Comments on: 11 Economic Headlines That Make You Wonder What In The World Is Actually Going On http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-economic-headlines-that-make-you-wonder-what-in-the-world-is-actually-going-on Are You Prepared For The Coming Economic Collapse And The Next Great Depression? Mon, 21 May 2012 02:40:41 +0000 hourly 1 By: Kenneth Evan http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-economic-headlines-that-make-you-wonder-what-in-the-world-is-actually-going-on/comment-page-1#comment-1667 Kenneth Evan Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:45:57 +0000 http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=308#comment-1667 Omer Ismail not only hits the nail on the head, he hits it with finesse and drives it home in one concise and accurate stroke. He expresses my sentiments so well I can add nothing, except to say, well done Omer! What you wrote is what every American should hear. Omer Ismail not only hits the nail on the head, he hits it with finesse and drives it home in one concise and accurate stroke. He expresses my sentiments so well I can add nothing, except to say, well done Omer! What you wrote is what every American should hear.

]]> By: Oliver http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-economic-headlines-that-make-you-wonder-what-in-the-world-is-actually-going-on/comment-page-1#comment-1631 Oliver Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:31:04 +0000 http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=308#comment-1631 According to Niall Fergusson in his book Empire, the US killed the British Empire with post WW2 debt. Looks like the boot is now on the other foot with respect to China. According to Niall Fergusson in his book Empire, the US killed the British Empire with post WW2 debt. Looks like the boot is now on the other foot with respect to China.

]]> By: cyber_rigger http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-economic-headlines-that-make-you-wonder-what-in-the-world-is-actually-going-on/comment-page-1#comment-1627 cyber_rigger Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:06:28 +0000 http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=308#comment-1627 How to fix things: 1. Have money backed by something. Gold and Silver worked well for years. 2. End "Free Trade". Everyone knows that it was just a tax loophole for importers, putting the local manufacturers out of work. 3. End the AMA monopoly. You can't lower health care by mandating insurance. How to fix things:

1. Have money backed by something. Gold and Silver worked well for years.

2. End “Free Trade”. Everyone knows that it was just a tax loophole for importers, putting the local manufacturers out of work.

