The American Empire Is Bankrupt

[dreamdancer 0]

interesting...

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This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.

Barack Obama, and the criminal class on Wall Street, aided by a corporate media that continues to peddle fatuous gossip and trash talk as news while we endure the greatest economic crisis in our history, may have fooled us, but the rest of the world knows we are bankrupt. And these nations are damned if they are going to continue to prop up an inflated dollar and sustain the massive federal budget deficits, swollen to over $2 trillion, which fund America’s imperial expansion in Eurasia and our system of casino capitalism. They have us by the throat. They are about to squeeze.

There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully. The gathering is, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.”

It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds. The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. Obama, endowed by many with the qualities of a savior, will suddenly look pitiful, inept and weak. And the rage that has kindled a handful of shootings and hate crimes in the past few weeks will engulf vast segments of a disenfranchised and bewildered working and middle class. The people of this class will demand vengeance, radical change, order and moral renewal, which an array of proto-fascists, from the Christian right to the goons who disseminate hate talk on Fox News, will assure the country they will impose.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/15-0

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[Erroll 80]

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interesting...

Only if you are ignorant, ill-informed or very, very bored.

[ErricoMalatesta 0]

Michael Hudson is a smart bloke but the overall hypothesis of the article I just don't believe at this stage.

The US is still the worlds most powerful country and has the largest military force I'm sure if all it takes is a few million dead people to climb back to the top they will.

[billvon 2,989]

>I'm sure if all it takes is a few million dead people to climb back to
>the top they will.

Economic problems are not particularly amenable to military solutions.

The US is starting into its declining years. We've picked up so much debt that we're spending a huge chunk of our revenue just to pay to service it, and we won't be getting out from under that any time soon. Eventually oil will switch to the Euro and our money will start to devalue. Since we don't produce much any more, there won't be too much we can do to halt the decline.

[ErricoMalatesta 0]

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>I'm sure if all it takes is a few million dead people to climb back to
>the top they will.

Economic problems are not particularly amenable to military solutions.

The US is starting into its declining years. We've picked up so much debt that we're spending a huge chunk of our revenue just to pay to service it, and we won't be getting out from under that any time soon. Eventually oil will switch to the Euro and our money will start to devalue. Since we don't produce much any more, there won't be too much we can do to halt the decline.

How are they not? If you have an ailing power structure and your choices whittle down to start disintegrating or delay with some good old fashioned primary resource stealing what do you choose? We just had a good example this decade.

I am sure it is slowly down hill but institutional power tends to grasp tooth and nail to anything as it sinks.

[Misternatural 0]

It's chiefly psychological as i have always said. I classify this trend as economic dysentery at this point, debilitating and depressing for sure but temporary.Believe me I feel it too and it is difficult to be positive. This piece is interesting to me only as propaganda....Try to look at historical charts to see that these trends are cyclical and recovery is immanent, You'll feel better, we will all feel better....it's psychological.

It is also relative...are the other economies booming? no- so there is an equalizing effect....I'm not worried, just very disappointed at the gross mismanagement that led up to this situation.

It's the hoarding and fear which will lead to trouble....I say go out and buy or sell something, you'll feel better and if everyone does this things will improve...The consumer index drives everything- Power to the people!

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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It's the hoarding and fear which will lead to trouble....I say go out and buy or sell something, you'll feel better and if everyone does this things will improve...The consumer index drives everything- Power to the people!

Actually you need to go produce something. The producer index drives everything in the long run.

[Beachbum 0]

It would be pretty easy for a group of countries to actually have a serious impact on the dollar and the US, should they choose to do it. Nice little chart in a recent Newsweek showing our national debt now near 11 trillion, and the breakdown of it. China and Japan have the largest chunks, being 767.9 billion, and 686.7 billion respectively. Russia would not be as significant a player, holding "only" 318.4 billion of our debt.

I haven't seen one, but it would be interesting to see a chart of how much money the US has poured into each country over the years in various forms of assistance and subsidies.

As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

[ZegeunerLeben 0]

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The US is starting into its declining years. We've picked up so much debt that we're spending a huge chunk of our revenue just to pay to service it, and we won't be getting out from under that any time soon. Eventually oil will switch to the Euro and our money will start to devalue. Since we don't produce much any more, there won't be too much we can do to halt the decline.

>>I'm sad to say I agree. The US had a decisive ( and I would say positive) impact on the shape of the last century. I feel this century will see the eclipse of the US, and the world will degenerate into a series of localized conflicts.

[Misternatural 0]

>Actually you need to go produce something. The producer index drives everything in the long run.


producer vs consumer.....
OK you and I are never going to agree on this because it is a chicken and egg argument without the evolution part.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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>Actually you need to go produce something. The producer index drives everything in the long run.


producer vs consumer.....
OK you and I are never going to agree on this because it is a chicken and egg argument without the evolution part.

You might be able to muster a (weak) argument in a closed economy, but buying things from China is simply not the same thing as producing something they need.

