tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3397167328061019765.post7095361564938441489..comments2024-01-16T03:55:26.266-05:00Comments on Welcome to Pottersville 2 (Blogging Against Fascism!): More Bad News (To (En)Lighten Your Day)Cirzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07070125217972397204noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3397167328061019765.post-654933877643323412009-02-19T17:00:00.000-05:002009-02-19T17:00:00.000-05:00Tuxy,Always wonderful to get your view of events.A...Tuxy,<BR/><BR/>Always wonderful to get your view of events.<BR/><BR/><I>And your question is?!</I><BR/><BR/>I guess you've left us speechless!<BR/><BR/><I>Granted, the US's economic problems are dire. But we're not yet in the position of the Ottoman Empire in 1875 with debts denominated in foreign currencies and forced to default because our payments on said debts amount to 50% of the nation's GDP. We still make stuff, unlike the Ottoman Empire which had missed the industrial revolution and thus had to import all mass-produced items. There is still a *long* ways to go until we reach that level of national bankruptcy... and it's unclear that it's going to happen within our own lifetimes, if ever, due to the considerable resources this nation still has despite the erosion of its infrastructure over the past twenty-five years.</I><BR/><BR/>Thanks for your words of wisdom. We need to be reminded that things may not be as bad as they seem. Your history lesson lets us know it could be much worse.<BR/><BR/>SSuzanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05654343008064687806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3397167328061019765.post-82484620426346906562009-02-19T00:47:00.000-05:002009-02-19T00:47:00.000-05:00Chris Hedges? He's a great war reporter, but I'm n...Chris Hedges? He's a great war reporter, but I'm not sure he ever learned anything about economics. <BR/><BR/>First of all, there's is a way to deal with the unpayable debts of most Americans. It's called *bankruptcy*. Just make bankruptcy easier to access, have people declare bankruptcy and discharge their debts, bingo. We're back to Day One. Of course, the banks would need to be re-capitalized after that, but... hold it. We already need to do that :-).<BR/><BR/>Secondly, the national debt. We had this problem after the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was sucking up 10% of the U.S. GDP in 1967. We had to get out of Vietnam because it was bankrupting the nation, forget about protests and stuff, those were utterly ignored by our ruling elite, the fact that the war was bankrupting the nation was not. So anyhow, 1973 arrives. The war is over. The debt is unpayable. Except... the U.S. government possesses this marvelous invention called the PRINTING PRESS. So they INFLATED their way out of the debt by printing the money to pay it off. It killed the Presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmie Carter, but it was a success, at least until Ronnie Raygun came in and undid their work by running up his own huge deficits. Anyhow, yeah, this would cause inflation, like it did in the 1970's. And it'd hurt imports and help exports by devaluing the dollar relative to foreign currencies. And your question is?!<BR/><BR/>Finally, manufacturing: The U.S. still manufactures as much "stuff" as it did twenty years ago. It's just *different* stuff. Granted, you can't find a piece of American-made underwear in the stores. But your computer probably has a main processor chip made in Chandler, Arizona. Your Internet packets are probably crossing across a main trunk switch made in Frement, California. If you own a motorcycle, the accessories for that motorcycle are probably made by a small business in Utah that makes virtually all motorcycle accessories sold for popular motorcycles here in the USA on their own jigs in their own factory with US-made steel. And if we became unable to buy underwear from China because of printing so much money that China no longer wants our dollars, we still have cloth manufacturing facilities and resources here in the USA that could be put back to work making underwear, and there's still custom crafts ladies who sew things who could make underwear. It'd be expensive. Things would not be the same as today, where you can walk into Wally World and buy a pack of 20 undies for $20. You'd probably pay that much for one piece of underwear. But we wouldn't end up wearing buckets.<BR/><BR/>In other words, I think Chris Hedges underestimates the resources still available to the United States, and overestimates the economic problems of the United States. Granted, the US's economic problems are dire. But we're not yet in the position of the Ottoman Empire in 1875 with debts denominated in foreign currencies and forced to default because our payments on said debts amount to 50% of the nation's GDP. We still make stuff, unlike the Ottoman Empire which had missed the industrial revolution and thus had to import all mass-produced items. There is still a *long* ways to go until we reach that level of national bankruptcy... and it's unclear that it's going to happen within our own lifetimes, if ever, due to the considerable resources this nation still has despite the erosion of its infrastructure over the past twenty-five years.<BR/><BR/>-Badtux the Economics PenguinBadTuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01345749557330760251noreply@blogger.com