US buying bubble could burst the world economy

The Mail & Guardian ^ | Monday, July 28, 2003 | Larry Elliot

[AntiGuv]

ping!

[adam_az]

I've been worrying about this stuff for a while, but what are small-fry like us to do other than practice our subsistence gardening technique?

[optimistically_conservative]

We're doomed, doomed I tell you!!

[moni kerr]

Well, as most most economists would say, "on the other hand..."

[kinghorse]

No kidding. Something people always forget is the value of investment in real property is carried on the govt books at historical cost, not current appraised value. All the national parks and every acre of federal land is grossly undervalued on the books. There's a lot of property value supporting the balance sheet. Also, the deficit numbers are but a spit in the collective bucket when compared to output.

[woofie]

Im becoming psychic..... as soon as this article got gloomy I knew you had posted it

[11B3]

"Far too little attention has been paid to the giant tab the US has been running with the rest of the world in order to satisfy demand for goods and services that cannot be provided domestically, with economic logic turned on its head to argue that the spendthrift habits of the world´s biggest economy are actually a good thing."

This is where the author shows his complete ignorance and incompetence to objectively analyze the economic situation. There isn't a single thing on earth that we cannot provide domestically with the exception of a couple of trace elements that don't exist under our soil. Damn near everything we import was invented by us, now due to regulations here in the US and subsidies overseas, those goods are made more cheaply "over there". That does indeed need to stop - and then numbnuts like this POS will really scream when their economies fully tank because the manufacturing came back here. This is obviously written by a Euroswine.

Nice try, Willie, but it ain't gonna fly around here. But I'm happy that this Chicken Little is worried.

[Beck_isright]

It did not take long for the "don't worry be happy" crowd to get on this thread. But then again, most of them do not have a grasp of history before 1980.

[Iowegian]

It did not take long for the "don't worry be happy" crowd to get on this thread.

The "always worry, never be happy, we're all gonna die" crowd always gets here first. Good economic news deprresses you guys more than it does Tom Daschle.

[Alberta's Child]

. . . due to regulations here in the US and subsidies overseas, those goods are made more cheaply "over there".

The single biggest contributor to the flight of jobs overseas is not regulations and subsidies, but a U.S. dollar that has been the strongest currency in the world by a wide margin over the last 15 years.

[sourcery]

FYI

[american spirit]

You may have a point that fedgov land is undervalued but why do they seem intent on leveraging to the hilt assets such as this....and who's holding the note?

[chilepepper]

A worrier dies a thousand deaths, an optimist but once...

[american spirit]

Anyone not worried at this point just isn't paying attention or has other deficiencies.

[djreece]

marking

[forester]

The single biggest contributor to the flight of jobs overseas is not regulations and subsidies, but a U.S. dollar that has been the strongest currency in the world by a wide margin over the last 15 years.

So manufacturing will come back now that the dollar has lost 20% of it's value?

[verity]

We're doomed, doomed I tell you!!

Are we more doomed than we were for Y2K?

[Alberta's Child]

Not necessarily. Nobody is going to shut down a plant in Malaysia and move back to the U.S. just because the dollar has lost 20% of its value in recent months. The issue isn't where the dollar is today, but where someone thinks it's going to be over the next couple of decades.