It's the Iraq War that's Killing the Economy, Stupid! »
Posted By expursuit 5 months, 2 weeks ago in Business & FinanceAs billions are going down the drain in Iraq, this wild misadventure is destroying the once strong U.S. dollar... Foreigners are buying out major assets as the dollar dramatically declines. Belgium may buy the biggest brewery in the U.S. In 2007 foreign investors spent $414 billion buying some of the biggest assets of the U.S.A.
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cowboygrandpa5 months, 2 weeks ago
It's not just the war.
It is the selling of America to her enemies.
We beat them at war then finance their rebuilding only to sell ourselves out.
We brought the Nazis and Fascists over to America because of greed and wealth worship. As well as not wanting the Russians to get their knowledge. What did it do to us?
Look who we have for a president the grandson of a Nazi sympathizer.
But hey they are rich now right? Isn't the whole world better off because of the greed and stupidity. :~(((
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UnusualSuspect5 months, 2 weeks ago
Once we get out of Iraq, Obama can then put back a good amount of money into the programs we desperately need at home, like education, alternative energy funding, fortifying our borders, etc, all while keeping our military strong and ready, for when we really need them...
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Klarissa5 months, 2 weeks ago
sorry, Obama will be sending 0.7% of our GROSS national product (GNP) to sub Africa.
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jordan115 months, 2 weeks ago
1. Nationalism. Got your flag pin on, klarissa?
2. Denial of human rights through marginalizing & demonizing target groups. (see gays). bush tried to change our Constitution to deny them their rights through an amendment!
3. Scapegoating groups to unify a cause. See gays, and 'Islamofascists", and socialists, and liberals. You know, take folks minds off of what YOU'RE doing by setting them against 'groups,' real or imagined.
4. militarism. A disproportionate amount of $ allocated to support the military. (See Haliburton, KBR, etc)
5. Sexism. See the right of choice. Also, see homophobia.
6. Control of the media. HELLO!
7. Using oppression as a means for 'national security.'
Every fascist regime had these 7 things in common. Look familiar?
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cowboygrandpa5 months, 2 weeks ago
Klarissa:
Not untrue. Unpleasant maybe. Not untrue.
Bush has displayed all Fascisism all the time. He is for Government and Business United to screw the people. It is called legal slavery. I know you will deny this along with many others. Take a look around. Unemployment is up, prices are up, gasoline is going through the roof, food is going up, wages are remaining the same which is the same as cutting them as the price of everything goes up. Companies raise their prices while keeping wages the same. In reality people are working harder for less as companies also trim their payrolls and expect those still employed to increase their output.
I know you will say that is capitalism. No it is not. Because the employers have had the government on their side allowing illegals to come in and force down wages.
What is tiresome is Bushes insistence that he knows what he is doing. He has come very close to destroying our nation and its' freedoms.
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nikkibabe5 months, 2 weeks ago
Iraq "invasion & occupation for oil" is being financed by monthly borrowing of $14B from China.
With massive tax cuts, there is no money to fix the country's infrastructure; roads, bridges, highways, flood prone areas, much needed health care assistance for the children of poorest of the poor.
A surplus government in 2000 was turned in to a $trillion dollar debt and counting.
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bigurn5 months, 2 weeks ago
Any serious discussion of American economic policy requires an understanding of money policy and the difference between "debt" and "deficit".
"Debt" is the net effect of monetary policy with all of our trading partners. We have an enormous debt, but it has some positive effects. It ensures future trade with those partners, at a minimum. However, it needs to be lowered.
"Deficit" is when we spend more money as a nation than we take in for revenue. It's similar to what you see in your checkbook, except that America can print more money when it runs out, and you can't. That's point #3.
America has used debt structure to allow the printing of more money. The greater supply of money, with the same demand, lowers the price of that money. So, each dollar is worth less. It takes more dollars to buy things, and more dollars to pay off debt.
