USA's økonomi

Bureau of Labor Statistics Home Page

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Twenty questions: Social Justice Quiz. (answers below).

Michael Ventura: "America No. 1 ?", 030205.

CIA har en World Factbook (tilgængelig på deres Website). Den har bl.a. en rækkefølge efter betalingsbalanceoverskud i USD. Kina er nr 1 ! Rusland nr 4, Norge nr 6, Venezuela nr 11, Sverige nr 12.

Nu er det Kina, der bestemmer USAs rentesatser, Paul Craig Roberts.

USAs skattesystem   Udlandsgælden

Krisen

241011, Totally Corrupt America: Paul Craig Roberts. Information Clearing House.Trhe fmancial crisis, which is very much still with us, did not result from accident or miscalculation; neither did it result because of a flaw in Alan Greenspan's theory, as he told Congress when a feeble effort was made to hold him accountable. ... As Reckless Endangerment [bog af Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner] shows, fraud characterized every stage of the process from the fraudulent borrower incomes and credit scores that mortgage issuers gave to unqualified buyers, through the securitization of the mortgages and their triple-A investment grade ratings by the rating agencies (Standard & Poor's especially, but also Moody's and Fitch) to the investment banks that sold what the banks knew was junk to investors around the world as investment grade securities. Indeed, Goldman Sachs was simultaneously betting against the mortgage derivatives that it was selling to clients. Investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, which once considered it a matter of honor to represent the interests of customers, took advantage of the trust that had been built up in the past to commit fraud against customers in order to advance the banks' short-term profits and the out-sized multi-million dollar managerial bonuses that these fraudulent profits produced. Morgenson and Rosner provide a number of unique accounts of how those benefitting from fraud were able to defeat laws that were passed that would have held them to account. For example, the state of Georgia passed perfect legislation that held predatory lending to account. William J. Brennan Jr. and Georgia Govemor Roy E. Barnes got the Georgia Fair Lending Act hrough the state legislature. It was a model for other states. As the federal regulators had thrown in the towel, the state laws would have prevent[ed] the worst part of the financial crisis, it [if] not prevented the crisis altogether. The Georgia law only lasted a few months, because the rating agencies saw that their enormous profits from issuing fraudulent investment grade ratings were threatened by the law. The corrupt rating agencies mischaracterized the consumer protection act as a jihad by regulators. Standard & Poor's declared that it would no longer allow Georgia mortgages to be placed in mortgage securities that it rated. ... These kind of mafia strong-armed tactics in order to protect at all costs the short-term mega-bonuses that drove the totally fraudulent system have never been held accountable or punished. Totally innocent people are held indefinitely and tortured by the US govemment for no other reason than to convince the gullible public that they are endangered by terrorists, but those who wiped out the home ownership and retirement pensions of millions of Americans now hold high and honorable positions on corporate boards and US regulatory agencies. ... Regulators turned a blind eye to obvious criminal fraud, and were rewarded with lucrative positions in the financial community. The same for the US senators and representatives who repealed Glass-Steagal and other financial regulations. For example former US senator Phil Gramm who spearheaded the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. which separated commercial from investment banking, the repeal of which set up the financial crisis, was rewarded by being made vice chairman of the mega-bank UBS, a Swiss global financial services company. What Taibbi, Morgenson and Rosner make clear is that while monster criminals continue to collect their multi-million dollar annual incomes, depressed single mothers, deserted by the men who fathered their child, are sent to prison for having small quantities of illegal drugs to boost their depressed spirits, and their children are put out to adoption. This is "justice" in America where there is "freedom and democracy.'

090511, PressTV - 'Paper dollar destroying world economy'. In an address to the fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, Ahmadinejad said that the cash injected into the global economy in the form valueless US dollars amount to over USD 32 trillion, IRNA reported. This is while the US budget deficit for the 2011 fiscal year is expected to reach a figure above USD 1.6 trillion," he added. fhe Iranian president also pointed that the US foreign debt now approaching over USD 14.6 trillion, while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States stands at around USD 14 trillion. .... President Ahmadinejad further said the era of colonialism is coming to an end and the management of world issues shoutd be reformed. He also proposed the formation of an independent commission to assess the extent of damage inflicted on oppressed nations during the era of colonialism, and to oblige former colonialist powers to pay indemnites.

060511, Reuters, Fannie Mae seeks $8.5 billion from taxpayers. Including the latest request, the firm has taken about $100 billion from the U.S. government since it was seized in 2008, though it has also paid about $12.4 billion to taxpayers in interest. ... The plan to put them into conservatorship was meant to be temporary, although it is likely to be years before a long-term replacement structure takes shape.

230311, India Times, The Economic Times, US home sales slump to lowest level since 1960's. Sales of new homes in the United States have slumped to the lowest level since the 1960's, official data showed Wednesday, offering more evidence of an lingering real estate crisls. Sales tumbled nearly 17 percent in February, the Commerce Department said, to a seasonally adjusted total of 250,000 sales during the month. ... At the current rate it would take almost nine months for the all the new homes on the US market to be sold - if no more homes are bullt. .. Despite low home prices and ultra-low interest rates the market has faltered as banks have tightened up loan requirements, ending years of profligate consumer borrowing.

