The decline and eventual fall of the USA as world superpower?

[ralis]

the biggest problem the GOP has is neoconservatism masquerading as classical conservatism. in our legislature, you can count the entirety of classical conservatives and libertarians on one freakin hand.

 

the biggest problem the democrats have is that they have been eaten from the inside out by the progressive party, seemingly unnoticed like Hannibal playing dead with someone's ripped off face over his as a disguise. everyone treats them like they are still democrats and havent realized the cancer. progressive cancer started here when they offed mckinley so that ol toughboots roosevelt could go toss his weight around and he did things that set the stage for the federal reserve.

 

 

 

kajenx...very rosy view. very. rosy. i want economic prosperity for myself too, but I will not lie cheat and steal in order to get there. china's finances are damn near a tinder box...as are the USA's....any EU country...russia aint doing so hot...matter of fact, this is an unprecedented time in the world because never before has every single major central bank hit the print button at once. shadow markets and inventories have never been larger, the amount of off balance sheet stuff that is going on is staggering, like they think it will never catch up just not including this stuff in considering a budget. (consider, because....if a false budget really a budget, and far as democrats here are concerned....well hey, they certainly arent bothered with budget considerations or even producing budget estimates, if you're an agency like the EPA...)

 

You are only talking about the effects as opposed to certain psychological traits which are endemic to a small portion of the population. This problem is not new but if one studies history, the Romans, French, British, Germany etc. have exhibited those personality traits in leadership.

 

The persons running the show don't give a damn about any of us, whether it be Democratic, Republican, Libertarian or Flying Spaghetti Monster party. Every party, corporation etc. has been infiltrated by these goons. They have the power and we don't.

Edited March 19, 2014 by ralis

[ralis]

How many times have I stated that I think one of the biggest problems of humankind is greed, both individual and collective?

 

Dr Stouts who has studied this problem at Harvard Med. estimates that approximately 4% of the U.S. population exhibit the traits of sociopathy. Persons with this medical disorder are running the show.

[ralis]

This is a happy thread isn't it?

 

If we look at the more recent superpowers, like France and England, we'll see that they didn't decline but the world rose up to meet them. I would say the French people have benefited from the general stabilizing of Europe. England isn't a third world country.

 

I look at China and I see hope. There's nothing to fear from a country that wants economic prosperity. We disagree on the political methods to achieve it, but I won't celebrate if the communist ideals backfire and cause collapse. I'd much rather see the system open into what's best for the Chinese people. Hard for me to say what that is, though. I'm not Chinese.

 

I think the future will bring us a world that is more complex than simple patterns can predict. The US isn't imperialistic, so it's not correct to compare it to Rome or even 18th century France and England. More than anything, the US is easily frightened/threatened I think. Everywhere I look, though, people are sick of war. More than likely we aren't going to step into big conflicts by ourselves anymore.

 

To say that the U.S. is not imperialistic is really stretching it. The U.S. is most certainly an imperialistic power. This country uses military, economic and political influence to maintain a bloated empire. The criminal invasion of Iraq, world wide NSA surveillance are two immediate examples.

 

The U.S. has established and maintains over 700 military bases worldwide according to Global Research.

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-worldwide-network-of-us-military-bases/5564

 

Linked here is a short definition of imperialism. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imperialism

[joeblast]

You are only talking about the effects as opposed to certain psychological traits which are endemic to a small portion of the population. This problem is not new but if one studies history, the Romans, French, British, Germany etc. have exhibited those personality traits in leadership.

"Everything the state says is a lie, and everything it has, it has stolen." — Nietzsche.

 

To say that the U.S. is not imperialistic is really stretching it. The U.S. is most certainly an imperialistic power. This country uses military, economic and political influence to maintain a bloated empire. The criminal invasion of Iraq, world wide NSA surveillance are two immediate examples.

 

The U.S. has established and maintains over 700 military bases worldwide according to Global Research.

