Will the USA default?

[PirateJafa]

But China is definitely not without its financial issues at present

The issues aren't just financial!

[oldrider]

"The war of terror", cunningly disguised as "the war on terror" and a compliant media....

But but but we are the good guy's .................................................. ............ aren't we? Aren't we?

[SPman]

This is the tone of a lot of stuff coming out of the US at the moment

We are being ruled by thespians and gangsters. Far from incompetent, they are lethally good at what they do. They create crisis after crisis, then solve each by sacrificing countless innocents while enriching themselves. Whatever the challenge, domestic or international, their only goals are to gorge and to gouge, so they never fail, actually, even when they miscalculate. They’ll make money blowing things up, and they’ll make even more pretending to fix what they have destroyed. They never pay for their mistakes, only you do, and when they function perfectly, you will still pick up the check, if not bleed. In fact, you will pay even more if they’re in top form

http://www.counterpunch.org/dinh08052011.html

History shows it does not matter whether an economic system is based upon feudalism or capitalism or socialism, or any ism. When it fails to accommodate the masses, the masses force change.
And there's a slowly building feeling of pissed offedness in the USA.
.....

[oldrider]

The world financial experts appear to be behaving like the rider in SPman's avatar!

It is very scary to think that they are out of control .... but to my mind it's even scarier if they "are" in control and know what they are doing!

Why? .... Because they sure are not doing it for the welfare of you, me and the ordinary Joe Blogg's of the world!

Too many of the conspiracy theories that circulate on the internet etc, are gaining credibility through the actions of the so called "good guy's" of the free world!

All the ism's and ist's of the world fall down due to the human fragility of the individuals placed in control, rather than the theory it's self, unfortunately!

We don't have to look far beyond our own shores for examples of that!

And we are just chicken shit by comparison! ......

[Vacquer0]

They know EXACTLY what they are doing.

[SPman]

They sure are.
Robert Reich gives a good summation of the current "Crisis"
magine your house is burning. You call the fire department but your call isn't answered because every fire fighter in town is debating whether there will be enough water to fight fires over the next ten years, even though water is plentiful right now. (Yes, there's a long-term problem.) One faction won't even allow the fire trucks out of the garage unless everyone agrees to cut water use. An agency that rates fire departments has just issued a downgrade, causing everyone to hoard water.
While all this squabbling continues, your house burns to the ground and the fire has now spread to your neighbors' homes. But because everyone is preoccupied with the wrong question (the long-term water supply) and the wrong solution (saving water now), there's no response. In the end, the town comes up with a plan for the water supply over the next decade, but it's irrelevant because the whole town has been turned to ashes.

http://readersupportednews.org/opini...d-a-double-dip

All the ism's and ist's of the world fall down due to the human fragility of the individuals placed in control, rather than the theory it's self, unfortunately!

I wouldn't call it fragility..........rather, a ruthless disregard for anyone except themselves......

[oldrider]

They sure are.
Robert Reich gives a good summation of the current "Crisis"
magine your house is burning. You call the fire department but your call isn't answered because every fire fighter in town is debating whether there will be enough water to fight fires over the next ten years, even though water is plentiful right now. (Yes, there's a long-term problem.) One faction won't even allow the fire trucks out of the garage unless everyone agrees to cut water use. An agency that rates fire departments has just issued a downgrade, causing everyone to hoard water.
While all this squabbling continues, your house burns to the ground and the fire has now spread to your neighbors' homes. But because everyone is preoccupied with the wrong question (the long-term water supply) and the wrong solution (saving water now), there's no response. In the end, the town comes up with a plan for the water supply over the next decade, but it's irrelevant because the whole town has been turned to ashes.

http://readersupportednews.org/opini...d-a-double-dip

I wouldn't call it fragility..........rather, a ruthless disregard for anyone except themselves......

When you are up to your arse in alligators, it hard to appreciate that the original intention was to drain the swamp! (now, what was their original intention?)

[pete376403]

http://robertreich.org/ has lots of interesting comments on the situation, such as:
"John Boehner said Tuesday the Republicans got “90 percent of what we wanted” from the budget deal. So presumably he and his colleagues are willing to take responsibility for some 450 points of today’s mammoth 513-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average."
But no, Obama will get the blame for this.

[oldrider]

http://robertreich.org/ has lots of interesting comments on the situation, such as:
"John Boehner said Tuesday the Republicans got “90 percent of what we wanted” from the budget deal. So presumably he and his colleagues are willing to take responsibility for some 450 points of today’s mammoth 513-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average."
But no, Obama will get the blame for this.

http://robertreich.org/post/6595110483 ... From the above site.

A & B fighting for the benefit of C!

We fight among ourselves over which "political party" is best for us!

Meanwhile C finances and directs the parties to do what is best for C!

A & B should be working together to control the behaviour of C!

So, is Labour's capital gains tax plan really the tool for building a strong middle class in New Zealand then?

Apparently not, according to Robert Reich, it is just another Tax loophole for C!

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Debt increase by presidents;
Reagan 186%
Bush 54%
Clinton 41%
Bush II 72%
Obama 23%

meh next...

[Vacquer0]

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago you would have $49.00 today! If you purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG you would have $33.00 If you purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers you would have $0.00 today. But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer, drank all the beer, turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have $214.00.

Therefore the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg Plan..."

[Edbear]

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago you would have $49.00 today! If you purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG you would have $33.00 If you purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers you would have $0.00 today. But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer, drank all the beer, turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have $214.00.

Therefore the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg Plan..."

You're probably correct; of all the "investments" that are guaranteed to lose money, beer and wine lose the least.

[Edbear]

Now it's France's turn to face a downgrade, witness emergency talks going on now...

Spain, Italy and France are three of the biggest European economies and beyond a bailout option. The US has hit the wall and that leaves Germany and England. Any predictions on them..?

[Woodman]

gotta admit that I don't really understand all this so here are some questions.

Who do all these countries owe money too?

What could anyone really do if the USA said fuck you and just didn't pay?

If they all just owe money to each other then surely some debts must cancel each other out?

[Edbear]

The bankruptcy laws, at least here, mean your debt is cancelled due to your inability to pay and you have a "stand down" period of three years before you can run a business again or have other restrictions placed upon you. Your creditors simply stand the loss and can't do anything to recover the debt.

What that translates to on a world scale, is that the simple answer is for the world to cancel all debt and start again from scratch. However, everyone would have to accept a loss and financial deals and contracts wouldn't be worth the paper they were written on. Everyone goes back to square one and that will hurt a lot of people and coporations, governments and businesses around the world.

It could in theory be done, but it would require unity of all nations in agreement as to how it will work in practice with one entity to oversee the process of reconstructing the world's economy, i.e. the UN?

You can easily see the difficulty of doing this with such a huge imbalance of resources between nations and the critical differences in government and administration of the nations. It has taken centuries to reach this point in the Earth's "development" and along with the problems of social/civil unrest, political unrest, crime and violence, etc. etc. it all becomes too hard.

No one has the power and authority to force change as for everyone who believes he knows how to fix things, there are 1,000 others to oppose him directly. That's why the US has failed to appease Standard and Poors and got a downgrade anyway. Obama was powerless to force the changes he felt were necesary in the face of Republican opposition and the Republicans got most of what they wanted instead.

France may be a different matter, as Sarkozy has the numbers in government. NZ, too, has the numbers in power but of course, as everywhere, there will always be a very vocal opposition to anything proposed.