Will the US be like a rerun of the fall of the Roman Empire?
28 Mar 2013, 11:06 pm
If any threat were to occur it would probably most resemble the financial collapse of Germany formally know as the Weimar Republic.
In a nut shell they had a currency not directly linked to gold (same as the US). They printed money to pay for the debt owed to other country's. This devalued there own currency (just like the US) but we have done this to a lesser extent. Example, quantitative easing 1,2 and 3 aka QE3. (look it up)
They tried to create jobs to get the market going (just like US)
Eventually hyperinflation took effect leaving there currency worthless collapsing it.
People wanted change and politician promised it to them sadly
this man was Hitler.... I think you know the rest.
My reference is in the link below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic
That comparison is also ludicrous. The problems of the Weimar Republic were largely due to the fact that the Allies made a deliberate effort to punish Germany economically for starting WWI. The debt they owed was largely not in their own currency.
The US situation is different but the similarity's are striking and the end result could be the same. By end result i mean hyper inflation and a currency collapse. we owe a huge sum of money to foreign lenders I dont know how much off the top of my head but it is huge! We continue to borrow at an alarming rate. no significant spending cuts have been made in proportion to our debt.
QE3 and the prior 2 were en effort to artificially prop up our economy in addition to that we are artificially keeping interest-rates down which is creating another bubble . and by bubble i mean like the one that popped and caused the housing market crash except this time it wont be houses, IF it pops it will be our currency.
To look at things objectively "huge" isn't very meaningful. Of course 15 trillion is huge compared to what an individual household makes but that is meaningless in the broader macro-economic picture. Total private debt in the US is still more than three times the federal government debt so the inordinate amount of focus on irresponsible government spending is kind of onerous and deceptive. The functions that are left to government are the things necessary to keep a country running but things no private business would ever want to be involved with because there isn't a profit motive. Also, the single biggest source of our debt is our outrageous healthcare costs. I'd say the system is outright fraudulent.
29 Mar 2013, 12:17 am
I'm not worried about Obama, he's fighting an uphill battle because of paranoid kooks like my dad. I am worried about those incredibly old men in congress and insane imbeciles like Rick Santorum.
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29 Mar 2013, 11:53 am
the United States is not an Empire. It is still a Republic. The Roman Republic morphed into the Roman Empire and the Empire went on until the 6 th century c.e. in the west and the 13 th century c..e. in the East. If we are going to do a reenactment we should become an Empire in the 22 nd or 23 rd century and end our Imperial phase sometime during the 28 th or 29 th century.
ruveyn
29 Mar 2013, 2:27 pm
Nonsense. The U.S. own a few tiny islands outside its continental portion. We do not rule vast areas of the Earth as did the Imperium Romanum. As Imperialists go, the U.S. is pretty lame. The Romans and the Brits were much better at it.
ruveyn
29 Mar 2013, 3:59 pm
Nonsense. The U.S. own a few tiny islands outside its continental portion. We do not rule vast areas of the Earth as did the Imperium Romanum. As Imperialists go, the U.S. is pretty lame. The Romans and the Brits were much better at it.
ruveyn
The US is larger than the Roman Empire. But I agree it's not a real empire.
29 Mar 2013, 4:50 pm
Nonsense. The U.S. own a few tiny islands outside its continental portion. We do not rule vast areas of the Earth as did the Imperium Romanum. As Imperialists go, the U.S. is pretty lame. The Romans and the Brits were much better at it.
ruveyn
Incorrect. THe US military divides the world into Central Command, African Command, European Command, etc... the whole world is divided. When the US says "Leader X must go", that's a statement of sovereignty over said country. "
"We are the world's Organising Principle and the Indispensible Nation", said Madeleine Albright. "What we say goes in this New World Order we're trying to create and we mean it!", said George Herbert Walker Bush.
29 Mar 2013, 5:30 pm
"We are the world's Organising Principle and the Indispensible Nation", said Madeleine Albright. "What we say goes in this New World Order we're trying to create and we mean it!", said George Herbert Walker Bush.
That's hard to argue with, we have a habit of trying to spread our influence. But unlike empires, we don't levy taxes on the places we've influenced. We do business with them instead.
I don't think it's a good business model either.
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30 Mar 2013, 9:23 am
Nonsense. The U.S. own a few tiny islands outside its continental portion. We do not rule vast areas of the Earth as did the Imperium Romanum. As Imperialists go, the U.S. is pretty lame. The Romans and the Brits were much better at it.
ruveyn
Incorrect. THe US military divides the world into Central Command, African Command, European Command, etc... the whole world is divided. When the US says "Leader X must go", that's a statement of sovereignty over said country. "
"We are the world's Organising Principle and the Indispensible Nation", said Madeleine Albright. "What we say goes in this New World Order we're trying to create and we mean it!", said George Herbert Walker Bush.
