I don't especially like his xenophobic stance in regard to the rest of the world, but Pat is right on the money with most of this op-ed. The bottom line is that we are going to drown in debt if we don't rein in entitlements. Everyone knows it. Many of the retired people in my neighborhood basically say they don't care because they will be dead when the bill comes due. At least Moody's is speaking the truth about our debt. Congress isn't going to listen, though. Democrats are hell-bent on turning this country into a second-class socialist welfare state.
As for the military, the long-term question is how much we should spend from year to year. Short term costs like Iraq, although very expensive, are not going to break the budget. Spending hundreds of billions a year from now until eternity simply running the military- not even fighting wars like Iraq - looks untenable. I'm not especially concerned about foreign governments investing money in US businesses. As the rest of the world became more prosperous, it was bound to happen. The bottom line is that countries like Saudi Arabia and China, who have enormous US currency reserves and a significant interest in selling goods to the US economy, can simply not afford to see the U.S. economy go into the tank. I predicted this situation a couple of years ago. The Chinese, I believe I said, had the tiger by the tail with their huge dollars reserves. They had no real leverage over the US government, and they couldn't afford to see the dollar plummet or their own assets would be wiped out. Basically, they did what Citi, etc did with subprime loans. They took our money (by keeping their currency artificially low to push exports), and now that we are in trouble, they have to bail us out. We are going to see tens, maybe hundreds, of billions of additional dollars flowing back into the U.S. economy from these foreign entities, and they will help save companies like Citi, but there is no saving Social Security and Medicare in their current form. Time to break out the ax and start slashing. On Jan 15, 2008 11:49 AM, Gruss G wrote: > Subprime Nation > Posted: January 14, 2008 > > Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody's has > rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen > as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous > money seeks out the world's great safe harbor, the United States. That > reputation is now in peril. > > This self-indulgent generation has borrowed itself into unpayable > debt. Now the folks from whom we borrowed to buy all that oil and all > those cars, electronics and clothes are coming to buy the country we > inherited. We are prodigal sons, and the day of reckoning approaches. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:250970 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