Iraq is expensive, but it's a blip compared to the effect of our monetary policy decisions.
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miklkit5 months, 1 week ago
I agree on everything except the last sentence. The war on terror is a huge drain on our economy and is distorting our economic decisions. The money is being printed to finance the Iraq abortion.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/faq.html
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crespi5 months, 2 weeks ago
It's costing us MORE than just money...
But the no-bid corruption with armsdealer cronies funnels money out of our country straight into secret bank accounts in Dubai, Switzerland and the Camans while the average American can't keep up home payments can't be discounted.
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crespi5 months, 2 weeks ago
And yet CNN continues the charade and denies these wars' impact on our economy with their banner "The economy is the number 1 issue for Americans" while quickly redirecting any guest who brings up the affects of the war.
It's disgraceful (and gives credence to the fact tha CNN American is an outlet for CIA disinformation.)
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sailrComment removed: User banned.
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Klarissa5 months, 2 weeks ago
look above - it is there - but that's it for the day. Other things to do.
If you would like to know more about the Millennium project, here is a site:
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/inde...
from the site:
In line with the Monterrey Consensus, developing countries will need to expand their domestic resource mobilization to finance MDG-based poverty reduction strategies by drawing on government revenues, household contributions, and private sector investment to the greatest extent possible. In many low-income countries, and practically all Least Developed Countries, domestic resources alone will not be enough to meet the Goals.
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hyperbola5 months, 1 week ago
You do know that the US was a massive borrower (with enormous protective trade barriers) when we industrialized?
If Africa and South America were smart, they would do the same as the US and Asia did when they developed - reject free trade with us while developing their own resources and infrastructure (they have a sufficiently large critical mass of people). Most of all, they would STOP selling us raw materials and use them in their own economies.
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simonsez5 months, 2 weeks ago
I do agree that the war is the single-most significant factor in the weakness in the dollar. Some sort of resolution to it will begin the healing of it.
The poor judgement of leaders in the financial industry are the cause for crisis in the economy. Somebody should have been thoughtful enough to question the integrity of the sub-prime scenario.
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Will13135 months, 1 week ago
Somebody should have been thoughtful enough to question the integrity of the sub-prime scenario.
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it was federal regulations... or the relaxation of that caused it..
lenders have to operate under guidelines set by governing bodies ....
by relaxing the lending policies... the governmental regulation agencies.. simply perpetuated the ILLUSION that the economy was sailing along.....
HOUSING is one of the only manufacturing jobs left in America...
stimulate the housing market.. you stimulate the ENTIRE economy...
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hyperbola5 months, 1 week ago
Well, apart from the massive debt caused by printing money for war, another massive debt was caused by allowing corrupt financial institutions to "print" money by creating various kinds of "derivatives" in an uncontrolled fashion.
Such behavior has long been called a ponzi scheme and seems to happen everytime we relax financial regulation. This is already the second time the Bush family has been involved (i.e. the Savings and Loan scandal of Bush daddy, all the current Bush sons and McCain). Both times the tax payers has had to come to the rescue with trillions of tax payer dollars.
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donald515 months, 1 week ago
I neg you Simon, ony becausee the Bushies already knew it and wanted it to happen! And the Bushies are laughing all the way to the bank now on our energy crisis, that they induced!
You can't rely on business to act with a conscience as Dumya has said you can! The fact that Dumya has no conscience should have told us it was just another lie!
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simonsez5 months, 1 week ago
I don't neg, but if I did, I would give you one for using words like bushies and dumya.
It's not as clever as you think.
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Justice4All5 months, 2 weeks ago
I only wish there were a way of making those who supported this war pay for it. There are a lot of government programs I do not support but by far the most expensive has been the war in Iraq.
But by now everyone can see that it was a mistake. Even those flag waving war mongers who still wont admit they were wrong.