280211, The Guardian, Gary Younge, Wisconsin is Making the Battle Lines Clear in America's Hidden Class War. You can tell a great deal about a nation's anxieties and aspirations by the discrepancy between reality and popular perception. Polls last year showed that in the US 61% think the country spends too much on foreign aid. This makes sense once you understand that the average American is under the illusion that 25% of the federal budget goes on foreign aid (the real figure is 1%). Similarly, a Mori poll in Britain in 2002 revealed that more than a third of the country thought there were too many immigrants. Little wonder. The mean estimate was that immigrants comprise 23% of the country; the actual number was about 4%. ... but people's attempts to make sense of the world they experience through the distorting filters of media representation, popular prejudice and national myths."' ... Meanwhile, a Gallup poll in 2005 showed that while only 2% of Americans described themselves as "rich", 31% thought it very likely or somewhat likely they would "ever be rich". But trends and ongoing events are forcing a reappraisal of that self-image. Social mobility has stalled.  .... Inequality of income and wealth has been more readily accepted in the US because equality of opportunity has long been assumed. ... Polls suggest the public is siding with the unions locally and nationally. A survey last week showed 53% against cutting benefits and pay for government workers and 61% opposed to removing collective bargaining. Even conservative polis suggest a majority in Wisconsin \s opposed to Walker's ittempt to eliminate collective bargaining. ,.... But these are no ordinary times. For if organised labour has fallen out of favour, the illusion that you can make it on your own is not far behind. A Pew survey in 2008 - before the banking system imploded - showed that fewer Americans than at any time in 50 years thought they were moving forward in life.  ... His agenda [Gov. Walker] has nothing to do with redressing a fiscal imbalance and everything to do with exploiting the crisis to deliver a killer blow to organised labour. If fixing the budget deficit were really Walker's priority, he would not have waved through $140m in tax breaks for multinationals or refused to take federal funds for transport or broadband development.

140211, RTE News France wants new global finance system ... French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde ... At the same time, international capital flows should be better regulated and the role of the Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund should be reinforced by the inclusion of China's yuan in the system.

040111, Business Insider - Joe Weisenthal, Tim Geithner, Fannie, And Freddie Are Getting Slammed For The New Stealth Bailout of Bank of America. Says Chris Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics: "This looks to me like a gift rom Tim Geithner... there's politics all over this." ... Of course, this isn't the end of the story, and Bank of America still has its massive exposure to non-agency MBS holders, including PIMCO, the New York Fed, and the Monolines, like MBIA.

Dokumentet har link til a guide to Bank of America's possible exposure.

Krisen skyldes i høj grad bankernes spekulation. Måske er den direkte fremkaldt for at få statsstøtte. 600 mia. USD i socialhjælp er jo ikke at kimse af. Forhåbentlig indeholder Wikileaks fra Bank of America nogen gode dokumenter. De bør dukke op på AlterNet. Lauren Kelley skriver 030111 om Bank of America's arbejde med skadebegrænsning (art.nr. 420980) Scrambling to Mount Defense Amid Threat of Devastating WikiLeaks Reveal.

Udlandsgælden

060511, Reuters, UPDATE 2-China pushes U.S. on debt ahead of high-level talks. China, wielding its huge dollar holdings, on Friday pressed Washington to tackle its huge fiscal deficit and said it would raise the issue of discrimination against Chinese Investors at high-level talks next week. Senior Chinese officials also made clear that U.S. demands for Beijing to raise sharply the value of the yuan currency and to end a crackdown on dissent - both irritants in ties between the world's two biggest economies - would gain little ground at next week's Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington. .... The White House is in tense negotiations with Republican lawmakers over rival proposals to tackle the budget deficit, expected to reach $1.4 trillion this year and a serious worry for governments like China that buy heavily in U.S. Treasury bonds and other dollar assets. .... Zhu said,  ... "For the present stage we believe that the most crucial thing is that the U.S. economy maintains a vigorous impetus towards recovery and that this developing trend is maintained," Zhu said.  ... Beijing complains that Washington, while pushing for greater access for U.S. firms in the Chinese market, imposes unwarranted restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States, often citing national security concerns. ... The Obama administration has said it will use the strategic dialogue to press China about human rights - a sensitive topic for Beijing, which fears potential unrest inspired by uprisings across the Arab world and which has taken an increasingly harsh line against dissidents in recent months.

