Er... Uhh.... not if I have anything to say about it.
Posted on 08/07/2011 6:24:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A number of influential thinkers had concluded that the era of U.S. dominance was coming to an end. The military was overstretched, debt was overwhelming, the East’s new economies were taking over and no one was listening to the Yanks.
SNIP
A few things should be kept in mind. First, pay attention to what happened when markets plummeted Thursday: Precious metals, the euro and the loonie also tumbled as investors fled to the safety of U.S. Treasury securities.
The greenback remains the world’s haven. Despite two years of deliberate currency devaluation (and more to come), the U.S. dollar remains the preferred currency of reserve, exchange, account and savings – not because it’s stable but because there’s nothing else on the horizon. Countries have snapped up all the Brazilian real securities they can find, China’s yuan isn’t trusted and the euro has lost whatever reputation it had.
Second, note that Washington’s debt emergency was not a real event created by economic circumstances but a political event created by a partisan showdown. The U.S. debt burden would be eliminated almost immediately if Congress would implement tax measures of the sort that Canada and most Western countries have. The fact that Congress won’t do so is deeply damaging to the U.S. economy and its citizens’ livelihood, but it’s not inevitably related to America’s standing in the world.
And third, ignore those tales of military decline. Yes, Afghanistan and Iraq were either failures or break-evens, but so were the first three big wars the U.S. fought after the Second World War. Yes, military spending is being slashed, but only to mid-2000s levels, still giving the U.S. more force than all other major armies combined.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
Author’s thesis — WE HAVE HEARD ALL OF THESE DOOM AND GLOOM ABOUT AMERICA BEFORE AND THEY ALL TURNED OUT TO BE FALSE ALARMS.
For instance:
* We were equally certain the United States had lost its role in the world on other occasions. In 1957 (Eisenhower), 1969 (LBJ), 1973 (Nixon), 1981 (Reagan) and 1988 (Reagan again), the best minds in foreign affairs were making exactly the same declaration, with equally good reasons.
DE JA VU ALL OVER AGAIN CIRCA 2011.
* The same explanations were given during those years: America was paralyzed with debt, its export earnings had vanished, its people were tragically undereducated, underprotected and unhealthy compared with other wealthy countries, it was being creamed by fast-growing economies abroad (Russia, then Japan, then Europe), its faltering currency was losing ground to stronger rivals, it was losing wars, its culture was shallow, its military spending and foreign obligations were about to push it into the bankruptcy and decline of “imperial overstretch,” as historian Paul Kennedy described it in his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which predicted a collapse of U.S. influence.
IT’s DE JA VU ALL OVER AGAIN CIRCA 2011.
The U.S. debt burden would be eliminated almost immediately if Congress would implement tax measures of the sort that Canada and most Western countries have. The fact that Congress won’t do so is deeply damaging to the U.S. economy and its citizens’ livelihood, but it’s not inevitably related to America’s standing in the world.
If this clown could multiply...we could double our tax burden and still have a deficit. In the meantime, our economy would look a lot more like Europe than it already does.
But the bottom line is that all the places he uses as examples of what the US should do to fix its debt problem are in far worse shape because of the very policies he is advocating. And they aren't carrying the military costs of the western world either.
That's where I stopped reading. Tax and spend is what got us into this mess. Somehow this Republic got along just fine until the mid 1960s without imposing a massive tax burden on its working citizens.
Reducing the size of government and its tax burden on the citizens is the answer, not socking it to taxpayers even more. Yes, we'd have to throw millions of people off food stamps, deport millions of illegal aliens who are leeching off our system, stop pension plans for public officials, stop sending billions of dollars to third-world cesspools and scrap the program to socialize health care and so forth but those are worthy endeavors that are long overdue.
Er... Uhh.... not if I have anything to say about it.
Looks like the Daily Globe and Mail is trying to come to Obama rescue with a bunch of bull.
Title is true. Total garbage from there. The symptoms and problems are almost 180 degrees opposite from the author’s article.
Just look at msm/4th estate as...0’pinhead...that should clear things up quickly for anyone!
Idiot.
“so were the first three big wars the U.S. fought after the Second World War.”
US hasn’t won anything since WWII.............
Past piss-poor prophetic performance does not necessarily mean present prophecies are inaccurate.
I know it. That's what they said about Rome when the Republic began to fall apart.
Yet Rome lasted another 500 years or so. Some say its best years were ahead of it. After all, after that pesky Republic was dispensed with, the Colloseum was built--the aquaduct system--the gladiatorial "games" became ever more spectacular--more exotic animals were imported--more exotic people were tortured to death for public entertainment!
And just think--had it not been for the fall of the Republic--we would never have had Caligula! Nero! Commodus! Tiberius! All those fun guys! Tossing little boys from the Isle of Capri! Turning the Senate into a whorehouse! Lighting the gardens at night with burning Christians!
What a scream!
Yes, when a Republic falls, something else comes to take its place!
Why worry? Think of the Roman Empire and all the fun it was.
Note: Leftists LOVE dictators. It never dawns on them that they'll be among the first to be thrown to the lions. (But if they were smart enough to grasp that, they wouldn't be leftists in the first place.)
“In the meantime, our economy would look a lot more like Europe than it already does.”
That is their point. They seem to think countries are graded like Jr. College “curve” and our lose is their gain, oh at least relatively.
Understand NONE of the other Countries espacially the Europeans are really cheering for the USA. Envy and jealousy lead them around by the nose.
US hasn’t won anything since WWII.............
Must remember, we have not really tried to win any of these wars. ROE (rules of engagement) prove that.
I am certain, if we got into another clearly defined “survival of the USA” war, like WW2, things would be much different.
That is false.
The Korean War is called a tie, because it ended in a armistice. However the original North Korean war goal, unification of the country under Kim Il Sung was massively defeated. The Republic of Korea is now a free, first world country, because of us.
The Cold War was a win. The Soviet Union, a huge threat to the world, collapsed
Two big wins.
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