Reply #4 By: ShowMeBuckstopper - 12/29/2004 11:46:18 PM Regardless of your position on the political spectrum, it's probably a good idea to learn to spell the word "enough" correctly and form a coherent sentence before calling international diplomats morons.

of course my lack of education and proper spelling just totally takes away from any ideas i might have or express right??

Reply #24 By: Sir Peter Maxwell (Anonymous) - 12/30/2004 5:00:20 PM All of you Americans are being stupid, as per usual. The United Kingdom is the greatest fiscal model in the world, and quite frankly it is no wonder you Americans are in such a mess financially because most of you cannot even spell fiscal. Aslong as you are borrowing you believe that everything is fine, America is booming. You forget that usury is the basis of money lending and in the future you will pay dearly for your deficit, your military will decline and your political influence (based on military muscle) will go with it. The new markets (Asia, India, Europe etc.) will be there to recoup the money and use their immense potential for labour to undermine the US economy and you will blame it all on 'cowardly Europeans'. I agree old chaps, it's that blasted UN and their touchy-feely aid programmes. Jolly good show old chaps.

once again sir penis minimum opens its mouth and filth spews out get a clue moron,

Reply #23 By: Draginol - 12/30/2004 4:21:49 PM We don't "owe" any countries anything. Some of you have a mind boggling poor understanding of economics. Citizens, companies, and groups that happen to reside in various countries buy US treasury bills. They aren't lending the US money for "imperialist wars" (what an assanine statement) but rathre they invest their money in treasury bills because they think it will bring a good ROI. Moreover, not only does the United States GOVERNMENT provide 40% of the outright aid, the US military is the one doing the heavy lifting. This tsunami for instance, how exactly do people imagine the aid is actually getting to these places? Through magic wishing? No, It's being transported there largely through the US military. Then there is the private charities in the United States that dwarf anything anywhere else. Given the US GOVERNMENT's relatively low confiscation of private resources when compared to other industrialized countries, it's amazing the US GOVERNMENT is able to provide 40% of the raw dollar-value relief (before you count in the military infrastructure of actually executing on this aid). The US private sector sends billions of dollars in aid across the globe. No other country even comes close, even as a % of GDP.

thank you for your eloquence brad {if I may call you that} I wish I were more educated so I could express so easily what you express,
and specially when I said "owe" I was obviously talking about the handouts we give other countries, the food, the medical supplies, Its seems that the left and other countries bash the us when we give when we dont give {enough} in there estimation or when we do not whip the checkbook out fast enough to cause it to burst into flame.

I wasn't expecting what I said to be popular, the truth rarely is when it collides with jingoistic 'God Bless America' dogma. Dear boy, your boot-licking of Wardell is disgusting, imagine what would happen if you were faced with a genuinely influential person.

Reply By: Sir Peter Maxwell(Anonymous User)Posted: Thursday, December 30, 2004I wasn't expecting what I said to be popular, the truth rarely is when it collides with jingoistic 'God Bless America' dogma. Dear boy, your boot-licking of Wardell is disgusting, imagine what would happen if you were faced with a genuinely influential person.

boy???? you call me boy??/ 3 yards of penis and balls I have to carry in a wheelbarrow, and you call me boy??

now that I finished laughing at you, I can say a person of education and eloquence always impresses me.

Alos On a side note My wife is the ceo of a small company that shall remain unnamed and I have had to mix with the likes of grey davis, jerry brown and soon the govenator himself....was not in awe of any of them altho am looking forward to meeting arnold and trying my austrian accent out on him.

Reply By: Don BemontPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Happy New Year to all ye trolls of all political stripes.

may I be an ogre instead??? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee happy new years to you too.....

From Wikipedia : "The United States is the world's largest contributor of foreign aid in absolute terms ($15.7 billion, 2003), but the smallest among developed countries as a percentage of its GDP (0.14% in 2003). However, private foreign aid donations in the United States are on the order of $35 billion a year (2003), dwarfing the governmental aid of not only the US but many other countries."

I guess private donations bump us up to 0.45% of our GDP? Still half of Denmark's and (GACK!) just about even with France's government outlays alone(something definitely has to be done about that!) I've heard it claimed repeatedly that our private donations drastically outstrip those of other developed countries, but have yet to see or find any figures backing this up, and imagine they'll be pretty tough to come by.

Not saying that we should be doing more, or that foreign aid is even effective in many cases, much less that our military expenditures couldn't often in themselves be considered foreign aid... I'm just admitting that we aren't winning the bullshit global beauty contest against some of our european allies in this particular area (% of GDP.) Hell, we have to let them exceed us at something. Or do we....

I think the US should make a compromise. It shouldn't offer any military support whatsoever, but replace it with a boost to the % of GDP it throws away to the UN. Surely that'll make everybody happy.

I'm not sure which part of 'The USA owes its creditors about $4.4 trillion right now' you guys don't understand, but I'll try to explain.

The USA owes its creditors about $4.4 trillion right now. Paying all that interest means more borrowing – which requires still more loans to keep “rolling over” all those 10-year Treasury notes as they become due for repayment plus interest.

But with the dollar plummeting in value and inflation rising, foreign lenders are losing confidence in the worth of Bush’s IOU’s. Oil-producing nations are saying they prefer payment in Euros, gold dinars (at left), or yak hides – anything but more bogus bucks.

Until a few months ago, Asia’s central banks – particularly the big commercial banks in Japan and China – have been financing America’s huge appetite for consumer products, weapons and warfare. The interest alone on all those loans is unpayable. With total state and federal government debts currently passing $14 trillion dollars in a near-vertical climb, US taxpayers have shelled out $15 trillion in interest payments since 1960 – while the principal continues to rise.

Higher interest rates means more interest on the national debt, which is really the debt of American children, and their children – just as climate change really kicks in with increasingly costly catastrophes.

But despite a decade’s prediction of economic doom, financial meltdown hasn’t happened yet. And it won’t, runs the counter-argument, because global interdependence means that everyone must maintain the illusion of solvency – or go down together.

Still, if someone blinks, all those debt bombs blow up at once.

That someone could be China.

Unhappily, the self-restraining domino theory of Mutually Assured Financial Destruction has a fatal flaw. As a financial blogger writes: “Asian central banks don't have to sell their existing Treasuries for the dollar to come under pressure. All they have to do is to stop buying new Treasuries.”

This is already happening.

Foreigners have stopped buying US stocks. From net purchases of $9.7 billion on Wall Street in July, offshore investors turned to a $2.1 billion sell-off last August. Private foreign investors also sold $4.4 billion more in T-bills than they bought that month. In fact, all foreign investment into the United States has fallen off sharply. The Institute for International Economics’ John Williamson says that foreclosing on Uncle Sam “wouldn't be in the interest of the world. But any one country might think, ‘I'll beat the crowd and diversify first.’”

The Catch-22 dilemma is that whether acting individually or internationally, the smartest precautionary moves – curbing spending, reducing personal debt, reducing “exposure” in the US stock market and the US dollar – could also crash a global casino dominated by debt and the dollar.

The collapse of the greenback and America’s faulty empire could come as quickly as the fall of the former Soviet Union – and for many of the same reasons. You might want to plant a winter garden. And throw a few cans of beans in the cupboard.

Reply #34 By: GrooveDygger - 12/30/2004 6:04:45 PM I'm not sure which part of 'The USA owes its creditors about $4.4 trillion right now' you guys don't understand, but I'll try to explain.

one more time owe is used in my post in the sense that they are entitled to americas aid ENTITLED get it yet?

Reply #31 By: Moderateman - 12/30/2004 5:49:52 PM Reply By: Don BemontPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Happy New Year to all ye trolls of all political stripes. may I be an ogre instead??? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee happy new years to you too.....

POOF!!! Your an orge!

Technically I owe my bank money for the mortage on my house. Do you think they provided the mortage based on mercy or charity?

Treasury bills and other such "loans" are forms of investment.  You also seem to have serious problems grasping the difference between the public and private sectors.  Do you think the trade deficit is a form of "loan" too? You seem to think so based on your statement about appetites for "consumer goods" as if that DVD player I purchased was actually a "loan" to me.

I hate to break this to you but the US isn't getting charity from the third world.  But you do bring up China. Perhaps as an example? Would this be the same China that STILL gets free food from the World Food Program? I.e. they get charity from other countries such as us.

While sementical games are popular with the quasi-intellectual side of the left, the spirit of the original article is pretty apparent to anyone with basic reading comprehension and it's this: The US has given out vastly more aid than it has ever received in return. 

The world isn't bailing us out in any sense. Anyone who thinks differently on that matter is..well just not familiar with economics. I hate to sound that arrogant but this is pretty basic stuff.

BTW "Groovy" which largely populated nation state on the planet is also the world's most self-sufficient.  Go ahead, take your time and guess.

If there was some worldwide economic collapse, I know which country I would rather be in to be well fed.  Probably the one that exports the most food. Probalby the one that is also the world's largest oil producer (bigger than Saudi Arabia). Probably the one with the capability to produce all its own transportation products AND at the same time provide all the raw materials for said products.

The US debt is the same kind of debt many savvy investors take when they borrow money at 5% interest so that they can invest in higher yielding areas.  I could, for instance, easily pay off my mortgage on my home. But I have it at 5%  Instead I used that extra capital to buy things like Sirius Satellite stock at 2.10 that now trades, 6 months later, at 8.

Those who show such scorn for would be delighted if the US had to stop deficit spending. It wouldn't harm us in the least. It would just cut off aid programs to various dependents both foreign and domestic (that's where 60% of the US federal budget goes, another 15% on interest and another 15% on military).

Reply By: drmilerPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Reply #31 By: Moderateman - 12/30/2004 5:49:52 PMReply By: Don BemontPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Happy New Year to all ye trolls of all political stripes. may I be an ogre instead??? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee happy new years to you too.....POOF!!! Your an orge!

thanx drmiler I knew i could depend on you! tff and If I remember my myths properly orges eat the bones of the far left and pick there teeth with the splinters.. bwahahahahahahah

Hey Moderateman. Yeah im a bit slow sometimes. You quote from MY quote was refering to GrooveDygger and not to me. Damn im stupid but hey I try

brought to you by the Archie Bunker school of diplomacy

may we have more of the same! Nice to see the smacktards out in force here too! Get out that lunatic leftist position! way to lose votes for your own party!

then I suggest you move to one of the above listed countries... enough already

America love it or leave it, and you think the Archie Bunker comparisons aren't fair, moderatewannabeman?

thank you for telling the truth. it's nice to hear it every now and then. i'm sick of being told how bad americans are. the french would be goose steping to the germans if not for the usa.

Reply By: DysmasPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004Hey Moderateman. Yeah im a bit slow sometimes. You quote from MY quote was refering to GrooveDygger and not to me. Damn im stupid but hey I try

no offense taken here and I am slow on the uptake myself at times

Reply By: greywarPosted: Thursday, December 30, 2004brought to you by the Archie Bunker school of diplomacymay we have more of the same! Nice to see the smacktards out in force here too! Get out that lunatic leftist position! way to lose votes for your own party!

shhhhhhh We want the left to keep doing this I can see thew day when congress has 60 republicans then the left will be totally powerless as well as useless

Reply By: whoman69Posted: Thursday, December 30, 2004then I suggest you move to one of the above listed countries... enough alreadyAmerica love it or leave it, and you think the Archie Bunker comparisons aren't fair, moderatewannabeman?

Look whatman 68 {thats where you blow me and I owe you one} I now dub thee paris jane ferry in honor of your sweet kind ways.

try this sight www.YOUR A LOOSER .com where you can feel right at home.

try this sight www.YOUR A LOOSER .com where you can feel right at home.

You can't even spell loser. And I have no intention of visiting your home page.

You can't even spell loser. And I have no intention of visiting your home page.

Glad you spell so well. Everyone needs at least one positive trait.

I wasn't expecting what I said to be popular, the truth rarely is when it collides with jingoistic 'God Bless America' dogma. Dear boy, your boot-licking of Wardell is disgusting, imagine what would happen if you were faced with a genuinely influential person.

No, spm, you are an anachronism.  An imperialist in a dead empire.  And instead of learning and changing with the times, you rely on outdated rhetoric, and inflamatory prose.  You really have no points.  And just provide flames to those who even care.

I say this only to let you know that you are impotent in your hatred.  No one listens to you, whether they are liberal or conservative, hate America or Love her or Leave her.  You have been banned.  Grow up and come back, or forever be the impotent wretch gollum you have become.

I think the US should make a compromise. It shouldn't offer any military support whatsoever, but replace it with a boost to the % of GDP it throws away to the UN. Surely that'll make everybody happy.

Yea, the cowards of the world never count the Military money, and it never gets into the figures.

Let them eat dirt and we will throw money like Denmark.  for all the good it will do when they are spilling blood and have no way to get the money to the people because of bandits and rebels.

Heil Hitler once again!  Start goosestepping Europe.  There will be no one to bail you out this time.  but we will send money!