131210, ICH, Market alarm as US fails to control biggest debt in history: US Treasuries last week suffered their biggest two-day sell-off since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The borrowing costs of the government of the world's largest economy have now risen by a quarter over the past four weeks. http://bit.ly/gij2kx

140910, Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Chinese think tank warns US it will emerge as loser in trade war. A State Council think-tank in China has warned Washington that the US will come off worst in a trade war if it imposes sanctions against Beijing over the two nations' currency spat. Ding Yifan, a policy guru at theDevelopment Research Centre, said China could respond by selling holdings of US debt, estimated at over $1.5 trillion (£963bn). This would trigger a rise in US interest rates. ... Gabriel Stein from Lombard Street Research [citeres for, at det ville være til større skade for Kina. Men argumentationen for det synspunkt fortaber sig i tåge. OJ]

240810, Huffington Post, Naomi Wolf, Banks Siding Against the Customer in Fraud Cases. ... I noticed eventually that checkbooks were missing from my home, and finally my accountant got enough of the records to see an unmistakable pattern of fraud, and called my attention to it. I filed a police report and alerted WaMu to the fraud. .... Then the same officials who had directed me to keep the accounts open, disappeared - systematically, for just over six months. When I sought to talk to the fraud department, I still could not get records - including my own missing bank statements - even to see the full extent of my losses. .... At eight months after the fraud discovery was confirmed - eight months of trying to communicate with officials and a fraud department who were oddly unavailable or unresponsive -I received a form letter from the WaMu Fraud Department advising me that according to the regulations, I had had a six month window for taking action; and (since WaMu had played out the clock for eight months) the letter asserted that I had waited 'too long' and my case was closed. [!!!!!] Inadvertently, subsequent to that, a WaMu bank official handed me the wrong file - wrong from his point of view; illuminating from mine, and from any consumer's. It contained emails, some of which you can see at TheSmokingGun.com, from WaMu bank officials to one another ~ and including emails from and to their counsel, PR department and and the fraud department ~ that take as given that stonewalling a client with a fraud claim on the bank is standard practice; and yet one freaked-out bank official in the emails warns his colleagues that if their mechanisms in this regard became known, their practices would be all over the newspapers. ... The shift from paper checks clearing physically, to electronic bank transactions, benefits the banking industry immensely,' he notes. The reason? It generates interest on the 'float time' that is still reckoned by the time that paper takes physically to clear, even while the electronic transaction is instantaneous; so it is in the interest of he banking industry to have as much electronic banking as possible. But electronic banking is much easier to hack - and identity theft and bank fraud have skyrocketed accordingly; but the bank benefits a second time with every case of bank fraud and identity theft - because of the immense fees - overdraft fees, bad check fees, that can amount to hundreds or even thousands of dollars with each corrupted account -- racked up by the corrupted accounts.

190810, ICH, Danny Schechter, Too Big To Fail and, Too Big To Jail. Another day, another bank in the news -- with the settlement blues. ... What have these settlements settled other than payoffs substituting for criminal prosecutions? Bear in mind that very little, if any, of this money wrested from the banksters by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies goes back to the people who were ripped off in the first place. ... While I don't think filling our prisons with white-collar criminals will fix the economy, it might lead to overdue improvements in shameful prison practices. It also might send an overdue signal. ... Their "logic": Better to keep the anger focused on distractions rather than the financial practices that really hurt average Americans. Meanwhile, banking costs go up. They are charging for checking accounts they didn't before. ... At the same time, the media outlets running all those ads for General Motors, the car company saved by the taxpayers and in which "we" have a 61 percent stake, have played down GM's recent $3.5 billion investment in subprime lender AmeriCredit made the day after financial reforms passed. Economist Max Wolf tells us about this scheme: 'AmeriCredit works through auto dealers to make loans to car buyers. AmeriCredit has concentrated on used car loans and loans to low and moderate income subprime borrowers, FICO scores less than 620. ... The world blames the United States for plunging the world economy into crisis, but executives here are able to maneuver around findings of pervasive fraud in real estate, sleazy practices of securitization and devious insurance policies by "settling" complaints written off as a cost of doing business and passed on to shareholders. ...  We had three Industries collaborating in crimes of industrial proportions real estate, finance (with the collusion of ratings agencies) and insurance giants like AIG. ... Unraveling this can't be handled as individual cases under laws set up to protect investors, not homeowners or workers. ... The well-organized and collusive practices between these businesses that ave harmed so many can only be prosecuted under RICO laws that are traditionally used against the Mafia and organized crime. To use them in the bank scandal, we first need a full-fledged investigation that shows the criminal enterprise. It must subpoena documents and compel testimony. That's how real cases are built. ... They report, "As 60 Minutes re-airs its piece on UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld. who unmasked the role of a powerful Swiss bank (in attracting U.S. tax evaders,) most important international whistleblower in history has now served 7 months (and counting) in federal prison."