We do note rule in these areas nor do we tax in these areas and we do not thoroughly occupy these areas.
What empire?
ruveyn
30 Mar 2013, 1:08 pm
It is the phrase used by cold-war crackpots. It is not national policy. The U.S. has made no move to conquer China. In fact we have borrowed money from China. Is that Imperialism?
ruveyn
30 Mar 2013, 11:02 pm
If not repaid it is tribute.
We took dollars and gave bonds, so that China could join in world trade, such as buying oil, then $13 a barrel, now $100.
The Saudis are redeeming twenty year bonds for dollars that do not have near the buying power of 1993.
As producers or consumers they had no choice but to spend American dollars, which has driven down the dollar, and driven up gold, copper, iron, oil, just as the west reached market saturation.
China is building high speed rail to nowhere, tickets cost as much as flying, and there are new and empty buildings in the cities, and whole cities with no people. The cost of living there, riding the high speed rail, is more than a Chinese could afford.
What they are building is too expensive for their population, and a third of their population still lives in rural poverty.
In the cities they recycle computer boards by burning them in the street to drive off the lead, so they can recover the other metals, such as gold plated contacts. The air is thick with burning plastic, coal, industrial chemicals, and this will be a short lived generation, which is good, because they have no Social Security.
So we hooked them into buying large amounts of raw materials, with dollars, credit from the Bonds, and exported the lowest jobs we had, and the most dangerous. They look like a Client State, buying from us, taking our trash, and supporting the worldwide dollar.
China can build a new China, turn out more Doctorates than we have people, but 3-D Printing is going to replace most of what they export.
The automobile does not work when there are many people and few roads. Chinese production is turning all open space into a parking lot, including the roads.
The Saudi live behind walls, export oil, import slaves, and spend a lot to protect the Bank. They are threatened by a world that has developed oil production, has turned to natural gas, atomic, and it is not like they could switch to smart phones or computers.
Like everyone else in the region, they stocked up on US Mortgage Backed Securities, and Greek Bonds. Oil does not last forever, and there are a lot of other sellers now.
Europe also was taken in the market crash, their banks holding Mortgage Backed Securities, and the Stocks were bought back at the bottom of the market, and they still hold the Mortgages.
So like the Romans, we pillage the economies of the provinces. It is not direct tribute, but the result is the same, they pay to support our economy.
Occupation is expensive, all we want is their resources. As the Single World Reserve Currancy, we make the rules.
That defines an Empire as well as anything.
31 Mar 2013, 9:51 pm
We took dollars and gave bonds, so that China could join in world trade, such as buying oil, then $13 a barrel, now $100.
The Saudis are redeeming twenty year bonds for dollars that do not have near the buying power of 1993.
As producers or consumers they had no choice but to spend American dollars, which has driven down the dollar, and driven up gold, copper, iron, oil, just as the west reached market saturation.
China is building high speed rail to nowhere, tickets cost as much as flying, and there are new and empty buildings in the cities, and whole cities with no people. The cost of living there, riding the high speed rail, is more than a Chinese could afford.
What they are building is too expensive for their population, and a third of their population still lives in rural poverty.
In the cities they recycle computer boards by burning them in the street to drive off the lead, so they can recover the other metals, such as gold plated contacts. The air is thick with burning plastic, coal, industrial chemicals, and this will be a short lived generation, which is good, because they have no Social Security.
So we hooked them into buying large amounts of raw materials, with dollars, credit from the Bonds, and exported the lowest jobs we had, and the most dangerous. They look like a Client State, buying from us, taking our trash, and supporting the worldwide dollar.
China can build a new China, turn out more Doctorates than we have people, but 3-D Printing is going to replace most of what they export.
The automobile does not work when there are many people and few roads. Chinese production is turning all open space into a parking lot, including the roads.
The Saudi live behind walls, export oil, import slaves, and spend a lot to protect the Bank. They are threatened by a world that has developed oil production, has turned to natural gas, atomic, and it is not like they could switch to smart phones or computers.
Like everyone else in the region, they stocked up on US Mortgage Backed Securities, and Greek Bonds. Oil does not last forever, and there are a lot of other sellers now.
Europe also was taken in the market crash, their banks holding Mortgage Backed Securities, and the Stocks were bought back at the bottom of the market, and they still hold the Mortgages.
So like the Romans, we pillage the economies of the provinces. It is not direct tribute, but the result is the same, they pay to support our economy.
Occupation is expensive, all we want is their resources. As the Single World Reserve Currancy, we make the rules.
That defines an Empire as well as anything.
The Chinese are blowing economic bubbles and they will live to regret it. So will the U.S.
And the U.S. is not an Empire. It has become a beggar.
ruveyn
