Obama slams Republicans for threat to blow up entire economy

[pErvinalia]

Keynesianism = Marxism? Ok.

Did I say "="? No.

You're trying to evade again. You claim that free markets = child slavery. Prove it.

Did I say "="? No.

[cronus]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... l5KftLUk3k

US government shutdown: Doing away with the dollar

What would the world look like without the dollar supremacy? US officials are hammering out a deal to end the government shutdown and increase its debt limit, hoping to avoid a global financial meltdown. Meanwhile, some eyed alternatives to the US dollar to avoid a repeat.

Without a deal, the US treasury is expected to exhaust its ability to borrow money on Thursday. Soon after that, the government would be unable to pay all of its bills and then forced to default. The US dollar is the reserve currency for most of the world, so a default would be a significant shock to the global economy, perhaps comparable to the recession of 2008.

China, the largest foreign owner of US treasury bonds, would feel much of the pain. Earlier this week, an editorial from its state news agency, Xinhua, called for a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar. "It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world," it said.

An organisation like the International Monetary Fund could theoretically create an entirely new international currency, says Benjamin Cohen of the University of California, Santa Barbara, but political disagreement would raise its ugly head again. "Think of all the trouble the European Monetary Union has had managing with just 17 countries. Now multiply by ten."

"I think it much more likely that another national currency becomes more important in international markets," says Menzie Chinn of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "The Chinese are, with mixed emotions, pursuing a path of making their own currency more international."

But don't expect to be cashing in renminbi any time soon. The last big shift in reserve currency, from British pounds to the US dollar, began in the 1950s and took two decades.

(continued)

[Clinton Huxley]

The "Smart Money" is on the Rockall Puffin, a currency I just made up.

[pErvinalia]

The Aussie dollar is fucken sweet, mate. Get some of it!

[Clinton Huxley]

The Aussie dollar is fucken sweet, mate. Get some of it!

Only because the Chinese can't get enough of your rocks...

[pErvinalia]

Our currency should be just lumps of coal, or lumps of iron ore.

[JimC]

There are strands of American thought that would like to retreat behind a "fortress America", snarling occasionally at the rest of the world...

Indeed. I see one of the potential candidates for the next EU Foreign Affairs wallah is calling for a beefed up European defence policy, sans America, as the US becomes less able and willing to intervene. Blighty, of course, will do its best to scupper this as nothing must affect our slavish adherence to the US. Bad choice, to my mind, as the UK (with France) could be in the driving seat of a purely European defence policy.

The multipolar world......

A new entente cordiale...

You realise you would have to fight side by side with Svarty...

[Clinton Huxley]

Our currency should be just lumps of coal, or lumps of iron ore.

Would makle pay day interesting, everyone heading home with their wheelbarrows.

[Clinton Huxley]

There are strands of American thought that would like to retreat behind a "fortress America", snarling occasionally at the rest of the world...

Indeed. I see one of the potential candidates for the next EU Foreign Affairs wallah is calling for a beefed up European defence policy, sans America, as the US becomes less able and willing to intervene. Blighty, of course, will do its best to scupper this as nothing must affect our slavish adherence to the US. Bad choice, to my mind, as the UK (with France) could be in the driving seat of a purely European defence policy.

The multipolar world......

A new entente cordiale...

You realise you would have to fight side by side with Svarty...

I think he has already pre-surrendered.

[Svartalf]

There are strands of American thought that would like to retreat behind a "fortress America", snarling occasionally at the rest of the world...

Indeed. I see one of the potential candidates for the next EU Foreign Affairs wallah is calling for a beefed up European defence policy, sans America, as the US becomes less able and willing to intervene. Blighty, of course, will do its best to scupper this as nothing must affect our slavish adherence to the US. Bad choice, to my mind, as the UK (with France) could be in the driving seat of a purely European defence policy.

The multipolar world......

Not happening, we're in the middle of reducing our armed forces.

[Clinton Huxley]

If the US retreats into its shell, we may need to reconsider our armed forces budgets. The Bear already covets a freshwater port in India and their agents are all over Persia...

[pErvinalia]

Fucken Straya, mate!

[Coito ergo sum]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... l5KftLUk3k

US government shutdown: Doing away with the dollar

What would the world look like without the dollar supremacy? US officials are hammering out a deal to end the government shutdown and increase its debt limit, hoping to avoid a global financial meltdown.

Not raising the debt ceiling will cause a "global financial meltdown?" Where do they get that?

Without a deal, the US treasury is expected to exhaust its ability to borrow money on Thursday. Soon after that, the government would be unable to pay all of its bills and then forced to default. The US dollar is the reserve currency for most of the world, so a default would be a significant shock to the global economy, perhaps comparable to the recession of 2008.

All it has to do is service its debt, which doesn't take a debt limit increase. It has cash flow to do that, and pay its bills. They just can't increase borrowing.

Not increasing the debt limit is a good thing.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. ...Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here'. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and Grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

\

[Clinton Huxley]

The US spending something like $3.5 billion a day more than it is taking in tax receipts, I read somewhere. That's an eye-watering amount of rhino. Of course, I doubt the UK is any better, proportionally speaking.

[Coito ergo sum]

The US spending something like $3.5 billion a day more than it is taking in tax receipts, I read somewhere. That's an eye-watering amount of rhino. Of course, I doubt the UK is any better, proportionally speaking.

Yes, but raising the debt ceiling allows the government to even worse than that.

To me, if they can't responsibly cut spending, then they have to slash the budget. Departments are going to have to do what private entities have to do. Figure it out. Cut wherever it can be cut. Start negotiating better deals with contractors.

Auto companies, for example, will often call a vendor and say "if you want to continue with us, you have to cut 10% out." Then it's up to the vendor to figure it out.

There is almost always a way to cut something, and is there really a person in the room who thinks that the budget of the US (or the UK) is not heavily bloated with waste?

We need to spend less in the next fiscal year, in absolute terms, than we did this year. That would be good. and, I am sure it's easily possible, if people will be empowered to do it.