030810, ICH, Paul Craig Roberts, Let Them Eat Wedding Cake. - It is not unusual for members of the diminishing upper middle class to drop $20,000 or $30,000 on a big wedding. But for celebrities this large sum wouldn't cover the wedding dress or the flowers. [!!!!! konkrete eksempler bl.a. Clinton]. ... The additional $2,000,000 apparently is being laid off on US Taxpayers as Secret Service costs for protecting former president Clinton and foreign heads of state. ... Before we attend to the poor political judgment of such an extravagant affair during times of economic distress, let us wonder aloud where a poor boy who became governor of Arkansas and president of the United States got such a fortune that he can blow $3,000,000 on a wedding. ... Where did the money come from? Who was he really serving during his eight years in office? How did Tony Blair and his wife, Cherrie, end up with an annual income of ten million pounds (approximately $15 million dollars) as soon as he left office? Who was Blair really serving? These are not polite questions, and they are infrequently asked. ... Theresa DePugh stepped up to the challenge and had the starving Ohioans write messages on their food pantry paper plates to President Obama who has just obtained another $33 billion to squander on a pointless war in Afghanistan that serves no purpose whatsoever except the enrichment of the Military/security complex and its shareholders. ... The Guardian's reporting relies on a US government report from the US Department of Agriculture, which concludes that 50 million people in the US - one in six of the population - were unable to afford to buy sufficient food to stay healthy in 2008. ... Today in the American Superpower, one of every six Americans is living on food stamps.

150710, Telegraph, Fed's volte face sends the dollar tumbling. The euro rocketed to a two-month high of $1.29 and sterling jumped two cents to almost $1.54 after the Fed confessed that the US economy may not recover for five or six years. Far from winding down emergency stimulus, the bank may need a fresh blast of bond purchases or quantitative easing.  (Chinese rating agency strips West of AAA status). ... The Fed minutes warned of "significant downside risks" and a possible slide into deflation, an admission that zero interest rates, $1.75 trillion of QE, and a fiscal deficit above 10pc of GDP have so far failed to lift the economy out of a structural slump. .... The economy might not regain its "longer-run path" until 2016. ... Goldman Sachs said it expects the euro to rise to $1.35 by the end of the year.

150710, truthout - Dean Baker, The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security. Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. ... the IMF messed up its management of financial crises so badly in the last 15 years that poor countries decided that they had to accumulate huge amounts of currency reserves in order to avoid ever being forced to deal with the IMF. ... While the IMF has no problem warning about retired workers getting too much in Social Security benefits, it apparently could not find its voice when the issue was the junk securities from Goldman Sachs or Citigroup that helped to fuel the housing bubble. [eller de store tilskud til bankerne, eller krigsudgifterne.] ... The other reason that the IMF's call for cutting Social Security benefits is infuriating is the incredible hypocrisy involved. The average Social Security benefit is just under $1,200 a month, No one can collect benefits until they reach the age of 62. By contrast, many IMF economists first qualify for benefits in their early 50s. They can begin drawing pensions at age 51 or 52 of more than $100,000 a year.

020710, Payrolls in U.S. Fall 125,000; Jobless Rate at 9.5%

091109, China's Premier Warns Obama to Get America's Deficit to an "Appropriate Size".

271005, Blogcritics. I årene efter 2. verdenskrig producerede USA 53 % af verdens fabriksprodukter, nu er det 9.6 % og nummer 2 efter Tyskland. USA med 5 % af verdensbefolkning bruger alligevel 25 % af verdens energi.

IMF acts to avoid markets meltdown, The Observer 140506, Heather Stewart, Euro forventes at stige til 1.40 over de næste 12 måneder. Frasalget af USD i fredags gav stærke tab både i Dow Jones og FTSE; der er risiko for en anden fase, som kan give større uro. USAs løbende underskud er på 7 % af BNP i 2005, så USAs imødeser med glæde et fald i dollarskursen.

150506, Democracy Now, Greg Palast on His New Book "'Armed Madhouse  and the subtitle is Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf ?. China Floats, Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and Other Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Class War". Chavez tilbyder USA olie til 50 USD/barrel. Mod en garanteret mindstepris. Men USA/Bush er ikke interesseret, bl.a. fordi Chavez ikke som Saudiarabien vil købe USA Treasury Bonds for pengene. Chavez har faktisk hævet 20 milliarder USD i Federal Reserve. Gulfstaterne ligger inde med Treasury Bonds for 2000 milliarder USD. [Det er de penge USA lever af og den sum vokser med olieprisen. Derfor og fordi Bush/Cheney/Rice har personlige aktiver i olieindustrien, har USA intet mod stigende oliepriser, OJ]. Bush har fået oliprisen op fra 18 til 70 USD/barrel, det er hans "mission accomplished". ExxonMobils aktiver er steget med 1000 milliarder USD under Bush II, næstefter Enron har ExxonMobil samlet givet mest til Bush' valgkampagner. Venezuela ønsker sine oliereserver opvurderet, så man kan overtage ledelsen i OPEC, det er Chavez' største synd. Bush familien har jo tætte forbindelser til de saudiske fyrster.

USAs illusion om at man kan arbejde sig op, er netop en illusion, det er nemmere i Danmark, 270406, Reuters.

