NEARING DOOM

New York Post ^ | Saturday, May 25, 2002 | By JIM HOAGLAND

[Free the USA]

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[Faraday]

The economy isn't measured solely by market volume.

I didn't say anything about market volume. Valuations are up since the 911 dip. Yesterday the Commerce Dept. released data showing the economy growing at a very healthy 5.6% clip. Stock prices are useful because (though subject to excesses on both the optimistic and pessimistic sides) they are about the best forward looking measure we have. There is a case to be made that stocks could increase rapidly in the coming year due to substantial liquidity among investors. Excessive debt levels are nothing that a good tax-cut couldn't cure. The main point is that a potential Pakistan/India conflict does not represent Armageddon for the economy. The danger to America is to be found in following socialist policies which weaken us and retard progress.

[johnny7]

Actually it could mean more jobs in the US.

I don't mean to sound sanguine but India has taken a lot of jobs away from American workers... so has Pakistan.

This is not to say that offshore labor will be avoided, rather, it cuts down the options for cheap labor.

[gcruse]

 a foreseeable war that the United
States has done too little to prevent.

How very unilateral of you.  Sometimes the only
way to settle contentions is by whoever is left
standing.

[Kermit]

How come I never get the memos?

[MarMema]

I don't see how we can tell them not to do what we ourselves are doing.

Us, Russia, Israel.

[serinde]

a foreseeable war that the United States has done too little to prevent

This comment annoys me. What are we supposed to do, tell them, "Now, boys, play nice"? The US is not and should not be the world's police, nor are we everyone's parents.

I recognize that a war between these countries would have consequences for the US, but we are not their rulers, nor directly in control of their actions. I really wish we could just let them duke it out between themselves and perhaps have the US go in afterwards and pick up the pieces.

[lds23]

Every nation whose butt we kick, afterwards become our allies, since the Revolutionary War, and they prosper. England and Spain in the 18th & 19th Century. Germany, Japan, and Italy in the mid-20th. Russia becoming one as we speak. The best thing that could happen to Islamic countries is a serious beat-down.

[Texasforever]

This sort of thing is *very* dangerous, and unless someone can make an emotional appeal strong enough to counteract the rampaging and deep-seated dark emotions that are floating around, eventually the other shoe *will* drop, and, as with WWI, no one can say what the result will be, except that it will be horrible.

The problem is one of both over-estimating and under-estimating the outcome of a nuclear exchange. Some see nukes as the "answer" to our situation and some see nukes as a "capability" never to be utilized. Both views are irrational.