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-worldwide-network-of-us-military-bases/5564

 

Linked here is a short definition of imperialism. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imperialism

yeah this isnt your gramp's old school imperialism. the world aint as big as it used to be.

[ralis]

"Everything the state says is a lie, and everything it has, it has stolen." — Nietzsche.

 

yeah this isnt your gramp's old school imperialism. the world aint as big as it used to be.

 

Great quote by Nietzsche. Sociopathic types are also liars!

[Green Tiger]

I've got a lot of respect for Ray Dalio's opinion. (He's the guy who made that youtube video explaining how the economy works.)

 

I recently read a short article about him and was surprised by this:

 

 

According to Dalio, deleveragings are achieved through four channels: 1) debt write-downs; 2) the transfer of wealth from the haves to the have-nots; 3) austerity; and 4) money printing. The first three channels are deflationary. Money printing is inflationary.

 

How a deleveraging evolves depends on the relative contributions of deflationary and inflationary forces. Because deleveragings occur once a lifetime, policymakers don't know how to manage them. Guided by conventional wisdom, they usually turn to austerity and debt restructurings to bring down debt levels. The result is an "ugly" deleveraging, during which the economic pain is worsened and the debt/income ratio actually rises because incomes fall faster than debts. Policymakers see that their medicine isn't working and turn to fiscal stimulus and money printing to ease the burden. This is what occurred in the U.S. in the 1930s and in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

 

If authorities balance deflationary interventions with the right amount of money printing, the deleveraging enters a "beautiful" phase. The pain of debt write-downs is spread out. Growth is subdued, as the economy must rely on productivity improvements to grow. The United States is undergoing the most beautiful deleveraging in history, according to Bridgewater. This puts Bridgewater in an unusual camp. Of Ben Bernanke and America's central bankers, Bridgewater co-president David McCormick has said, "History will look back on them as having responded in a way that was both necessary and heroic."

 

Deleveragings take decades to work themselves out. According to this model, we've still a long way to go before short-term interest rates rise.

 

So does that mean that the current state of apparent growth is real and not built on a house of cards? Obviously we aren't out of the woods yet, but it was nice to hear someone who seems reliable say that what the Fed is doing is the right thing to do and that it's working. Made me feel warm and fuzzy.

 

 

EDIT: Bridgewater is Dalio's (insanely successful) hedge firm.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Green Tiger

[joeblast]

I've got a lot of respect for Ray Dalio's opinion. (He's the guy who made that youtube video explaining how the economy works.)

 

I recently read a short article about him and was surprised by this:

 

 

 

So does that mean that the current state of apparent growth is real and not built on a house of cards? Obviously we aren't out of the woods yet, but it was nice to hear someone who seems reliable say that what the Fed is doing is the right thing to do and that it's working. Made me feel warm and fuzzy.

 

 

EDIT: Bridgewater is Dalio's (insanely successful) hedge firm.

curious which one that might be, about how the economy works. because some of them out there are utter made up garbage.

 

if this guy thinks what the fed is doing is good, wholesome, and with anything resembling any sort of history of success with the method, he's got his head in the clouds.

 

ask what precipitated the need for the deleveraging in the first place - so the fed is printing money to fix a problem the government created (and attempted to circumvent by creating the federal reserve in the first place....seriously??)

 

amidst a vast landscape of distortions, a distorter distorts in a direction he desires, so that distortions may be more favorable to him. but dont assume he cares about the symbiotic relationships that actually keep him alive, he's just managing distortions.

 

 

anyone that tries to defend what the federal reserve is doing is either ignorant, or a sock puppet.

[Green Tiger]

curious which one that might be, about how the economy works. because some of them out there are utter made up garbage.

 

if this guy thinks what the fed is doing is good, wholesome, and with anything resembling any sort of history of success with the method, he's got his head in the clouds.

 

ask what precipitated the need for the deleveraging in the first place - so the fed is printing money to fix a problem the government created (and attempted to circumvent by creating the federal reserve in the first place....seriously??)