I Monde Diplomatique, Mars 2005, p. 1 & 6-7, gennemgår Ibrahim Warde USAs økonomi. Bush arvede et budgetoverskud på 240 milliarder USD i 2000. Det har han vendt til et underskud i 2004 på 412 milliarder USD (3.6 % af BNP). Handelsunderskuddet er på 618 milliarder (5.3 % af BNP)  og steget over 20 % siden sidste år - trods den lave dollar, de 200 milliarder alene i handelen med Kina. Dollarens fald begunstiger den amerikanske produktion overfor importen. Det gør det også mere profitabelt at investere i USA, idet købsprisen bliver lavere. [Men tilsvarende bliver vel det forventede overskud mindre værd ?] Centralbankdirektører flytter - langsomt - deres indkøb af reservavaluta fra USD til Euro/Yen m.fl. andre. Central Banking Publications har underssøgt sagen hos 67 bankchefer; 2/3 havde mindsket USDs andel i de 4 sidste måneder af 2004 - men det er endnu små forskydninger fra at USD udgør 80 % af reserven for 30 år siden, udgør den nu 70 %. En yderligere svækkelse af dollarsen ligger i, at visse arabiske lande naturligvis må tænke på, at deres konti i USA pludselig kan blive blokeret med krigen mod terroren som undskyldning. For at kunne opretholde USDs værdi behøver USA en kapitaltilførsel på 1.8 milliarder USD/dag !

140206, New York Times. Paul Krugman: "Debt and Denial." citater: "In 2005 spending on home construction as a percentage of G.D.P. reached its highest level in more than 50 years. People who already own houses are treating them like A.T.M.'s, converting home equity into spending money......most of the rise in housing values has taken place in a "bubble zone" along the coasts..

200206, The Guardian. USAs handelsunderskud er nu på 6.5 % af BNP; UKs på 4.5 %.

Dean Baker fra CEPR giver (211101) en oversigt over nedturen i USAs økonomi og resultaterne for de arbejdere - de fleste af dem, der har en pensionsopsparing - der har sparet til pensionen i aktier.

USAs BNP forventes at falde med 50 milliarder USD, hvis råolieprisen bliver liggende på 40 USD/barrel (240604, The Institute for Policy Studies)

USAs gældsbyrde er nu større end under den store depression. Den samlede gæld - alle skyldnere - er på 34.4 milliarder USD, BNP er på 11300 milliarder USD. I 1933 var gælden 2½ gange BNP (Danielle DiMartino i Miami Herald, 150304) og Moody har meldt ud, at man kan blive nødt til at nedvurdere USAs kreditrating - på sigt of hvis ikke man får rettet situationen op, (Kansas.com, 110404.)

National Bureau of Economic Research har regnet på situationen. Hvis USA opkræver skat som planlagt og betaler det man skal i h.t. de trufne beslutninger er der så balance. Svaret var en manko på 45 tusinde millioner USD, (Kansas.com, 110404.). En økonomisk vækst kan fjerne underskuddet.

Gælden udgør 40 % af BNP. (Kansas.com, 110404.).

André Gunder Frank, Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies, "Coup d'État in Washington and "The Dollar Paper Tiger"", Globalresearch, 030604: Den devaluerede dollar gør USA mindre attraktivt for det inflow af udenlandsk kapital som såvel den amerikanske økonomi som den amerikanske levestandard er så afhængig af... Clinton årenes boom baseredes udelukkende på kapitalflugten fra den tidligere Sovjetunion og Østeuropa, som af samme årsag blev presset ind i en dyb økonomisk depression...Kineserne sendte også de dollars de tjente tilbage til Washington for at købe Treasury certificates, således at de fattige kinesere nu er verdens største kreditor for de rige amerikanere. Næsten 3/4 af de udstedte dollars er i udlandet !

I februar 2004 steg antallet af beskæftigede kun med 21.000. Man havde forventet, at det opsving økonomien fik med Iraqkrigen/Bush's skattelettelser for de rige, skulle have givet 130.000 flere. Opgangen skyldes midlertidige jobs og offentlig beskæftigelse !

Det amerikanske handelsunderskud er på vej ud over afgrunden. Det løbede valutaunderskud havner i 2003 over 5 % af BNP. Det højeste siden man begyndte med valutastatistik for mere end 100 år siden. (Eamonn Fingleton).

Dollaren er faldet 15.3 % i 2002 (Jyske Invest, Februar 1, 2003)

Kursen ligger nu på det laveste niveau i 3 år i forhold til DKK (Jyske Invest, Februar 1, 2003)

Yen holder dog uændret kurs. (Jyske Invest, Februar 1, 2003)

Internal Revenue Service rapporterer at andelen af virksomheder, der kontrolleres er faldende, mens andelen af privatpersoner er stigende. I nogen gradberoende på at arbejdet med virksomhederne er blevet sværere på grund af det stigende antal skattely. (The Jamestown Sun, 120404).

US spending on R&D (2002) 104 milliarder USD (Nature 2002, 415, 467)

heraf DOD > 50 milliarder

NIH 23 milliarder

NASA 10 milliarder

Net inflow of foreign capital:

1016 milliarder USD 2000

753 milliarder USD 2001

630 milliarder USD 2002 (New Federalist, 280403)

Current account deficit

393 milliarder USD 2001

503 milliarder USD 2002 (New Federalist, 280403)

The federal deficit is expected to exceed 400 billion USD in FY 2003 (4 % of size of US economy), according to the Congressional Budget Office. (AP, 100603), earlier record budget gap: 290 billion in 1992.

