Paul Craig Roberts: The Collapsing US Economy and the End of the World
Submitted by go213mph on Sun, 07/08/2012 - 13:25In a recent column, “Can The World Survive Washington’s Hubris,” I promised to examine whether the US economy will collapse before Washington in its pursuit of world hegemony brings us into military confrontation with Russia and China. This is likely to be an ongoing subject on this site, so this column will not be the final word.
Washington has been at war since October, 2001, when President George W. Bush concocted an excuse to order the US invasion of Afghanistan....
These two wars have been expensive. According to estimates by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, when all costs are counted the Iraq invasion cost US taxpayers $3 trillion dollars. Ditto for the Afghan war. In other words, the two gratuitous wars doubled the US public debt. This is the reason there is no money for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, the environment, and the social safety net.
Americans got nothing out of the wars, but as the war debt will never be paid off, US citizens and their descendants will have to pay interest on $6,000 billion of war debt in perpetuity.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/07/08/the-collapsing-us...
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China's already dependent on
China's already dependent on the US (and in danger of collapsing itself with 80,000 violent riots annually over things like food), and Russia's declining population means it's not going to be relevant in a few years.
The US already has a world hegemony (or as I've said, it's a de facto world government), but the American economy itself (as distinguished from the transcendant US/global economy) won't collapse, it'll simply devolve into a banana republic similar to Mexico with a massive gap between the rich and poor.
You are wrong. Russia is GROWING
Read "return of the bear" on giavellireport. Russian birth rates have moved up, they have ZERO debt, lots of energy, and are experiencing a BOOM.
Mexico
This is why Mexico should be liberated otherwise with a collapse there would be much confusion and turmoil on that border.
donvino
I believe that our country
I believe that our country tends to adapt very quickly to external forces, in this case we are massively in debt to China and our attitudes and policies have consequently become more "Chinese" in their authoritarian perspective. The US is meeting China halfway and we are all getting the worst of both worlds.
www.gunowners.org
Not sure why you were
Not sure why you were downvoted, especially since whoever downvoted you didn't care to respond to you directly, but I boosted ya by one. Not because I agree, necessarily, but rather because the assertions you make can be supported with evidence as much as some of the alternative perspectives.
Whoever downvoted you should just have asked you to present some for further discussion.
And that's another bone I
And that's another bone I have to pick, why do they keep asking me for evidence when they have a goddamn Google search bar at the top of their browsers?
I don't think they want to actually debate and learn, I think they just want to argue with someone because they've reached menopause.
Wow, too much negativity
And all we do is sit idly and watch the bombs drop?, You can't just give up easily, deep down in all your hearts you do want change, their are patriots in all of us, that voice tells YOU everyday what needs to be done, do we listen to it?, or do we let humanity die off because of some psycho freaks in power?, or de we give them what they deserve?, The military ranks have deep strife and conflict, Ron Paul's idealogical intrusion has taken over bigtime, he commands the loyalty of the troops if you think about, just imagine troops and generals who know the truth to this and are told to go fight Russia or china, they wont do it, 89 gun owners in Americans soon are going to lose it because of the gun control treaties, there is always ignorant ppl, u cant change everyone, but you only need a majority to prevail. this is going to be war of humanity, you decide what you do
Nice article - conclusion is more like a Dark Age tho...
The almost complete loss of US manufacturing and the increase technological knowledge moving to Asia means a real US recovery is probably not possible at least for a quarter of a century.
I also believe gold is being manipulated a certain degree by the US markets, as you can see the Asia prices for the metal are higher.
The conclusion of a nuclear war is a interesting thought, more so that Washington would consider this as the "out". The 1% could not escape a nuclear exchange. But maybe this is why a guy like Larry Ellison buys an entire Hawaiian island.
My view is that Washington anticipates a new dark age, a period where the population atrophies 25-30% after 50-100 years their is a re-emerged society with significant new forms of industrialization (energy, etc)
"This isn't what the govern meant"
"Win the crowd and you will win your freedom"
Another great article by Roberts...from July 4th
It has some really great 9/11 observations.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/07/04/can-americans-esc...
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Roberts has nothing new to tell us and nothing proactive at all
He does call 'em like he sees 'em but notice on war how "that's why we can't afford...the social safety net"?
Seems like most of our economists find we can't afford our projected entitlements with $0 on defence spending so the problem is a wee bit bigger.
