3/05/08 "ICH" -- - The US Senate has voted $165 billion to fund Bush’s wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq through next spring.
As the US is broke and deep in debt, every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed. American consumers are also broke and deep in debt. Their zero saving rate means every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed from foreigners.
The “world’s only superpower” is so broke it can’t even finance its own wars.
Each additional dollar that the irresponsible Bush Regime has to solicit from foreigners puts more downward pressure on the dollar’s value. During the eight wasted and extravagant years of the Bush Regime, the once mighty US dollar has lost about 60% of its value against the euro.
The dollar has lost even more of its value against gold and oil.
Before Bush began his wars of aggression, oil was $25 a barrel. Today it is $130 a barrel. Some of this rise may result from run-away speculation in the futures market. However, the main cause is the eroding value of the dollar. Oil is real, and unlike paper dollars is limited in supply. With US massive trade and budget deficits, the outpouring of dollar obligations mounts, thus driving down the value of the dollar.
Each time the dollar price of oil rises, the US trade deficit rises, requiring more foreign financing of US energy use. Bush has managed to drive the US oil import bill up from $106 billion in 2006 to approximately $500 billion 18 months later--every dollar of which has to be financed by foreigners.
Without foreign money, the US “superpower” cannot finance its imports or its government’s operation.
When the oil price rises, Americans, who are increasingly poor, cannot pay their winter heating bills. Thus, the Senate’s military spending bill contains more heating subsidies for America’s growing legion of poor people.
The rising price of energy drives up the price of producing and transporting all goods, but American incomes are not rising except for the extremely rich.
The disappearing value of the US dollar, which pushes up oil prices and raises the trade deficit, then pushes up heating subsidies and raises the budget deficit.
While I agree with Mr. Roberts on his assessment of the financial condition of the country, its roots go much deeper than the Bushco bunch. Old Georgie boy may be more blatant than most, but he is surely not the only one to blame for the mismanagement and corruption that has been the downfall of our nation. Congress is as just as responsible for the mess we are in, placing a higher priority on self serving political goals than on any attempt to do the right thing for this country or its people, and such has been the case for a quite a few years now. Demofacists or Rethuglicans...no difference...just two branches of the same rotten tree, both sucking the life out of our country to enrich themselves at the expense of the citizens they claim to serve. And, we the people must accept a healthy dose of the blame for allowing this to happen. We've been asleep at the wheel folks...will we wake up before the crash?
Friday, May 23, 2008
War Abroad and Poverty at Home, By Paul Craig Roberts
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2 comments:
These are strange times. Being from the area, I was in Seattle during WTO. There was a feeling, locally, that the pendulum would swing the other way; that the police action would be viewed as egregious. Instead, the police let a guy get beat to death in public (by a group of civilian thugs) at the next publc event (Fat Tuesday) in Seattle to make their case for the police state. Direct democracy and vocalizing the public will are no longer tolerated in The USA. Uniformed thugs are paid to keep us quiet and are fed a steady diet of siege mentality. Any publc display of dissent is now treated as a potential terrorist act. The future, as a result, is becoming less and less predictable. Silent subversion is becoming my predominant mindset. Please keep up the great blog. I really enjoy seeing what piques your interest. Phil
The violence in Seattle is just one example of the steady decline of our society from a free one to a police state. Dissent is becoming dangerous in the US...as evidenced by the constant reports of citizens who are beaten and abused as they protest in their cozy little "Fee Speech Zones." The progression of the police state seems to have accelerated from a slow creep to a sprint for the finish over the past few years, although it seems that few Americans have truly recognized the danger we are in.
However, since my little personal experience with the federal gestapo changed my previous "closet radical" approach...or silent subversion...(love that term) into a more outspoken one (what the hell...On "the list" anyway), I have discovered a lot more people recognize our plight than I had realized.
Many keep quiet, as I used to do, knowing that the numbers are not in our favor to take any real action YET. At this point, the majority of Americans , even if they see what's happening, are too "fat and happy" in their lives to bother thinking about the future. When the insanity begins to affect their lives in a more direct manner...as in when they begin to be unable to afford the creature comforts they are used to, or a loved one is "detained" ...perhaps then they will rise up...but until then, open resistance to the police state is a rather frustrating and futile undertaking at best, and at worst, one that will result in swift and severe reprisals from..as you put it...the Uniformed thugs are paid to keep us quiet. As for me, having been noticed already, I speak up...but I have made myself a bit more difficult to locate recently, and I always have a contingency plan...
It has given me a bit of hope for the future to realize that not all Americans have become sheep, I was getting very discouraged. Silent Subversion...what a great concept.....
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