Combined federal and state debt: 14 trillion USD (2003).

The number of African - American youth living in official extreme poverty is now 932000 (New Federalist, 190503, p. 7). Extreme poverty: after-tax family income incuding cash value of food and housing benefits below 7064 USD (2001) for a 3 person family.

In more than 1/4 of the states a family of 3 earning 25000 USD/year does not qualify for any assistance.

41 % of the homeless are families with children (2003) up from 34 % in 2000.

Requests for shelter assistance grew 19 % from 2001 to 2002.

Unemployment is 6.2 % in July 2003 and layoffs continue, see the impressive list for 141103.

August 2003: 391000 unemployed.

July 2003: 10.2 % underemployed, 2 million workers have stopped looking for work, 30 million working full time but earning poverty-level wages (Zmag)

28 million household report spending more than 30 % of their income on housing.

There is a 5 year federal limit for receiving benefits and a lifetime cap !

34.6 million Americans (1/8 of the population) are living below the poverty line, of these 13 million are children. 22 million are on food stamps (on average worth 160 USD/month), up from 17 million during Bush II (The Guardian, 031103 "Long queue at drive-in soup kitchen").

Tallene i tabel 1 stammer fra US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Tabel 2 og 3 er US Census Data her citeret fra Erik P Sorensen: "Analysis: Bush economy continues to harm African - Americans disproportinately"

Jesse Jackson: What Appalachia says about US, Chicago Sun Times, 080604, de fattige er ikke "on welfare", ikke sorte; der går på arbejde hver dag, er hvide, er kvinder, er enlige og de har det hårde arbejde.

USAs marijuana høst er på 25 milliarder USD/år, altså større end den største landbrugsafgrøde, majs, 19 milliarder USD, New Federalist, 120503, p. 1.



The US Department of Veteran Affairs estimates that more than 275000 veterans are homeless on any given night and at least 500000 are homeless at some time during the year. (Coshocton Tribune)

The true obligations of the USA government are 43 trillion USD and the Federal Reserve resently put the net worth of all US households to 39 trillion USD (Scott Burns, Dallas News, 010603).

Et problem for USA bliver, at de formentlig denne gang selv bliver nødt til at betale krigens omkostninger. Hverken Europa  eller Saudi Arabien kan denne gang forventes at ryste op med betalingen. Og omkostningerne er høje, 4.7 milliarder USD/måned, skriver QCTimes, omkring midten af april 2004. I artiklen skriver man også uro hos replublikanerne i Huset, specielt om hvornår der skal bevilges flere penge. Næsten halvdelen af hver skattedollar går til gæld & militær, skriver Commondreams.org, 080404.

I The New Federalist, 260503, analyserer Richard Freeman den amerikanske økonomi i en sammenligning mellem en ugeløn og den del af familiens behov, den kan betale fra 1963 til 2002. Ugelønnen toges fra Bureau of Labor Statistics, "average weekly earnings of a worker on a private non-agricultural payroll". Den udgjorde 88 USD i 1963 og 504 USD i 2002. Som udgiftsgrundlag anvendtes køb/ejerskab af et hus; køb af alle føde- og drikkevarer, køb/ejerskab af ny bil; husholdets andel af medicinudgifter (altså ikke den del, der betaltes af arbejdsgiveren/regeringen) og endelig skolepenge for et collegebarn. Således opgjort svarede udgifterne i 1963 til 88 % af ugelønnen, i 2002 svarer udgifterne til 135 % af ugelønnen - det giver jo nogen problemer for en enlig forsørger, ikke mindst på en løn under gennemsnittet.

200000 medlemmer af United Steelworkers of America pensionister har mistet deres sygesikring da deres firma gik ned (The New Federalist, 020603). I tilfældet Weirton steel, der ejes af arbejderne beskylder USWA ledelsen for at have sløset reserverne væk på gyldne faldskærme til sig selv og på PR konsulenter.

LaRouche & Schiller Instituttets organ Agro-Nyt, 2003, 15 #6, hælder til den opfattelse, at den gigantiske skattenedsættelse og deraf følgende øgning i USAs gældsætning snarere end inkompetence skyldes en bevidst styring mod økonomisk kaos, så man kan slippe igennem med en kraftig nedskæring af de sociale udgifter.

Sam Hamod skriver: "Bush wants to bankrupt America: there is method to his madness". Og Bush beskylder Clinton for at have efterladt den dårlige økonomi, hvilket Dana Milbank argumenterer imod i Washington Post.

Anna Willard: Defense spending drives economy. Det samme synspunkt har Andrew Gumbel i The Independent (060104): "Military Keynsianism might get Bush re-elected, but it is starting to worry economists".

Since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society Programmes in the 1960s no politician in the USA has cared about fighting poverty !!!

John D Mckinnon skriver i Wall Street journal, 070404, at "60 % af USAs firmaer slap for at betale skat 1996 til 2000, hvor økonomien gik godt.

George Soros siger til Bloomberg, at Bush's økonomiske politik giver en vækst nu, men leder til katastrofe i 2005.

Bush har solgt udnyttelsesretten til Mount Emmons, Crested Butte, Colorado til Phelps Dodge Corp. for 875 USD, i betragtning af USAs underskud på statsfinanserne, kunne den handel vel have været bedre, Bush Green Watch, 050504.

Saudiarabien har ca. 1 milliard USD deponeret i amerikanske banker og yderligere 1 milliard USD i amerikanske aktier,  The Independent, 060604

290904, Detroit News har nogen udmærkede grafer, der viser skævheden i fordelingen af Bush's skattelettelser. De kan meget anbefales.

191004, New York Times melder, at private investorer har reduceret deres investeringer i USA. Nettoindflow af kapital pr måned faldt i juli for 6. gang i år fra 63 milliarder til 59 milliarder. Private investeringer fra udlandet faldt i august fra 72.9 milliarder USD til 37.4. USA er nu helt afhængigt af Kinas og anre asiatiske landes køb af dollarobligationer. Men nettoindkøbet af Treasury Bonds faldt 35 % til omkring 14.5 milliarder USD - det laveste i 11 måneder. Fremmede regeringer har dog øget deres køb. Japan har treasury bonds for 722 milliarder USD, Kina for 172 milliarder. Kapitalindflow dækker nu kun knapt underskuddet på handelsbalancen. (Eduardo Porter: "Private investors abroad cut their investments in the US".

031104, Fort Wayne, Militærindustrien stiger efter Bush's genvalg:

Alle højere end de sidste 52 uger.

031104, AP, Fabrikkernes odrebeholdning faldt med 0.4 % i september, siden november - december 2002 første gang med fald i 2 konsekutive måneder (tallene indeholder militærindistrien !!).

141104, Los Angeles Times, David Streitfeld, udenlandske investorer solgte i august for 2 milliarder flere amerikanske aktier end de købte og for 4 millarder flere regeringsobligationer.

Idag 091104 er USD nået ned på 7 SEK !! Overfor Euroen har den tabt 50 % siden oktober 2000.

Kinesiske borgere, der har haft USD liggende som opsparing, sælger dem nu til fordel for Yuan, Christian Science Monitor, 221104.

151104, Kevin Rafferty i Japan Times, "For resten af verden vil USAs vanskeligheder give anledning til hårde tider. Men resten af verden har potentialet til at komme over krisen, for USA er det enden på overherredømmet. Artiklen er i øvrigt læseværdi i retorikken om præsidentvalget. USAs gæld er på 38.000 milliarder USD og regeringen er bundet op på udgifter på 54.000 milliarder USD udover hvad der forventes i skatteindtægter. (Jeg tror, at han har et problem med billion og trillion, så der kan fjernes 3 nuller, men der er alligevel et stort problem).

161104, Paul Craig Roberts, omtaler fordelene ved at være reservevaluta, understreger, at flugten fra USD er begyndt. Kursfaldet på 52 % overfor Euro trods en sløv økonomisk udvikling i Europa er alarmerende. Han vurderer, at man ikke skal regne med sædvanlig keynesiansk logik, at kursfaldet vil gavne amerikansk industri ved at reducere importen og styrke eksporten. Fordi amerikansk industri er outsourced. Det har den betydning, at amerikanske virksomheders produkter har et stort importindhold, hvorfor salget af dem i USA forværrer handelsbalancen. Sålænge Kina fastholder sin dollarkurs vil det ikke engang hjælpe at øge salget af amerikanske produkter (fremstillet i Kina) til Kina. Handelsbalanceunderskuddet overfor Kina (124 milliarder USD 2003) er nu dobbelt så stort, som underskuddet overfor Japan (66 milliarder USD 2003) og der forventes en stigning på 29 %. Goodyear har annonceret at de nedlægger alle amerikanske fabrikationsanlæg - det er den slags, der øger handelsunderskuddet og leder til enden for rollen som reservevaluta.

181104, BBC, US administration udtaler, at de ønsker en stærk dollar, men det havde ringe effekt. Rekordlav kurs mod Euro, fald mod Yen og 7 års bundrekord mod Won.

Christian Science Monitor, 221104, budgetunderskuddet i 2004 bliver på 412 milliarder USD, handelsunderskuddet: 600 milliarder.

nov. 2004, Alex Wallenwein i Asia Times: "US gives Euro a long rope". Opfatter det sådan, at meningen med Euro var at få en ordnet overgang til et bredere system af reservevalutaer - og i sidste ende en tilbagevenden til guld som den sidste internationale pengereserve. Nøgleordet her er ordnet, altså langsom uden for stor markedsuro. Den vægt der lægges på prisstabilitet betyder, at man ikke vil sparke en svag økonomisk udvikling i gang via en devaluering. (Det system, der har sin rod hos Keynes, og som fungerede relativt godt i det meste af efterkrigstiden). USA er ikke hævet over at anvende keynesianske metoder - selvom retorikken fastholder Friedman og co. Nedgangen i dollarens værdi er altså bevidst amerikansk politik. Den skal give amerikanske virksomhedr en forbedret konkurrenceevne og samtidig forringe Eurolands konkurrenceevne. Derfor skal der ske en hurtig de facto devaluering. Gamblingen er, at bringe Europa/Euro i knæ med ingen økonomisk udvikling; men inden de asiatiske lande - først og fremmest Kina - der ligger med store beholdninger af US Treasury Bonds - begynder at sælge disse og købe guld eller Euro. Wallenwein er ikke sikker på, at gamblingen lykkes.