3. End the AMA monopoly. You can’t lower health care by mandating insurance.

]]> By: Omer Ismail http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-economic-headlines-that-make-you-wonder-what-in-the-world-is-actually-going-on/comment-page-1#comment-1588 Omer Ismail Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:56:22 +0000 http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=308#comment-1588 The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: • From bondage to spiritual faith; • From spiritual faith to great courage; • From courage to liberty; • From liberty to abundance; • From abundance to complacency; • From complacency to apathy; • From apathy to dependence; • From dependence back into bondage. Or just as Arnold Toynbee presented history as the rise and fall of civilizations. The civilizations arose in response to some set of challenges of extreme difficulty, when their "creative minorities" devise solutions that reorientate their entire society. Societies decline when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and then they sink to nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of authoritarian minority their mimesis And just as Toynbee argued that "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." True societies are not intangible or unalterable machines but a network of social relationships within the border and therefore subject to both wise and unwise decisions they make. The beginning of wisdom is to recognize that the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan is not one that the United States can win. As a result of its initial miscalculations, misdirected planning, and inadequate preparation, Washington has lost the people's confidence and consent, and it is unlikely to win them back. Every day as the Americans assault their cities they lose further ground on the central front of world opinion. Too bad America because of its “military –industry complex” loves war - too bad it can't win any. America claims the moral high ground, as the leader of equality and democracy – but everything it does in world politics give rise to more questions that point to the hypocrisies and lip service of this country. What kind of world do Americans want for themselves? How can they possibly achieve it? What does it mean and what does it take to be decent, responsible, and effective citizens of the world brimming with American interpersonal cruelties and social injustices? These questions are asked all around the world, regardless of their political orientation. Whether it’s injustices in Viet Nam - My Lai, or CIA destroying interrogation videotapes or abusive interrogations of suspects , secret detention program at Guantánamo Bay, of "high-value detainees” or incidences at Abu Ghraib or renditions, the plural legal black holes, this country has created in the name of national security or Iraqi WMD, the current financial meltdown, the $60 trillion debt, the ever widening deficit, deindustrialization of America, the imperial overstretch, weakening dollar – America is a dying society. America is failing to recognise that the current world situation is somewhat same as the past turning points in history - the end of World War I, the federation of the American colonies, the Great Depression – moulded by the present encountering opening ways to future world transformations. I beg to differ to such optimistic leading thinkers as Francis Fukuyama and Thomas Friedman, who perceived democracy and globalization as great panaceas, and pessimists such as Samuel Huntington who foresees a "clash of civilizations." The force of the USA lay in its values, enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and in military and civilian criminal justice systems that reflected those values. It was because the Bush administration ignored more than before, this country is now habituated to the practise. I am coming to believe that present global map resembles that of the 19th century, when the reigning empire, Great Britain, gave the rising United States entree as a world power. This time it’s becoming America's turn to make space for China, India and others –and itself become “first among equals.” America can only make movies and that's the business they are good in. Other- wise what is healthy and American now - MacDonalds, KingBurger, Coke, Pepsi, Oracle, Microsoft, Campbell's WallMart and the list ends. The next failures in pipeline are the aeronautic industry. Regrettably, America is a bubble society, which is always in search of the quick-fix strategy to build wealth. Not only cars but nothing gets made with that psyche. Merrill Lynch just privately published to their clients a very scary report entitled, “The Emperors’s New Clothes in a Post Bubble Society.” I see America, throughout my remaining lifetime, in massive deficit problem with rising taxes and cutting spending. Expect both of those to happen.” I wish America can stay home and repairs its ills with 37 million Americans currently "struggling with incredible poverty, the only industrialized country in the world without universal health insurance, 23% of people living in America are functionally illiterate. 25% are a little better than functionally illiterate, America's total debt $60 Trillion,– and yet it insists on calling itself the richest country in the world. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage.
Or just as Arnold Toynbee presented history as the rise and fall of civilizations. The civilizations arose in response to some set of challenges of extreme difficulty, when their “creative minorities” devise solutions that reorientate their entire society.
Societies decline when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and then they sink to nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of authoritarian minority their mimesis
And just as Toynbee argued that
“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” True societies are not intangible or unalterable machines but a network of social relationships within the border and therefore subject to both wise and unwise decisions they make.
The beginning of wisdom is to recognize that the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan is not one that the United States can win. As a result of its initial miscalculations, misdirected planning, and inadequate preparation, Washington has lost the people’s confidence and consent, and it is unlikely to win them back.
Every day as the Americans assault their cities they lose further ground on the central front of world opinion. Too bad America because of its “military –industry complex” loves war – too bad it can’t win any.
America claims the moral high ground, as the leader of equality and democracy – but everything it does in world politics give rise to more questions that point to the hypocrisies and lip service of this country. What kind of world do Americans want for themselves? How can they possibly achieve it? What does it mean and what does it take to be decent, responsible, and effective citizens of the world brimming with American interpersonal cruelties and social injustices? These questions are asked all around the world, regardless of their political orientation.
Whether it’s injustices in Viet Nam – My Lai, or CIA destroying interrogation videotapes or abusive interrogations of suspects , secret detention program at Guantánamo Bay, of “high-value detainees” or incidences at Abu Ghraib or renditions, the plural legal black holes, this country has created in the name of national security or Iraqi WMD, the current financial meltdown, the $60 trillion debt, the ever widening deficit, deindustrialization of America, the imperial overstretch, weakening dollar – America is a dying society.
America is failing to recognise that the current world situation is somewhat same as the past turning points in history – the end of World War I, the federation of the American colonies, the Great Depression – moulded by the present encountering opening ways to future world transformations.
I beg to differ to such optimistic leading thinkers as Francis Fukuyama and Thomas Friedman, who perceived democracy and globalization as great panaceas, and pessimists such as Samuel Huntington who foresees a “clash of civilizations.”
The force of the USA lay in its values, enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and in military and civilian criminal justice systems that reflected those values. It was because the Bush administration ignored more than before, this country is now habituated to the practise.
I am coming to believe that present global map resembles that of the 19th century, when the reigning empire, Great Britain, gave the rising United States entree as a world power. This time it’s becoming America’s turn to make space for China, India and others –and itself become “first among equals.”
America can only make movies and that’s the business they are good in. Other- wise what is healthy and American now – MacDonalds, KingBurger, Coke, Pepsi, Oracle, Microsoft, Campbell’s WallMart and the list ends.
The next failures in pipeline are the aeronautic industry. Regrettably, America is a bubble society, which is always in search of the quick-fix strategy to build wealth.
Not only cars but nothing gets made with that psyche. Merrill Lynch just privately published to their clients a very scary report entitled, “The Emperors’s New Clothes in a Post Bubble Society.”
I see America, throughout my remaining lifetime, in massive deficit problem with rising taxes and cutting spending. Expect both of those to happen.”
I wish America can stay home and repairs its ills with 37 million Americans currently “struggling with incredible poverty, the only industrialized country in the world without universal health insurance, 23% of people living in America are functionally illiterate. 25% are a little better than functionally illiterate, America’s total debt $60 Trillion,– and yet it insists on calling itself the richest country in the world.

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