Following just Zambia and Tanzania in the African press (and the English version of Chinese media) for the last two years, I’ve been watching with fascinated horror as the Chinese not only took control of the development and production of critical natural resources, but they have purchased — they own — key pieces (e.g., bridges, railroads) of those countries’ infrastructure. (Not to mention control of Chile’s copper mines/manufacturing.)

One of the fatal consequences of the war in Iraq is that it has not only diverted trillions of dollars — it has diverted intelligence, focus, planning/strategizing, public awareness, education …

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070810/wall_street.html?.v=37

This kind of Fed tinkering is a mega-form of corporate welfare and it is redistributive in nature. There is no difference between the fed infusing cash into the banking system and the fed taking money out of your wallet and giving it to banks. It might not catch the same emotional response, but it is the same. The result is the creation of bubble economies that we try desperate to sustain by (again) tinkering with the monetary policy, but ultimately collapse.

If this is the kind of leadership we get from the Harvard School of Business, we should think about getting our next Fed Chair from the Osage County Heating & Air Conditioning vo-tech school.

Jimmy – You are one of the few that seems to have the foggiest clue in terms of economics. Wealth is not fixed. Weath is created – everyday. The key to solving poverty is to make wealth creation as easy as possible. The way to preserve and increase poverty is to try to redistribute wealth.

The Gun Toting Liberal brought to our attention this tidbit about presidential candidate Mitt Romney: while he wants to send more soldiers into Iraq, his five military-aged sons are supporting the nation by helping their father campaign. Note to Mr. Ro…

I think the problem is that EVERYONE in America wants more and more money and that’s just not sustainable in a world that basically has a fixed amount of wealth.

Absolutely right; however, all Americans, as well as every other human being everywhere, do NOT live in that world. If wealth were fixed, then all of us would be living as subsistance farmers in thatched-roof huts. Better yet, we would probably still be hunter-gatherers.

Wealth=Technology. Think about it. If a pauper has a hut full of promisary bank notes, is he still poor? The answer is YES. If he spends it on stuff that makes his life less miserable, for example: food, medicine, a house, electricity, appliances, vehicles, (i.e. technology) ect.. then NO.

Since new technologies are constantly being invented, manufacured, and sold, which makes the older technologies cheaper and more affordable and available to the less fortunate, the amount of wealth constantly increases and is distributed to everyone gradually through buying and selling. Free market capitalism is the only effective process that drives such economic growth.

And you Ron Paul guys call yourselves libertarians!

They take the American tax payer’s money which is supposed to go toward running the government and instead it is funneled into the pockets of the war profiteers. And when all of the taxes are spent and gone where does Bush find the money to fight his never-ending phony war? Yep, that’s right, he borrows it from China. But that’s okay, he doesn’t have to pay it back, WE do! and your children do, and their children.

Who cares who was responsible for the surplus left to Bush when he entered office. A far more important and relevant question is: How can you spend so much money so recklessly and get so little in return for it? That’s! the real question.

Georgie W however, took a budget surplus and stunningly turned it around into what’s looking like will be a 50% increase in the national debt during his two terms. Hopefully we impeach him so we can get some sanity back into tax policy, rather than just recklessly cutting taxes for the rich before figuring out how much you need to pay for government.

But if history is any indication, people will continue to lie down and let the political machinery walk all over them only to figure out in 30 years’ time that if only they would have listened more intently to that crazy Ron Paul guy they would have been a lot better off.

People, for the sake of sanity…let’s for once make PRESENT sight 20/20 and vote for the correct person. Can we please do that just once?! Hell, retarded monkeys pressing random buttons on Diebold voting machines would have a better success rate than we’ve had the past 60+ years in this country!

If you would like to know what the US will be like in 5-10 years if this pattern continues, then look at Zimbabwe ( or whats left of it ) today.

Which is interesting since Zimbabwe is ruled by the gun. Effectively by a dictator.

Does this mean you think America has a real possibility of a civil war?

Since the Earth does not supply an infinitely increasing supply of wealth, it really makes no sense to run our economy as if it does. Trying to force this system to work only serves to hurt the world. We do need to distribute wealth more to the poor and middle classes, but we should do it in a responsible way by having more socialized or not-for-profit services for basic necessities such as health care, education, food programs, shelter programs and things like that. When you take the profit margins out, that extra wealth either comes off the price of the product, or it goes back into the product by being able to produce a higher quality of product.

the nerve of some of these republican commentors who allege its not the fault of Bush’s failed foreign policy and waging war on TWO countries, whilst planning for a third war with IRAN.

“its all the dems fault”

let me get this straight Universal Healthcare systems around the world cost HALF AS MUCH as the U.S PRIVATIZED SYSTEM.

BY ANY MEASURE AS RECORDED BY W.H.O THEY”RE BETTER

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? THE REPUBLICAN OBSESSION OVER YOUR PRIVATIZED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS NAIVE. YOUVE BOUGHT INTO THEIR PROPAGANDA. $100 MILLION DOLLARS WAS SPENT FIGHTING U.H.C BACK IN 1993 YOU IDIOTS.

you know what else? the iraq war is estimated to cost $1trillion dollars

And another thing, under Clinton’s administration we wrote a BUDGET SURPLUS OF $187 BILLION DOLLARS

SO BEFORE YOU BLAME DEMOCRATS FOR ACTUALLY SPENDING THE MONEY ON REAL PROBLEMS. HELPING REAL AMERICANS. LOOK IN THE MIRROR YOU DUMB IDIOTS OR AT LEAST DO SOME RESEARCH OUTSIDE OF FOX NEWS AND LIMBAUGH,

FOR CHRIST’S SAKE ARE REPUBLICANS REALLY JUST A BUNCH OF BAFOONS ENSLAVED BY THEIR CRONY UPPER-CLASS ELITES?