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donald515 months, 1 week ago
Tang, how much did Kennedy increase the national debt... Dumya will leave us with 11 trillion! Your arguement is as stupid and ignorant as you are!
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eugenegerard5 months, 2 weeks ago
Plus sellingour industrial base to china, plus pillaging the treasury by war profiteers, and plus giving a big TAX break to corporporations and the wealthiest amongst us.
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sailrComment removed: User banned.
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MIGUNI5 months, 1 week ago
I dont need a degree to so we are spending on countries that don't agree with what we are and only want our aid dollars
giving U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States,
still receives$2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States
And receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States
Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States
Receives $143,699,000 annually.
maybe it's time to stop this handing out from our table and
concentrate on feeding, educating, and clothing ourselves,
then we would not have so much rightiuos indignation over the economy and special interest politics and could spend more time reading the Bibles and cleaning our Guns
this is a free speech message to all americans struggling with foreign aid debt
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hyperbola5 months, 1 week ago
Well, if you add up all those numbers, they amount to less than 1% of what we spend on military imperialism. How long do you figure we can keep supporting over 700 foreign military bases?
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MIGUNI5 months, 1 week ago
Kuwait votes against the United States 67%
Qatar votes against the United States 67%
Morocco votes against the United States 70%
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70%
Jordan votes against the United States 71%
Tunisia votes against the United States 71%
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73%
Yemen votes against the United States 74%
Algeria votes against the United States 74%
Oman votes against the United States 74%
Sudan votes against the United States 75%
Pakistan votes against the United States 75%
Libya votes against the United States 76%
Egypt votes against the United States 79%
Lebanon votes against the United States 80%
India votes against the United States 81%
Syria votes against the United States 84%
Mauritania votes against the United States 87%
everyone it seems wants a handout but not a handup this we did in this country with welfare to prove it does not work
and we keep proving it in other countries every year.
HELLO this isn't hateful this is reality
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donald515 months, 1 week ago
Hyper, the Ugly American is alive and well in the Repug party... If a foreign country's president said he wanted a "Crusade" against their religion, I'd hate him too!
Whatever happened to the "equality" in the Constitution under the Repugs?
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MIGUNI5 months, 1 week ago
I would like to know at what part of the brain the greed comes from, I understand that demos and rebubs are wired differently and that age/kronieism might make one want to aquire vast empire, worked in egypt and elsewhere to be entombed through vast workforce, but what makes a republican or a protestant or a hetrosexual or a conservatist easy mark for blaming all this stuff on, personally I can't figure this out and don't thing there is a dna test to send to CSI for this, if we weren't so liberal we thought we could help the world cause we are so well off, maybe we would have more allies, but we keep up this facade of world leader and ****** everyone off, when we need help it's like, your so good help yourself, or countries that beleive if you don't by from us your sending bad vibes to the rest of the world, even if the stuff we produce is toxic or a fire hazard, when we start to work on the issues like border security or mentally ill getting help to get them off the streets, we scream.
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canadianrancher575 months, 1 week ago
I voted for this story but must dissagree that the title reflects what is said in the artical. What is killing the American economy is many many years of poor decisions by government, business and individuals. When I look at these three things I see one thing in commonand that is financial irresponsibility by all three groups, your government is deeply in debt because of demands placed on it by the voters, people seem to wish government to provide everything. Business has shown to much of an effort to keep the stockholder happy and to do so had to move to cheaper labor markets and then we come to the individual who in most cases has over spent on wants and forgotten about needs.
The reality is what is happening right now is the piper is bieing paid.
The last few lines of the artical warned the downfall of your nation would come from within , sorry for the insult here but it is the greed of many in your country that has brought you to this point.
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hyperbola5 months, 1 week ago
The bad decisions accelerated with the Reagan administration when we raised taxes on all but the super-rich and transferred more and more of our wealth to fewer and fewer super-rich. That "elite" has now shown that they are incapable of wisely investing our resources. Time to return much more of the wealth to average Americans.
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