 

amidst a vast landscape of distortions, a distorter distorts in a direction he desires, so that distortions may be more favorable to him. but dont assume he cares about the symbiotic relationships that actually keep him alive, he's just managing distortions.

 

 

anyone that tries to defend what the federal reserve is doing is either ignorant, or a sock puppet.

 

Yeah. It did occur to me that he's the president of a company that wants people to feel safe investing their money, rather than buying guns and gold.

[joeblast]

yeah its too bad I lost all mine in that boating accident

[Green Tiger]

yeah its too bad I lost all mine in that boating accident

 

Pirates?

[joeblast]

yarrrr....hahaha....that's of course the preferred storage location for one's assault rifles and gold why, I dont even have it anymore

[Green Tiger]

I used to have some serious-ass pirate problems. Then I got Precious Roy's Pirate Cripplers.

 

Edited March 19, 2014 by Green Tiger

[Brian]

Ah, yes -- one of Roy's finest products.

[Enishi]

Austrian economists have done a good job continuing where original old school Marxist economists left off (when it comes to expanding a critique of capitalism in general). Namely, they ripped into the disastrous consequences of credit growing faster than real productive economy and the "statism" that often allows this. It is rather hilarious that both Marxists and Austrian economists really rely on victory by default. That is, the former group gets legitimacy by saying the planetary capital accumulating system we had for the past few hundred years is unstable, inefficient, and ultimately unworkable even with mass state subsidies. The latter group get their legitimacy on saying the fiat version of the same planetary system is unworkable due to statist interference. "If only we could purge statism from the world system!" This absurd cry rings forth from various corners of the Western dissident movement.

 

One way to proceed would be to expand the credit supply at exactly the rate at which expansion of the real physical economy occurs. Some dissident thinkers believe we can bypass the inflation/deflation debate by having the state provide credit for high technology infrastructure (thus creating real economic growth). Another way to proceed would be to overlap the dying capitalist system (whatever form it'll take in the next 10 years)

. Both can easily function in parallel for a time. Indeed, if we think of the global socioeconomic transition and experimental period in the decades ahead, overlaps and diverse systems running in parallel will be a must. Which of these experimental sandboxes will expand to swallow the imagination of the whole globe will be left for us to determine.

 

Comparing Deflationary and Inflationary Collapse

 

Edited March 19, 2014 by Enishi

[silent thunder]

I found some of Andrew J Bacevich's books on American Imperialism/Exceptionalism to be concise and keenly insightful.

 

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy Since World War II

American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy

[Green Tiger]

I found some of Andrew J Bacevich's books on American Imperialism/Exceptionalism to be concise and keenly insightful.

 

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy Since World War II

American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy

 

If you want something that does a pretty good job explaining why fiat currency is a joke:

 

Curency Wars by James Rickards

[joeblast]

Comparing Deflationary and Inflationary Collapse

I had to chuckle at the concept of "dying capitalist system" - its been dying ever since government have been giving favors to preferred constituents and businesses, its been dying with each ctrl+p adding numbers to the currency system.

 

The governments of the US and many other nations have abandoned the concept of a republic, at the expense of their citizens.

[silent thunder]

http://inequalityforall.com/

Reich's documentary on the decline of the middle class.

[The Prisoner]

I believe that the conductors of war is beyond nationalism.

 

fear generates chaos, chaos generates needs ..

[joeblast]

[Marblehead]

fear generates chaos, chaos generates needs ..

Good!

[zerostao]

[Marblehead]

That would be sad if it is true.

[silent thunder]

My uncle was CIA in the sixties.

He left America (expatriate) in the late sixties and returned just once to visit.

I met him one evening for about two hours when I was 17.

Talk about opening up my eyes...

 

military industrial complex

federal reserve bank

ugh

 

That entire system is psychotic in nature.

Fortunately for anything in our realm of 'reality'...

anything that grows too yang will spontaneously shift to yin

and vice versa.

 

Just head to the beach and watch the waves.

This system is one wave in an ocean.

[zerostao]

dont forget the medical industrial complex

do your qigong