the meme is in-they are going to blame the collapse of our economy on US

[w8liftinglady]

After hearing Joe Barton talk on CNBC this morning,it's crystal clear...I will post links to the contrary here as I find them.Please educate your community.

http://www.omedia.org/Show_Article.asp?DynamicContentID=1972&MenuID=726&ThreadID=
The Danger of a Global Economic Tidal Wave
The American economy fuels the global economy with unrestrained dollar emissions. But there are no free lunches, and the 'bankruptcy' of the US and the resulting world crisis can no longer be averted. Israel should brace for the worst
Reuven Hoshen (12/14/2006)

[w8liftinglady]

1. American Economy: R.I.P.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18350.htm
American Economy: R.I.P.

By Paul Craig Roberts

09/10/07 "ICH' -- -- The US economy continues its slow death before our eyes, but economists, policymakers, and most of the public are blind to the tottering fabled land of opportunity.

In August jobs in goods-producing industries declined by 64,000. The US economy lost 4,000 jobs overall. The private sector created a mere 24,000 jobs, all of which could be attributed to the 24,100 new jobs for waitresses and bartenders, and the government sector lost 28,000 jobs.

In the 21st century the US economy has ceased to create jobs in export industries and in industries that compete with imports. US job growth has been confined to domestic services, principally to food services and drinking places (waitresses and bartenders), private education and health services (ambulatory health care and hospital orderlies), and construction (which now has tanked). The lack of job growth in higher productivity, higher paid occupations associated with the American middle and upper middle classes will eventually kill the US consumer market.

The unemployment rate held steady, but that is because 340,000 Americans unable to find jobs dropped out of the labor force in August. The US measures unemployment only among the active work force, which includes those seeking jobs. Those who are discouraged and have given up are not counted as unemployed.

[w8liftinglady]

2. Abracadabra, Why Iraq!

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1016-01.htm
In the USA, the news each night is dominated by the possibility of a war on Iraq. Saddam Hussein is not one of the world’s nobler creatures; he is a thug and a dictator, a man who has used chemical warfare on his own citizens and invaded neighboring countries. But he has been a despot for many years, since long before he lost a desert war to the USA. Why is he now the focus of American ire?

The Bush Administration tells its citizens that he is a great threat, but little seems to have changed, materially, in recent years, other than the terrorism of 11 September 2001. And, try as they might, the officials and agencies of the incumbent Administration have found no credible link between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

So why has the rumor of war taken over the front pages? First, there is 11 September. The American psyche was profoundly altered by the events of that day when terrorism became a reality and not just a distant threat. The need to protect the nation against eruptions of violence within its borders, has deep resonance. Yet the unhappy truth for the Bush Administration is that its onslaught against Al-Qaeda has not gone well. After an initial victory over the Taliban — a “lesson” taught that those who harbor terrorists will suffer grave consequences — the war on terrorism has had few triumphs to trumpet. Osama bin Laden has not been caught; his purported worldwide network has not been exposed.

Thus, a war on a recognizable enemy, one that purportedly can be bombed into submission, entices many Americans. The Bush Administration has crassly used the promise of a victory over Iraq to transform, much like a magician with quick fingers, a red silk handkerchief into a rabbit. Quick, presto, the wand is waved, Al-Qaeda disappears, and Iraq is in front of the nation’s eyes.

Then, there is oil. Iraq possesses, after Saudi Arabia, the richest oil reserves of any nation. In a roiled West Asia, with increasing questions in Washington about the links between Saudi money and the funding of Al-Qaeda’s operations, Saudi Arabia is no longer a totally secure source of relatively cheap oil. This petroleum-based Administration — Mr Bush and Dick Cheney were both oilmen — know its importance all too well.

[w8liftinglady]

3. America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,439766,00.html
At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States is still a superpower. But it's a superpower facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its lower and middle classes are turning out to be the losers of globalization.

[w8liftinglady]

4. Five Years of Accelerating U.S. Decline

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=568&Itemid=36
Five years ago, anti-war forces were in deep depression, having failed to prevent Bush from launching his illegal war against Iraq. Pro-war circles were floating on top of the world, imagining that Washington was about to become the new Rome under an American arms umbrella that would hold the entire planet in Shock and Awe. As it turned out, the American offensive was tied down by indigenous Iraqis – a great defeat for a superpower. So repulsed was the world at Washington’s assault on global order and civilization, itself, that the U.S. has been on a many-fronted free-fall ever since March 30, 2003. This article includes a piece written by our team on the day of the invasion.

[DJ13]

5. Every nation in the world bought our bonds while luring our manufacturing...

......base to relocate in their low wage country, destroying our wages and our economy while making the bonds they now hold worthless.

Karma.

[MichiganVote]

7. They sure did.

[Fumesucker]

8. Who sold them the bonds?

That's the question..

If the bonds were not for sale, then no one could have bought them.

[truedelphi]

16. The bonds help the Federal Reserve account for our money supply.

To fund the economy there are currently two recourses (Since we no longer produce anything but fast food and the sale of Chinese items at WalMart or KMart)

One is to simply print moneuy - which is highly inflationary
The second is to sell our US bonds - whose purchase was once a valuable thing to consider in terms of investment.

Right now the problem for the bond market is that the dollar is deflating so quickly that at the end of the year, the devaluation of the dollar wipes out the net gain of the bond that matures.

But get this, since the bonds are no longer going to have buyers, then we will be forced to simply print money - unless of course the Powers that Be simply all agree to let the financial institutions that in terrible shape go on and fail.

But as we are seeing - the Powers that Be have decided to socialise the failing financial institutions -which is really a horrible idea.