[billvon 2,989]

>If you have an ailing power structure and your choices whittle down to
>start disintegrating or delay with some good old fashioned primary resource
>stealing what do you choose?

Well, one path would be innovation, production and economic expansion. That's worked for us before.

Another path would be war, a tripling of our debt, economic collapse and finally disintegration of the economy and government. The Roman Empire would be a good model there.

[kelpdiver 2]

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The US is starting into its declining years.

More like a stagnation, though if Obama doesn't find the Clinton fiscal policy soon, it could steepen.

But for all the talk of the Euro, the EU is hardly peachy this year either. Eastern Europe is collapsing financially. Ireland lost its way. The big 3 are suffering as much from the world malaise as anyone else.

[Misternatural 0]

You might be able to muster a (weak) argument in a closed economy, but buying things from China is simply not the same thing as producing something they need.


I like to look at things on a global scale too and as far as I am concerned the earth is a closed economy since we don't yet do business with extraterrestrials.

China's economy requires consumers(the US) as well to function. they can't possibly sell all of their goods in their own closed economy. If we consumers stop buying their shit and more domestic products instead then what are they to do with their massive production infrastructure? See- the consumer rules in this case because we can still choose WHO to buy from since most products are labeled as to where they are made or grown etc..

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[riddler 0]

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The US is starting into its declining years.

I love to read about Roman History, because I think the U.S. has followed much of the same historical course as the Romans did, albeit on a larger scale, and a shorter time-line. But even the Roman empire took several hundred years to decline into relative obscurity, and I think the U.S. will share the same long-winded shakespearean death. It's likely that one or two more generations of Americans will be a part of Pax-Americana, and their children may live to see a more balanced global power base. Sadly, I think American historians will talk more about Madonna and Shatner than Lincoln and Einstein.

As far as America being bankrupt - that's nothing new, that started about 20 years ago.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Beachbum 0]

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China's economy requires consumers(the US) as well to function. they can't possibly sell all of their goods in their own closed economy. If we consumers stop buying their shit and more domestic products instead then what are they to do with their massive production infrastructure? See- the consumer rules in this case because we can still choose WHO to buy from since most products are labeled as to where they are made or grown etc..

Great in theory, but not very practical, since thanks to some policies favoring it, and companies like Walmart forcing manufacturing out of the US, there are many things that you simply cannot FIND made in the US anymore. When is the last time you picked up something textile or even most electronics, and found a "made in USA" sticker on it?? Doesn't seem to bother Washington for some reason, but I think that loss of manufacturing capability (not to mention the jobs) is a huge problem for us. If you want to buy only US made products, there are a lot of things you'll have to learn to do without for right now.

As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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You might be able to muster a (weak) argument in a closed economy, but buying things from China is simply not the same thing as producing something they need.


I like to look at things on a global scale too and as far as I am concerned the earth is a closed economy since we don't yet do business with extraterrestrials.

China's economy requires consumers(the US) as well to function. they can't possibly sell all of their goods in their own closed economy. If we consumers stop buying their shit and more domestic products instead then what are they to do with their massive production infrastructure? See- the consumer rules in this case because we can still choose WHO to buy from since most products are labeled as to where they are made or grown etc..

The problem with that idea is that America no longer has the ability to pay for what it consumes. China on the other hand is in the midst of a huge stimulus program which is causing domestic consumption to rise. China can be the producer and the consumer, they do not need the US to consume what they produce; not in the long run. That is the problem with all demand side economics.
When Keynes was asked about the long run he said, "In the long runb we are all dead." Well Keynes is dead and we are not.

[dreamdancer 0]

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Michael Hudson is a smart bloke but the overall hypothesis of the article I just don't believe at this stage.

The US is still the worlds most powerful country and has the largest military force I'm sure if all it takes is a few million dead people to climb back to the top they will.

if they don't keep the military busy somewhere on the fringes of empire then the danger is that they'll be brought home - and end up just vandalising the place.

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[Misternatural 0]

>there are many things that you simply cannot FIND made in the US anymore.......or even most electronics

I don't have much work right now in fact business sucks pond water and it is very easy for me to get an attitude, I have to catch myself from saying things like "Fuck the economy, you cant get anywhere so I am just going to sit here and not spend any money and eat beans and rice, buy cheap shit, or go on welfare"

it wasn't easy but last week i forced myself to buy a USA made guitar amp with money I shouldn't spend on luxury- and I am glad I did- the fucker is built like a tank and I feel good because I put some grease in the system and refused to curl up in a ball and say that we are doomed. We cant just freeze up and give up on innovation and productivity. You can find USA made products or other items that are not made in China....most of their stuff sucks anyway ESPECIALLY amps that are made there, at least from my research.

I do buy Chinese products though but only if they are of equal quality vs the price. That said I'm sure much of this computer I am typing through has Chinese components.

I honestly don't think the world economy is going to be dominated by China in the next ten years, but I guess we will have this discussion again then.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415