Snow's Beijing Cave-In Leaves China Policy Critics No Choice But to Fight White House

AmericanEconomicAlert.org ^ | Thursday, October 27, 2005 | Alan Tonelson

[pganini]

We grew fast because of consumer spending and consumer DEBT (not to mention government debt). Average American family owes about $15,000 in credit card debt. Divide the national debt owed by the government, average family now owes $70k in national debt.

Eventuallythere will be a credit squeeze in this country. Can't print money forever or the dollar would be as worthless as it was after the Civil War. And when credit squeezes, then you'll see the effects.

[Brilliant]

Yes, but it won't be because of the Chinese. It will be because of the unfunded social security and medicare commitments, which amount to tens of trillions of dollars.

[Havoc]

Because the dollar has no real worth. It's why we should never have allowed the federal reserve mess to exist and never should have left the Gold standard. As it is, money is worthless and if someone implemented a currency backed by hard assets instead of debt, the currency would collapse. That's why "hoarding" gold was outlawed. The only chance a fraud has is the absence of the real thing to measure against. That being the case, how currency is then manipulated becomes a matter of great concern.