For one thing, the socialisation of these institutions means that for instance, JP Morgan will be helped with our taxpayers' dollars should they incur losses - but JP Morgan sure as heck ain't gonna share any profits with you or me.

Secondly, by printing money to bail out the Big Boys on Wall Street - this causes the devaluation of the dollar. Which matters a lot, because we have to purchase the oil we need with Euros. So every devalution of the dollar results in more money being paid for a barrel of oil. Thena s oil rises, small business - the lifeblood of AMerica, start to collapse. Then people are laid off. Then the economy worsens and the whole cycle spins even deeper into the grave.

[izquierdista]

17. Not worthless

Under the capitalist US system, bondholders have preferred status in bankruptcy and liquidations. They will own the US and collect on it by taking title to land, commercial real estate, factories, etc.

An interesting fact I saw this week here on DU was that the sum total of debt owned by the Chinese is equal to the amount the "rich" got under the Bush tax cuts, $480 billion. The "rich" got the money, the Chinese got the IOUs, and the American middle class will be the ones to pay it back.

Get used to working for foreigners, learn to say "thank you for shopping with us, have a nice day and come again" in Hindi and "no tickee, no washee" in Mandarin as you stand behind the counter, working off the debt of the haves and the have-mores.

[Greyhound]

19. There is a solution to this. It is our constitution.

If We The People refuse to play their game, the game ends. (the game is the fractional reserve central banking system, for those that still don't know how our economy works)

We have the all power, we've just become too ignorant to realize it and/or too lazy to use it.

[truedelphi]

23. If the usual IMF policies are in effect, we might have to let go of our natural resources

To pay off the debt.

China desperately needs clean water. We have it.

In my nightmares, I not only see breadlines stretching from New Jersey to Seattle, but a pipeline built below the Pacific, carting off our water to the Chinese.

[Double T]

6. Collapse is inevitable because NO ONE in power cares to deal with the REAL CAUSES.........

that created this DISASTER.

[kentuck]

9. Bet on it.

It worked with Carter. Why shouldn't it work again? Whomever is in charge is responsible, unless it happens to be a Republican.

[CoffeeCat]

10. So, what should we be doing...

...to prepare for the inevitable collapse?

I predicted a total collapse of the housing market two years ago, when my husband and I were looking
for a new home. Signs in front of McMansions touted, "This house can be yours for $850 a month!"
Our mortgage broker looked stupefied when we told her we wanted a conventional, fixed-rate mortgage.

She didn't know how to do that, and she had to leave the room and get other paperwork. She pushed
and pushed the creative financing on us, and told us how great it would be to have a $500 house payment.
She totally tried to get us to do the easy thing.

We got our conventional mortgage, and when my husband and I returned to the car, looked and each other
and I said, "This isn't sustainable. What happens when all of those payments double and triple?"

We've been braced for disaster ever since.

We are so screwed. Our economy is tanking. The financial pundits on CNBC tell us all is well. All
you need to do is enter a Super Target...or Home Depot...or a local gift shop in your area and breath
in the silence. These places are like tombs.

All of this will feed the disaster. Our economy isn't slowing down. It's grinding to a halt.

So...what do we do? How do we prepare?

[dgibby]

20. sustainable living

google sustainable living. there are many good sites that discuss just this topic and list things you can do, for instance, grow your own food, stock up on nonperishables, etc. as soon as I move next month, I'm putting in a garden and stocking up, especially since there is already a world wide food shortage. food and water are the new oil. two sites I can remember just off the top of my head are: carolynbaker.net and survivalacres. good luck!

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. Just another one of the many reasons that we should have started impeachment hearings already.

We needed to establish the blame well in advance of this election.

[Warpy]

12. Well, good luck to them on THAT

considering their own banks and brokerages were looking for quick, easy money and got burned as badly as we did and for the same reason: GREED.

This is going to be a worldwide collapse fueled, in a large part, by the financial deregulation in the US that allowed crooks to set up shop legally. All banks, brokerages and other institutional markets around the world are "infected" with exotic assets that are turning out to be nothing but bad loans issued in California and Florida, not worth the paper they were originally printed on by hedge funds and certainly not worth what they were bid up to as they changed hands multiple times.

The crash happened last August. The information is being parceled out in small bites so we don't choke on it and panic. However, this is an institutional collapse and it will be across the globe and yes, it did originate here.

[w8liftinglady]

13. Is Cheney Betting On Economic Collapse?

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney07052006.html
Wouldn't you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you'd know whether his "deficits don't matter" claim is just baloney or not.

Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney's financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time. Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly.

The article is called "Cheney's betting on bad news" and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in "a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation."

[w8liftinglady]

14. Will the U.S. Economy Collapse?

http://www.fool.com/investing/international/2006/11/03/will-the-us-economy-collapse.aspx
Before we get to the opinions, here are the facts:

Over the past five years, the U.S. dollar is significantly down against the euro, the Canadian dollar, the Japanese yen, the Chinese yuan, and the British pound.
The U.S. trade deficit in August was $69.9 billion.
The United States is $8.6 trillion in debt.
Our GDP growth rate clocked in at a dismal 1.6% in the third quarter -- and that number may very well be inflated.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Greyhound]

18. No shit, we've been telling you this since at least the '06 fraud.

Obillery will get one term and then it'll really get bad.

[depakid]

21. DINO's certainly bear some blame

as do otherwise progressive cowards in the party who go along to get along.

If that weren't the case, the meme wouldn't have the remotest chance to stick.

[Karenina]

22. ttt.

:kick: