We're never ones to discount warnings: Winston Churchill was our hero. However, the warnings of a coming U.S. war with China continue.
The warnings about war take, in the main, two forms: military and economic. Zachary Hubbard, a retired Army officer, wrote in August about the possibility of military war.
Hubbard now looks at an economic one presaging any military actions.The war on terror grabs headlines, but there are far greater threats to America than terrorism. Conditions are ripe for a shift in the balance of global power, perhaps in the next four to five years. When it occurs, America will no longer be the dominant economic force on the planet. As our economic power wanes, our political and military power will follow suit.
The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” His wisdom applies to America’s economic situation today.
Americans must choose a new economic destination and change course soon or we stand to lose much of our national power.
If we fail to act, the world could well end up with a four-way competition among the European Union, a China-dominated Asia, a global oil cartel dominated by Russia and a nuclear-armed Iran, and a U.S.-led North American Union.
Hubbard goes on to list the signs of distress in the United States' economy. He's not the only one to point these out; there's no end of stories alerting of a U.S. economic slide.
Indications of America’s waning economic power are numerous. A mortgage crisis caused by foolhardy subprime lending practices has thousands of Americans at risk of losing everything. Many financial institutions caught up in the scheme are also in trouble.
American consumer debt is at an all-time high and may cause the next major financial crisis.
The Baltimore Sun published an article on Oct. 10 titled, “Credit card debt is ready to blow.” According to the Sun, the financial industry is preparing for major defaults on the credit card debt held by Americans today, which exceeds $500 billion.
General Motors, once a global symbol of American industrial might, has suffered record losses recently and is facing financial disaster. Ford apparently has similar woes.
America’s manufacturing base is shrinking, as U.S. companies continue to ship manufacturing jobs overseas. Meanwhile, China is experiencing record economic growth funded largely by American consumers and U.S. government debt.
Failed energy policies could soon have Americans facing $5 per gallon gasoline. Looming energy shortages threaten manufacturing and other sectors. Every U.S. president since the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74 has failed to exhibit leadership in addressing America’s energy needs. Consequently, today we must buy oil from a rogue cartel dominated by Middle Eastern tyrants who hate us.
The U.S. dollar has tanked on foreign markets. Exchange rates are at an all-time low against the Euro and even the Canadian dollar. Iran has shifted its hard currency reserves to the Euro. China is threatening to do the same. Such a move by China, which holds more than $1 trillion in U.S. debt, would be devastating to the U.S. economy.
After listing some fixes, the writer declares the problems go deeper than just dollars and cents.Our problems are not purely economic. They reach to the very core of America’s national identity. Many politicians talk about repairing America’s reputation, but it’s not just our reputation that is broken.
The way we do business on Capitol Hill needs fixing. American voters must redefine the country economically by facing up to exploding personal and national debt, our disappearing manufacturing base and our dangerous foreign oil dependency. Only then may we hope to preserve our political and military might.
If party politicians continue to skirt these problems, America may suffer the same fate as the vanished democracies that preceded it.
Even the glory of Rome faded. Why should we expect our fate to be any different if we fail to tackle our problems?
Zachary Hubbard is a retired Army officer and freelance writer residing in Upper Yoder Township. He is a member of The Tribune-Democrat Reader Advisory Committee.
America’s reign as world’s economic king in peril
As we stated at the beginning, we're never one to discount warnings. It's hard to not join Hubbard in his concern. However, it would do well to keep in mind the inherent strengths and depth of the United States economy.
That doesn't mean that a close eye shouldn't be kept on various economic indicators. But the demise of big industries never much caused much worry in these quarters.
Capitalism is dynamic: today's ailing K-Mart, was yesterday's number one retailer K-Mart. Who knows where today's number one retailer Wal-Mart will be in 20 years. While warnings of demise should be kept in mind, warnings of capitalism's dynamic nature should also be heeded.
Two of the big employers in the late 1800s were buggy-whip makers and factories using human cigar rollers.
by Mondoreb
images: prisonplanet; slate]
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Treason or Dementia?
It's hard to salute the flag when you're in a straitjacket.
John Hawkins at Right Wing News reveals one the thoughts of one brave KOS economic warrior and her solutions to what ails her world.After spending half her diary comparing America to Nazi Germany, Daily Kos diarist
Granny Doc openly roots for an "economic meltdown" in America, The parallels are undeniable, and I see only one solution if America, The Grand Experiment, is to survive.
Without pausing for breath or thought, she continues at length in the same vein.
I want to stand by and watch it all blow up.
I want the dollar to plunge to worthless paper.
I want the stock market to implode.
I want the economy to plunge into chaos.
I want the Chinese to call in all the debt they hold.
Poor Granny Doc! In America past, such talk would have earned her accommodations in a nice relaxing rubber room. There she could have calmed her fevered mind and contemplated how many buckles were on the nice white jacket that had been thoughtfully provided for her.
Something on the line of "I wrote this America-hating Screed and all I got was this lousy straight jacket."
Now she barely raises the attention of a few right wing bloggers looking for another "man bites moonbat" storyline. Is it treasonous to wish economic destruction on one's own country? Granny's too busy with rapturous thoughts of Americans selling apples and souplines stretching from Maine to Wisconsin to wonder whether a U.S. stock market implosion might set off an economic 'Big Bang'. No thoughts about treason wrinkle her well-furrowed brow.
Besides, treason is so passe on the Left.
Hawkins concludes with this advice to the obviously distraught Granny:Granny Doc better be careful. If she keeps writing posts like this, even someone as influential as Kos won't be able to get her a job any better than Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy in the Treasury Department of a future Clinton Administration.
Granny certainly would be in the running. One wishes Granny well, if only because it is to her crowd that Democrats are increasingly paying attention. They are anxious to hear what the Granny Docs at KOS are saying, after all, KOS is the new Democratic center.
The Democrats might be surprised that many Americans don't know who KOS is, nor do they care. They might care more about the American economic meltdown that is wished on their country by KOS's Granny Doc. Many might decide that the new Democrat center no longer speaks to them.
Of course, for KOS, Granny Doc and many Democrats: it's hard to put your finger in the wind when your fist is always in the air.
by Mondoreb
[image:tuberose]
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