just that the American public didn't know it until the Sub Prime mess "hit the fan" :-( ...................you were all too busy enjoying yourselves :-)

Unfortunately your country isn't going to get out of the mess its in until there is a lot of financial pain experienced by a lot of people irrespective of whoever is in the White House ...............exactly the same as in those European countries with massive Govt debt , ..................... I just hope you don't have the same riots in the streets ...................though without the Social Security "safety nets " of those countries , yours could be worse . ..................its not a pretty scenario .............I wish you guys all the best in dealing with it :-)

Cheers
John

[Richard OConnell]

Hey guys, I split the topic to keep the other thread more on-topic.

For my input, I would have to agree with racket and say that this country has been heading this way for a long time. I think Obama is definately taking us in the wrong direction too. The problem with creating "programs" and "handouts" is that you eventually end up with more people waiting for the handout than you have people willing to contribute to the cash pool. I'm personally a fan of Darwin's approach and perhaps a more "Medieval" lifestyle. If you are an able bodied person who simply refuses to work, then you will be one hungry dude tomorrow.

[racket]

Hi Richard

The Catch 22 is , if you don't provide stimulus ( cash handouts) your Economy stagnates, as it did in the Great Depression of the 1930s until the Govt of the time started spending money.

But spending/printing money ( quantitive easing,........what a strange term ) only racks up more debt that needs to be paid off eventually .

LOL, ........... Darwin's approach was the reason the British had to find a place ( Australia 1770 ) to dump their unemployed who were turning to crime to feed themselves as there wasn't any welfare state back then ....................you Americans had just rebelled , so they had to do something :-)

It was unfortunate that the GFC occurred when it did , otherwise you Americans would have a more civilised country by now with good Health Care and Social Security safety nets like most of the developed world ;-)

Here in Oz we also had a change of Govt "colour" at about the same time as you guys , the new Prime Minister didn't last long as things went bad , not his fault , just bad timing , ............thankfully our Banks were all AAA Rated as was the Country so things didn't go too bad , the Govt provided massive stimulus in the way of handouts etc and we hardly had any extra unemployment , we're still at ~5% unemployment which is basically full employment as theres always people "between jobs" .....................the side effect of this is that interest rates are still high ..................none of your near Zero Fed Rates , ours are up ~5% at the Govts Reserve Bank .

Our Federal Govts Budget should be back in surplus within the next couple of years thanks to some sensible economic decisions , ..................the rest of the world has watched your Govts indecision over raising the Debt Level with disbelief at times .......................your representatives in Washington need to "get their fingers out " and start governing the country instead of playing "Party Politics" ..................... Government by the people FOR the people ,(where did I hear that ) .................not vested interests .

Heh heh ,......I could rave on for hours ...................I love watching your PBS broadcasts, delayed broadcast in Oz so "yesterdays news", but at least I get a good "balanced??" feel for US politics.

Cheers
John

[Richard OConnell]

I definately agree racket, but sometimes reality can be harsh. We have a TREMENDOUS number of people who aren't remotely interested in finding a job. Who would be when the gov't will just pay you to sit on the couch and vegitate?

I'm not unsympathetic towards people who have legitamate reasoning behind not providing for themselves, but you have to know when to cut the cord on these people. It wouldnt solve the problem by far, but is a start, and a bold way to adjust attitudes.

Of course, this would never happen, but it would nice to see something change around here.

[ernie wrenn]

Oboma has proven that the president is NOT the power but the mouth. The depression in the 30's grew from a bubble that burst in the stock market and collapsed the economy. It took till 1954 for the economy came to a balance point.

In the 40's the war effort put everybody to work. The problem was they were paid by the government which printed more money to pay for war goods that were shipped around the world.

To repair the damage caused the USA, which had become the largest manufacture, combined with other countries to rebuild the damage. My father was in Japan after the war and everything coming state side had to be marked "Occupied Japan".

All the factories in Japan were rebuilt and started producing products for export. The USA was its largest buyer and the importer was USA. We started to become a nation of consumptition not production. Along comes China...Cheaper goods, higher profits...Walmart...More consumpition. Very few thing are mfg'ed in the states now. The steel mills have closed, Most hi tech is over seas.

People fell in love with MORE.....buy low sell high.. make more money, with no equity. Since the gold standard was removed in the early 70's we started printing IOU's instead.

By the 90's it was all high rollers playing loose with the worlds money. Buying more and selling it with a higher profit (flipping properties). This is were unbrideled GREED came in. The big banks and little banks and the were consumed by even larger banks world wide. When that bubble burst Trillions of monies were lost from everyone. Economy collasped.. In the USA the banks enjoy a .005 interest on new money but the same banks charge 34% interest on loans.

Small buisness's cannot borrow monies to buy stock, the value of housing is down 40%, So now you have people upside down in a house.. Was worth 750,000 now 250,000 or best offer.

It was said the Clinton ballanced our budget.. It was down by selling the military bases and reducing the standing force down to 350,000, barely enough to write reports. while raising the size of american government. Bush blew it/ george had not idea and Oboma does not care, He is but a talking head and a pupit on a string....

ernie
profit

[racket]

Hi Ernie

Yeh , manufacturing is declining at a fast rate here in Oz as well , just last week the main steel smelting company laid off 1,000 workers as they're no longer exporting steel .

Despite the fact that Oz exports ~400 million tons of iron ore a year and ~300 million tons of coal , we actually import steel for major infrastructure builds at the iron ore mines , its cheaper to send the iron ore and coal 5,000 miles to China and reimport the steel another 5,000 miles than to produce it here .....................something don't add up :-(

Cheers
John

[ernie wrenn]

China is positioning itself to become the worlds greatest power by stock piling strategic materials and collasping the worlds infrastructior. They have a 1000 year plan and a billion people to do it. What theyu forgot is you must have consumers to sell to.

The EPA standards, patents, copy rights are NOT respected in China. They are a rouge nation with slave labor to produce materials. You cannot get a product mafg'ed in China without giving away propritory secrets.

The reason we are fighting wars in IRAQ, Afg...etc is there are NO jobs inthe USA for them when they get home. Unemployment is over 10% (government quote) bis is well over 15% and in some area near 40% Chiago/Detroit.

ernie