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Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:10 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Chance...pure chance...
That and everyone else was too pre-occupied with rebuilding after WWII... Otherwise Europe could have been more competitive. As it stands the EU is correcting that. At least the US Government is continually moaning about Europe getting a disproportionate level of investment by US Companies, about our precarious resistence to "idiot" patent laws, etc, etc.
Besides the whole world knows the US has a phenomenal level of debt from overspending - how many trillions was it this year?
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:19 am
by Charles256
everyone has a fair amount of debt..granted ours is a bit high..but debt is practically worthless in the way the economy works..in theory everyone should be in a debt to every country..least that's how the theory goes..can't believe no one smiled at my earlier comment

hehe.oh well.it'll be okay.
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:35 am
by Moocat
Ree wrote:So how come a country filled with simpsons has such a strong economy and is overall well-developed?
Our dollar value has plummeted in the years since the second Bush administration. Euro is blowing the crap out of it. I'm pretty sure in another year or two the Euro will have more than twice the value of the American dollar, how is that a strong economy?
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:45 am
by matthijs
Euro is blowing the crap out of it.
I don't mind, ordering stuff from overseas never was so cheap

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:53 am
by Ree
So what? 1 Lithuanian litas (my country) is ~40 Japanese Yen. Does that make our economy stronger? Of course not. Btw, I think USD is still rising after it dropped.
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:04 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
USD is pretty strong - every currency has its ups and downs, plus the entire Oil economy is driven in USD...which one other reason the US has a strong currency.
US debt is almost out of control. You can't borrow forever - if that were possible you would have unlimited servicing payments to make. Consider the kind of actions required when borrowing starts getting out of hand...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... e=business
And that's only in the last few days...
I mean any nation with a debt growing as fast as the US usually takes it as a sign to stop wasting money, and think seriously about some serious belt tightening - but the US governments of the last decade have persistently just borrowed more.
A strong economy based on massive debt is not a good thing...
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:07 am
by Buddha443556
Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:Chance...pure chance...
That and everyone else was too pre-occupied with rebuilding after WWII... Otherwise Europe could have been more competitive. As it stands the EU is correcting that. At least the US Government is continually moaning about Europe getting a disproportionate level of investment by US Companies, about our precarious resistence to "idiot" patent laws, etc, etc.
Besides the whole world knows the US has a phenomenal level of debt from overspending - how many trillions was it this year?
Debt held by the public: $4,710,727,729,604.45
Intragovernmental holdings: $3,450,779,848,589.90
Ignoring the intragovernmental (debt the US government owes itself) and the US GDP to Debt ratio isn't much different than that of the UK.
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:19 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Did you remove the UKs intergovernmental debts?
UK and most other EU nations are restricted by European Treaties - the US under the same measure is a good 10% (maybe a little less) above the European measure of "excessive debt". That is due to rise substantially in the next 5 year period. Plus the US has yet to hit the impact of an aging population, while in Europe that's largely not a major issue (it is for some of us though).
If you look at the total picture the US has expanded debt at an admirable pace - an shows no signs of slowing. What happens when the bill falls due? Or the USD devalues? Or interest rates increase some more (all that personal debt is sitting there too)?
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:40 am
by Buddha443556
Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:Did you remove the UKs intergovernmental debts?
To be honest, I thought the US was the only one doing something that stupid. Didn't know UK is robbing their Social Security funds (or equivalent) too?
Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:UK and most other EU nations are restricted by European Treaties - the US under the same measure is a good 10% (maybe a little less) above the European measure of "excessive debt". That is due to rise substantially in the next 5 year period. Plus the US has yet to hit the impact of an aging population, while in Europe that's largely not a major issue (it is for some of us though).
Social Security and Medicare are a major problems in the US - won't even argue that.
Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:If you look at the total picture the US has expanded debt at an admirable pace - an shows no signs of slowing. What happens when the bill falls due? Or the USD devalues? Or interest rates increase some more (all that personal debt is sitting there too)?
The US GDP is keeping pace though and that was my point.