From there he launches into a "misery index" (ok in what market or function is that used in the real world) and a retail-goods based interpretation of inflation.
Brilliant if useless. You'll never hear Roberts criticize the Fed. He never was an ally in monetary reform. The rest makes sense in a topical sort of way, he has a tendency to get lost in the muck but he made it through, as usual to ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE. That's another thing you'll never see anything of from Roberts: a way to make a change. A way for US to do something about it. He's great, if WAY LATE with the doom part, usually a couple years behind us but he NEVER comes up with the "here's what we're going to do an you can help".
Our academics wipe the floor with this guy.
Hidden Harvest: Long Term Food Storage Techniques For Rich And Poor is and inespensive ebook for beginners to advanced food storage preppers. Download one today!
Agreed.But there are lots of
Agreed.
But there are lots of people whose perspectives- flawed and incomplete though they may be at times- are still worth considering, and PCR is one of them. His 'insider' experience and knowledge combined with his unorthodox bent towards truth- if not the entirety of it, such as the role of the Fed- lend him a credibility in articulating current affairs that is helpful as we piece together our worldview.
There are many with whom I disagree vehemently on a number of things- such as PCR- but whose writing I find insightful and valuable (think Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, etc).
Orchestrating Conflict
Article provides a good big picture analysis.
Let it not be said that we did nothing.-Ron Paul
Stand up for what you believe in, even if you stand alone.-Sophia Magdalena Scholl
I had not finished reading the whole article before I posted it
But I have now and damn, what a sobering analysis from Reagans former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Paul Craig Roberts pulls no punches when it comes to 9/11 truth either (not in this article but in several others recently). Dude has some serious stones!
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Very good for getting past
Very good for getting past all the periphial issues and getting to the big question.
This is really the biggest question facing the world right now-will America go broke and collapse before Washington starts WW3? These look to be pretty much the only choices now.
The American people have shown themlelves too stupid to support Ron Paul and that was our last chance at putting the brakes on this runaway train crash so what's left will be either a financial met down and Soviet style break up or a major war, you know, a real war with an actual military rather than a turkey shoot somewhere in the middle east or central Asia and perhaps even a civil war here and then a break up? Those seem to be the most likely things.
I tend to see it going down a
I tend to see it going down a particular way, though plans could change. I believe that the world banks will prop up the financial systems as long as they can. The NWO will continue to take control of all sovereign countries using the military industrial complex, while these countries are put under control of the corporate elite and the world bank.
Russia and China will continue to fight proxy wars with the NWO until they are backed into a corner and forced to act out. We will likely see another false flag in the US that will give them justification for a full on attack of Iran. Who knows what Russia will do, but they know who is running the show. They may just decide to pull back and prepare for a bigger conflict, or stand in the way and see it through now.
Russia and China will likely just keep buying up gold and silver, and sucking up global resources. This is why they are willing to protect Iran as an independent state.
At some point, the world financial systems will fail. The US will go into a quick period of civil unrest, followed by an authoritarian lock down. There will be a period of reorganization into a total fascist and totalitarian state. Many people will die due to a lack of food and medical care. Vaccines will kill off many more through the spread of disease and hunger. Foreign troops will come in and help the US government secure the cities and eventually all populated areas. Guns and food stores will be confiscated, and everyone will be required to sign up with the system. Camps will sprout up for political dissidents. The plans for "reeducation" will be put into action. All property will be seized. An official global government will be formed and the US constitution will be replaced by international law and rule.
The anti-Christ will appear, and the end of the world will ensue.
Sounds about right.
Unfortunately.
But we can certainly hold out a reasonable hope that the Civil War, that most certainly that will erupt when our own government starts killing and imprisoning political dissidents, will cause a disintegration of our corrupt government. Anarchy would be a welcome substitute compared to what we have now, when locals rely on their own self-sufficient efforts to live and subsist.
Our country was built around the concept of strong local governance vs this centrally-planned, tyrannical behemoth we have now.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a rEVOLution before tomorrow morning." - Henry Ford
About 60%
think the centrally planned behemoth is their friendie, keeping them "safe" and ending "racism", "poverty", "obesity", "drug use", and "educating" them and Ron Paul is a "nut". Since we have no manufacturing base, where are the munitions going to come from for a civil war? War is not the answer, peaceful revolution is.