Re: Yeah, but that's only with the rest of the world
The US population is 290 million out of 6.2 billion on the planet. The US can ignore the rest of the world at its own peril. Only someone has forgotten to tell that to Bush. We are running a current account deficit of about $500 billion a year with the rest of the world. The US government debt is $6.389 trillion and we need the rest of the world to finance it.
With Bush acting out his fantasies, foreigners may be increasing reluctant to be invested in the US dollar. Watch the stunning fall of the dollar against the Euro in the just the last two months. From Dec. 1 2002 to now, the Euro has surged from about 98 cents to 108 cents, a gain of 10% in less than 2 months. If the dollar keeps on falling, the US will be forced to raise interest rates. That will burst the US housing market bubble and drive us to into a prolonged depression.
I think that Bush's unilateralism (Kyoto treaty, ABM treaty, steel tariffs) and militarism are causing difficulties for US consumer companies with large overseas exposure. McDonalds had its first losing quarter in 43 years. Coca Cola warned a quarter ago that its overseas climate was unfavorable while domestically it was doing just fine. Kodak warned last week and the stock has lost 20% of its value. Kodak plans to cut between 2,300 and 2,900 jobs. Watch for a host of US companies to report problems overseas even with the weak dollar helping them.
We need the rest of the world to play ball with us. Otherwise, we are screwed economically. It's a great temptation to use our military might to control a few nations and acquire their resources to buy some time. Iraq with its evil dictator, $5 trillion in oil reserves and a puny $10 billion economy is a perfect target for a country which spends $360 billion a year on its military. Apparently, Bush has yielded to this temptation.
This upcoming massacre of Iraq is just the inevitable conclusion of the unraveling of our economic excesses coupled with incompetent and immoral leadership. Venezuela is already in play. North Korea is a very poor risk/reward situation. Iran and Libya are next.
"Is our children learning" from this president? I hope not. |
