Just in case anyone Cares
Boxes&Books
USA Posts: 2,672
top 4 U.S Debt Holders
1) China / Hong Kong
2) Japan
3) United Kingdom
4) Oil Exporters - (Venezuela / Iran top two that we borrow money from)
A lot of money and a lot of interest. Thanks to these guys we can continue to give the wealthiest 2% more tax breaks and also spend like hell!!
This is a real threat to the American way of life...
1) China / Hong Kong
2) Japan
3) United Kingdom
4) Oil Exporters - (Venezuela / Iran top two that we borrow money from)
A lot of money and a lot of interest. Thanks to these guys we can continue to give the wealthiest 2% more tax breaks and also spend like hell!!
This is a real threat to the American way of life...
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I wonder where Saudi is, during the Bush years they were on that list.
Do you think any of these Countries influence US Policy?
Yeah, Me too
I had posted a lot of articles on this issue a while back, but no one really talked about it-
The amount of money we owe and continue to borrow is a serious issue. This stuff needs more real attention and needs to be attacked by All political parties.
Newly-Elected Senator Ron Johnson Travels To The Chamber To Pay Homage For Helping Him Win
Conservative Republican Ron Johnson defeated incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) in the Wisconsin senate content this year. Many of the ads attacking Feingold came not from Johnson, but from outside groups like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the big business lobbying organization. The Chamber used outright falsehoods against Feingold, including one ad that falsely stated that he supported a “government takeover” of health care.
In response to the Chamber’s pivotal contributions to the race, the Los Angeles Times reports that last week Johnson visited the Chamber to personally thank Chamber CEO Tom Donohue:
When it comes to money in politics, the new normal is already on vivid display. It could be seen last week in posh restaurants and corporate townhouses on Capitol Hill, where politicians held fundraisers at a record pace. It was evident at Washington’s blue-chip law firms, where campaign finance lawyers began work setting up new political committees to collect unlimited donations. It was apparent in the halls of Congress, where lawmakers swapped strategies about how to contend with muscular interest groups looking to take them out. The unusually intense December bustle is the product of this year’s elections, where spending surged to $4 billion in sharp-edged campaigns across the country — a record for a midterm. [...] In a sign of the new order, a newly elected Republican senator, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, paid a personal visit last week to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue to thank him for the chamber’s unsolicited support of his candidacy.
Earlier this year, ThinkProgress reported that, in addition to donations from health insurance companies and Wall Street banks, the Chamber had solicited donations from foreign businesses, including state-run oil companies in Bahrain and outsourcing firms in India. To his credit, Johnson was one of the few Republican candidates who called for the Chamber to disclose the funding of its ads. The Chamber so far has refused any voluntary disclosures — but will the newly elected senator from Wisconsin continue to press the Chamber for transparency? Historically, the Chamber fundraises for its political program by telling corporations that they may more effectively lobby by funneling donations through the Chamber. While its clear Johnson appreciates the help from the Chamber, what will he do in return?
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/13/cha ... n-johnson/
corporations in these "troubled" economic times are not only profiting but guiding the market.
they tend to decide what we buy (not the consumer).
ie capitalism has failed.
are you kidding me??????????????? capitalism has been a roaring success. surely youre not under the delusion that capitalism was set up to benefit us plebs??
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
No 3 United Kingdom. When our pansy assed politicians are told to jump they ask how high and send the troops wherever.
You fail to distinguish between honest free-market economics and greed.
This is a very interesting comment- I guess I've never looked at it like that. I've never thought about other countries pushing our troops around like that- I believe a lot of innocent life's have been lost through military action, but I always blamed it on horrible decision made strictly by American leaders...... Wasn't thinking that someone else would be in the drivers seat when it came to our troops....... what a shame....
the threat to the american way of life is the american government.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
a world where 11 to 13 million people die every year from easily curable diseases or starvation, according to the UN.
quite the "roaring success".
yowza...."honest free market economics" explain that one.
you make me laugh commy. i doubt youd find one corporate hawk sitting atop his mound of cash whod say capitalism has failed. in fact if anything capitalism has worked too well... if thats at all possible. its driven a mighty wedge between the haves and the havenots and that gap is only getting bigger. but capitalism isnt about a fair go for all... it never was. it was about the accumulation of wealth through private ownership and controlling of production and doing so via the use of supply and demand. the fact that what we need is replaced by what we want doesnt change that. and thats the beauty(the ugly beauty) of capitalism. we, as consumers, rarely see the difference between a need and a want because were told what it is we need. something you mentioned earlier.
did you know the diamond engagement ring was a marketing ploy by de beers?? and now to propose without a diamond ring is just unfathomable. de beers saw a need(albeit its own to offload its rocks), pitched them to an attentive and easily manipulated audience and voila!! the must have for all bethrothed. something thats basically unnecessary has now become essential. hows that for the system being a failure? so to say capitalism has failed simply because millions of people are starving is an merely emotional response. if capitalism didnt work, wed all be socialists.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
mine isn't an emotional response, i was giving you something to guage this success you were talking about. The fundamental aspect of capitlism, the free market, has failed. this isn't breaking news or my opinion, there are plenty of examples in history where massive gov't involvement was required to keep the system running. last year being the most recent, the great depression being another.
these are just the facts.
your opinion, no matter how well received, does not change the fact that our economic system, in the US and probably world wide as a result, would have failed more than once were it not for massive government intervention. that is the very idea true capitalists despise most about socialism (apparently they've never heard of libertarian socialism-beside the point). the very thing they hate the most was the only thing that saved their precious free market.
well we'll never know will we. i doubt it wouldve collapsed because someone would have been there to step into the void and pick up the pieces. thats the beauty of capitalism... it quite often feeds on itself to thrive. there would have been a sizeable dent for sure and a whole lot of wreckage... but no matter how much you and i would love to have seen it fall, the system would have prevailed. and besides the so called free market doesnt survive all on its own. there are government regulations and the like so whats the difference between that and plugging the hole with money? i mean besides the fact, "its not suppose to happen"
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
when thousands of tons of food sat rotting in warehouses while people were digging through garbage cans to survive, capitalism failed. when companies are making more money than many countries, while their own people need help, capitalism has failed. when wages stagnate for 30 years, capitalism has failed. when trillions of dollars are needed from the government to sustain it, capitalism has failed.
as marx predicted the system requires massive gov't intervention to sustain itself. this is one of the ideals that is so vehemently opposed when talking about socialism....big gov't etc.....yet its a requirement for capitalism.
gov't intervention goes against everything a true capitalist stands for. the free market is supposed to be king, deciding everything, and gov't can fuckoff. yet history has shown that capitalism cannot exist without big government. the very concept of freedom capitalism is supposed to nurture, at its core, at its fundamental ethos, is flawed, cannot be because it cannot exist without a large central government. the very thing the true capitalists so hate is the only thing keeping it running.