How much money?

[justdoit]

http://usdebt.kleptocracy.us/

A lot of you my have already seen this, I posted it just in case you have not.

[admin]

Moved to General chat as it's not really racing news (although losely related to Perretti's news today).

I read an article reprinted from the Economist today saying that Nigeria stabilized itself by switching to the USD, but are rethinking that move as they now consider it unstable. Something not quite right about that.

It also quoted Greenspan saying "The US will always be able to pay it's debts because it can always print money".

[doubled123]

without reading the article i'm only guessing.. nigeria would be eager to drop the peg against the USD because of the 2 years of fixed interest rates set by the reserve bank, otherwise they would simply be switching to the euro.

the only problem in the US atm is that the us govt stopped hiring people from standard and poors during the gfc... not enough people to make the govt's numbers look nice and AAA when they are put into the algorithms they wrote while they were working at s&p's

[triplev123]

Obama was always headed for the toilet. Socialism never works. Eventually you will run out of other people's money.

[justdoit]

It also quoted Greenspan saying "The US will always be able to pay it's debts because it can always print money".
and that is exactly what they have been doing.
The Federal Reserve has the interest rate set at .25%, that is not a typo. .25%
Anyone willing to take the punt on the AU dollar keeping up and swapping that 7.5% for around a 2% US loan?
As long as the AU does not tank?? answers please.

They need a new war! How about making up with CUBA and then helping them to kick the shit out of Venezuela, in the end sending in the US
oil giants etc etc. The problem could be Iran & Venezuela are mates.

[Flashing Red]

Obama was always headed for the toilet. Socialism never works. Eventually you will run out of other people's money.

There are many social aspects of this country that work quite well. For example, if you can't afford private health insurance, there are plenty of doctors that run only on medicare. I don't know how many people I saw over there that could NOT afford the health insurance and went around their life with illnesses/injuries because they didn't have enough money. I'm lucky enough to come under a family plan, but when I'm 25 I know I'll be able to afford it anyway. Some people cannot...

I was friends with several vet students over there, they were working full time and studying full time, because there is no HECS or Youth Allowance over there. I couldn't imagine having to have to work full time and do uni full time, it would be so stressful and unhealthy. And while it is very meager, I am very thankful for youth allowance, which means I can work just part time and really concentrate on my studies. I do not have to worry about paying off my degree until I earn over a certain amount.

I was all for Obama when he was first elected, I have been very disappointed with him in general, however I disagree with everyone bagging socialism, because I fell that Australia has socialist aspects that work quite well. Sometimes spreading the burden and spreading the wealth leaves more money in your own pocket... it has for me :)

[admin]

Saw this on Socialism from Noam Chomsky recently:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Tq4VE8eHQ

This is the other big problem though:

http://unbridledspeculation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/us-national-healthcare-expenditures-as-percent-of-gdp.jpg?w=528&h=383

Markets are cyclical, but that seems pretty hard bounce back from.

[thesushitrain]

isn't that chomsky guy that one that says that the US's economic policy is an expansion of torture

[admin]

Not sure, if your referring to the economic/corporate influence on US foreign policy, he would call US Foreign Policy mass murder, with some inevitable spillover torture.

"If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged."
— Noam Chomsky (around 1990)

Golden Rule - Those with the gold make the rules.

[justdoit]

"Those with the gold make the rules". Didn't Nathan Tinkler say that.



The way of life in AU & NZ is taken very much for granted by most people IMO.
Recently I read that NZ per population is the richest country?