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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (17590)	1/30/2002 2:43:08 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

No, Raimondo, we haven't turned any corners. I'm just taking a little more time with you than I would normally bother to while browsing a few stock threads. It's interesting though, isn't it, how greed and the yearning for an easy buck always looks so much worse on the other guy?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (17590)	1/30/2002 8:25:00 AM
From: FaultLine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

We seem to have turned a corner. You are actually communicating. What a refreshing change. How about leaving out the "roughing-the-passer" material, Raymond (unless you'd like to add an occasional smiley). --ken/fl

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (17590)	1/30/2002 6:26:04 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The infernal deficit that Dubya insists on enslaving the nation with was tamed for a time and we didn't have any towers blown up and vast expansions of the militarization of Amerika in peacetime like we are seeing now. Hmmm.. I guess we shouldn't spend any money to fight this war, shore up homeland defenses, or rebuild the military, now that we've discovered that a peace dividend has its costs. And it seems to me the greater slavery comes from having to pay up to 50% of one's income to the government in the form of Federal, State, and Local taxes, as well as the assorted fees attached to various goods we purchase... What really astonishing Raymond is that, despite this so-called "surplus", the money that is being accrued in the Social Security Trust Fund is actually INCREASING THE NATIONAL DEBT. You see, all of that FICA tax with supplies the SSTF can only be invested in government treasury bills, namely Federal debt. Now when that money is not used to repurchase debt held by the public, it adds to the national debt. But the problem with using the SSTF to repurchase outstanding debt is that it increases the value of government treasury bonds over private debt, and/or equity instruments, because the SSTF is a "guaranteed buyer" of those bonds (lest more debt be forced to be issued to accomodate those surplus FICA tax revenues). The National Debt is a mere 36% of GDP, compared with nations like Japan where it amounts to 130%. And it serves an integral purpose since the Fed uses government debt to add and withdraw liquidity to the financial system. When the size of the national debt diminishes in comparison to GDP growth, the Fed has a harder time managing the monetary system, and it's actions create more volatility than is necessary. So the bottom line is that the politicians are spending that surplus anyway because we know not all of the SSTF funds are going to roll-over existing national debt. The only way to limit their ability to spend is to reduce the amount of revenues they collect, as well as permitting retirees to diversify their holdings (since the SSTF is now currently solely dependent upon the value of US govt debt). Also, let's not forget that the prior administration saw attacks on US Embassies, US ships in port, got it's butt kicked by Somali warlords (because they were unwilling to deploy an armored rapid reaction force), as well as having a bombing at the WTC. This is also the guy who bombed aspirin factories with million dollar missiles, and played "wag the dog" like he wrote the movie script himself. Hawk