Idag 091104 er USD nået ned på 7 SEK !! Overfor Euroen har den tabt 50 % siden oktober 2000.

Kinesiske borgere, der har haft USD liggende som opsparing, sælger dem nu til fordel for Yuan, Christian Science Monitor, 221104.

221104, Pat Buchanan, "Goodbye dollar - and empire". Ønsker at vende de-industrialiseringen af USA, bl.a. ved at smide WTO i Atlanten.

071204, Dave Lindorff skriver i CounterPunch: "Regeringsstatistik fortæller os hele tiden, at nationalindkomsten stiger, men den gennemsnitlige amerikanske familie, hvor begge forældre arbejder røven ud af bukserne, bruger 75 % af sin disponible indkomst på bolig, mad og ransport, sammenlignet med kun 50 % i 1960, da de fleste familier klarede sig med 1 indkomst. (Forklaring på dette mysterium: nationalindkomsten er et gennemsnit og de rige bliver stadig rigere og de fattige fattigere, du kan nemt se, hvor den forsvundne indkomst er gået hen)."

211204, Sun Sentinel, Florida, skriver at man nu i Florida skal tjene 15.37 USD/time for at have råd til en værelses lejlighed. Der mangler dog en redegørelse for, hvordan de når til det resultat.

261204, New York Times, Fred Kaplan, i 1990erne rådede USA Mexico og Argentina til at bringe orden i deres økonomi - i denne måned gav den kinesiske premierminister det samme råd til USA. Mellemøstlige lande har ændret deres valutareserver fra i 2001 at være 75 % USD til nu 61 % (resten i Euro)

220205, Kirkpatrick Sale, militærudgifterne (udover de hemmelige til spioneri) er på mindst 530 milliarder USD og gælden til udlandet 7.4 tusinde milliarder USD - [14 år uden militærudgifter ville altså kunne løse problemet, OJ].

230205, Bahrain ser en voksende rolle for Euro, siger centralbankschefen.

200305, Morgan Stanley. Endnu i januar kom der flere penge ind fra udlandet som investeringer end der gik ud i form af handelsunderskud. Centralbankerne øger stadig deres reserver. 70 % heraf er i USD. Man afvejer det potentielle tab ved dollar kursfald mod det øjeblikkelige fald i eksporten ved samme. Men jo større beholdning desto større pres for at finde andre valutaer at have sine reserver i. Det er i øvrigt klassisk at imperier forsøger at udvide netop når deres økonomiske magtbase svinder ind, et klassisk advarselstegn.

300305, Nigel H Maund: The USA's Global Resource War", understreger at Federal Reserve er hverken federal eller reserve. Det er en privat bank skabt af JP Morgan, Vanderbilt og Nelson Aldrich i 1913. Bankens politik har efter 1982, specielt under Greenspan, pumpet den ene økonomiske boble op efter den anden. Aktieværdierne har tabt enhver realøkonomisk betydning. Nu kører man på overbelånt fast ejendom.

Robert Bell: The invisible hand (of the US government), 030405, mener at Bush regeringens markedspleje kan sammenlignes med den advokat, der er ansvarlig for administrationen af en familieformue og stille sælger ud af den uden at arvingerne bemærker det. Artiklen beskriver i øvrigt indgående kurspleje og andre mekanismer, der gør, at USA nok kan køre en tid endnu uden at bankerotten afsløres.

120505, CounterPunch, Paul Craig Roberts kalder udviklingen på det amerikanske arbejdsmarked et mønster som i en treje verdens økonomi. Der er ingen produktionsjob, kun lavtlønnede servicejobs.  Tanken om at outsourcing skulle give bedre jobs hjemme er ren fantasi. Og den gunstige effekt for firmaer og aktionærer gælder kun på kort sigt. Firmaerne er på længere sigt ikke tjent med at forbrugerne mister købekraft.

200505, Evan Augustine Peterson, III: "Is the USA addicted to war ?". (Er USA afhængig af at føre krig ?) Han fremlægger 4 stykker bevismateriale, med fornøden dokumentation, og opfordrer til, at man overvejer om ikke det betyder, at USAs økonomi er bundet så hårdt op på det militær-industrielle kompleks, at fred ville betyde alvorlige økonomiske problemer. De 4 punkter: USAs militærudgifter er nu lig med alle øvrige landes samlede militærudgifter; USA har 1700 militærbaser, 725 i udlandet; Carlyle Group, Bush familien; