This is why we need the death penalty...

[mistermack]

The American economy has a nifty little trick it plays, which permits the USA to boost its own economy at everyone else's expense. A bit like a leech sucking someone else's blood.

Since WWII, the American dollar has been used for international trade, such as buying oil. This gives an unreal value to the American dollar. The US administration exploits this by printing an extra one trillion dollars per year. This is a trillion dollars in their coffers for no productive outlay.

Since the USA has an annual GDP of about 17 trillion, and a growth rate of about 2% per annum, this trillion dollars printed is roughly three times what the internal economic growth can handle. However, it is unloaded on other nations as dollars for buying oil etc.

So basically, a big part of the high American standard of living comes from parasitising other nations. Ho hum!

I can't agree with that. The US dollar is free-floating on the world markets, so the value is set by the buyers and sellers. Nobody forces other countries to use dollars.
If the dollar gets too strong, it would harm the US exports long-term, and suck in imports, killing the US economy.
Printing more is the only lever they have to keep it from going too high.

[Brian Peacock]

And yet, as BG pointed out, everybody needs dollars to buy oil.

[mistermack]

And yet, as BG pointed out, everybody needs dollars to buy oil.

Only because that's what they choose to do.
If Russia sells a barrel of oil to China, they could choose to do it in any currency they want.
Actually, I believe that Russia and China do complete transactions in their own currencies now.
Using dollars to buy oil only locks up dollars for a very short time. Sometimes just seconds.
Once you've sold your barrel, and got your dollars, you can convert that to any currency you like within seconds. And they do. The amount of dollars locked up in oil deals can't keep growing year on year. Unless the seller chooses to HOLD dollars as an investment, or savings.

I suppose the futures market might provide a holding ground for dollars. From what I've read it doesn't though, because you don't pay cash up front. You contract to buy in the future at a certain price.

[Seth]

In short, as with pretty much anything you say, Seth, once the subject veers towards politics, the only civilised response is to smile politely, make ones excuses and leave.

You're the one who brought up feces.

Be fair, once you've swallowed it, it's going to come up again! And you are definitely the one that force-fed it to me!

No, I merely served it up on a silver platter, you gobbled it up all on your own.

[Seth]

The American economy has a nifty little trick it plays, which permits the USA to boost its own economy at everyone else's expense. A bit like a leech sucking someone else's blood.

Since WWII, the American dollar has been used for international trade, such as buying oil. This gives an unreal value to the American dollar. The US administration exploits this by printing an extra one trillion dollars per year. This is a trillion dollars in their coffers for no productive outlay.

Since the USA has an annual GDP of about 17 trillion, and a growth rate of about 2% per annum, this trillion dollars printed is roughly three times what the internal economic growth can handle. However, it is unloaded on other nations as dollars for buying oil etc.

So basically, a big part of the high American standard of living comes from parasitising other nations. Ho hum!

We just give them what they want. There's a sucker born every minute. Caveat emptor.

[Blind groper]

Well at least Seth is being honest in his caveat emptor, and not pretending that the USA is not being a parasite.

[Seth]

Well at least Seth is being honest in his caveat emptor, and not pretending that the USA is not being a parasite.

I prefer "predator." We're the top of the food chain and the rest of you are just juicy morsels for our consumption. You're socialist herd-animals who stand stupidly baaing in consternation as the higher forms of life feed upon you.

IOW, you're sheeple and you get what you deserve.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Well at least Seth is being honest in his caveat emptor, and not pretending that the USA is not being a parasite.

I prefer "predator." We're the top of the food chain and the rest of you are just juicy morsels for our consumption. You're socialist herd-animals who stand stupidly baaing in consternation as the higher forms of life feed upon you.

IOW, you're sheeple and you get what you deserve.

But you, on the other hand, are free from all that. Your libertarian aura of inviolable FREEDUM protects you from ever being fleeced. Except by ex-wives, obviously. Against such, no defence is known.

[mistermack]

Well at least Seth is being honest in his caveat emptor, and not pretending that the USA is not being a parasite.

I prefer "predator." We're the top of the food chain and the rest of you are just juicy morsels for our consumption.

Except that it's bollocks, and the USA doesn't make money out of it's currency.
Print more, and you devalue what's out there.
Basically, you are just taxing the people who are holding dollars. The currency markets know EXACTLY what's being printed, and what's likely to be printed, and value the currencies accordingly.
Quantitative easing (which is what you're talking about) is a panic measure, where the government tries to smooth out the peaks and hollows of the economy. But it harms prospects of investment in your country's economy, which is why it's usually a last resort for any country :

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2 ... uch-worse/

[Seth]

Well at least Seth is being honest in his caveat emptor, and not pretending that the USA is not being a parasite.

I prefer "predator." We're the top of the food chain and the rest of you are just juicy morsels for our consumption. You're socialist herd-animals who stand stupidly baaing in consternation as the higher forms of life feed upon you.

IOW, you're sheeple and you get what you deserve.

But you, on the other hand, are free from all that. Your libertarian aura of inviolable FREEDUM protects you from ever being fleeced. Except by ex-wives, obviously. Against such, no defence is known.

Well, she wasn't a "wife," just a "fiancee," but it's true enough that I had to spend a bunch of money to get rid of her, which was the civilized and reasonable alternative to burying her in a hole in the desert.

[Blind groper]

To mistermack

There are two ways you can get away with printing more money without devaluing the currency.

1. You can print just enough to match the growth in GDP, which is what most nations try to do.

2. Uniquely to the USA, a lot more than that is printed (3 times, in fact) by selling the excess to other nations.

That is not predation, as Seth suggests. It is parasitism. It is the economic leech that sneaks out of the darkness and latches on to a blood vessel.

Economic predation is, of course, equally bad or worse. It takes the form of those who attack, and steal, without returning any value for money. Such as bank robbers, pirates, or countries like Israel, that steal land from others by conquest. Economic predation is disgusting!

[Seth]

To mistermack

There are two ways you can get away with printing more money without devaluing the currency.

1. You can print just enough to match the growth in GDP, which is what most nations try to do.

2. Uniquely to the USA, a lot more than that is printed (3 times, in fact) by selling the excess to other nations.

That is not predation, as Seth suggests. It is parasitism. It is the economic leech that sneaks out of the darkness and latches on to a blood vessel.

No it's not, it's capitalism. You can't sell something to someone if they don't want to buy it. Other countries buy our money because it's the world's most reliable currency standard and has been for a very long time. However unreliable it may be now, it's still far more reliable than any other nation except perhaps Switzerland, which doesn't have enough to make it the standard by which all other currencies are judged.

Dangling bait in front of sheeple and then fleecing them when they come and nibble is perfectly appropriate. That's what sheeple are for after all.

Economic predation is, of course, equally bad or worse.

Depends on whether you're the predator or the prey. It does suck to be prey, but then again if you're prey, it's your own damned fault and evolution demands that you pay the price for being weak.

It takes the form of those who attack, and steal, without returning any value for money. Such as bank robbers, pirates, or countries like Israel, that steal land from others by conquest. Economic predation is disgusting!

Well, I was distinguishing between being a parasite and being a predator. Don't overextend the analogy. We're capitalists and we give value for value. We don't steal from anybody, we sell them what they ask us to sell them. Not our fault if they are too stupid to make use of it.

[Blind groper]

Fortunately, Seth, things are changing. Other currencies such as the Euro are coming into play as international trading currencies. I wonder what will happen to the American economy when it is no longer able to suck on other nation's jugulars?

[Seth]

Fortunately, Seth, things are changing. Other currencies such as the Euro are coming into play as international trading currencies. I wonder what will happen to the American economy when it is no longer able to suck on other nation's jugulars?

Global thermonuclear war...we don't like losing, and if we don't win, nobody wins.

[rainbow]

Fortunately, Seth, things are changing. Other currencies such as the Euro are coming into play as international trading currencies. I wonder what will happen to the American economy when it is no longer able to suck on other nation's jugulars?

Global thermonuclear war...we don't like losing, and if we don't win, nobody wins.

You've already lost, you just don't know it.