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Tue 25 Apr, 2006 02:38 pm
Wars, Debt and Outsourcing
The World is Uniting Against the Bush Imperium
April 25, 2006
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Is the United States a superpower? I think not. Consider these facts:
The financial position of the US has declined dramatically. The US is heavily indebted, both government and consumers. The US trade deficit both in absolute size and as a percentage of GDP is unprecedented, reaching more than $800 billion in 2005 and accumulating to $4.5 trillion since 1990. With US job growth falling behind population growth and with no growth in consumer real incomes, the US economy is driven by expanding consumer debt. Saving rates are low or negative.
Continue to read:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts04252006.html
Bush defenders will tell you that the federal deficit is important only when it's a higher ratio of our GDP. But I agree with Alan Greenspan and some other economic experts that have warned this administration that our debt load is not sustainable. They continue to spend money like drunken sailors on a spree. The latest cost to fight the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is two billion every week. To top it off, last month was one of the highest casualty of American soldiers. The average credit card debt of American consumers is somewhere in the $18,000-range, and add to that their home mortgage. The government of our country and consumer debt is being funded by China and Japan, increasing our balance of trade in the danger zone. When they start to sell the US treasuries, our money is going to hit the fan, and inflation is going to look like a nuke hit us when we least expectd it.
Inflation is a far gone conclusion; most Americans live today like there's no tomorrow; spend, spend, spend.
BOOOOOOOOM!
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