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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (160852)	4/22/2005 9:02:53 AM
From: GST	Respond to of 281500

<Mr. Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, said in an interview this week that Mr. Bolton would be an "abysmal ambassador" to the United Nations> Message 21255318

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (160852)	4/22/2005 1:16:00 PM
From: steve dietrich	Respond to of 281500

Mansions in Florida and Texas of course must be excluded from any 'means test', and corporations must be allowed to re-organize with out having to honor all their debts. What this country really needs is pauper prisons. If you can't pay your debts you can pay your debt to society!

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (160852)	4/22/2005 1:24:59 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Oh is that right? Then please have my social security money and IOUs ready when I retire. I expect every single dime back. Or is it only harder for the individual to file bankruptcy now? Bush is a 100% POS hypocrite!

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (160852)	4/22/2005 5:23:31 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Destruction of debt equates to destruction of money> Not really Hawk. It's merely the transfer of wealth from one person to another. The reason it's bad to have debts written off is that it's destructive of the essential trust required to make financial systems operate. Writing off debts is punishing the savers. Punishing savers is not the way to get savings, which is capital formation. Without capital, we get to live like chimps, hunter-gathering. The money can be replaced by the simple expedient of pixelating some more and putting it in the lender's account to replace the deadbeat's debt. Since community rule is the only way a creditor can demand and enforce payment of debt [other than criminal violence], it would be reasonable that debt be a community obligation, except that that would mean the critical ingredient of the lender using good judgment would be lost and we'd enter the USSR type system of central planning and lending and very bad economic performance. The community doesn't lose money by bad debts. They lose confidence. Enforcing debt is a vital function of a community. Avoiding that process is also crucial as it's expensive. Creditors holding security over a debt is a good solution to bad debts. Mortgages for example. Unbacked loans are hazardous to the financial health of the lender. Bankruptcy is a way of punishing careless lenders who lend to those unfit for credit. Just ranting, I know you know all that. I just wanted to point out that debt destruction isn't really money destruction [in the sense of wealth being destroyed]. The actual money that the borrower received was passed on to somebody else, which is why they can't repay the loan. The money still exists, but neither the lender nor borrower have it. Mqurice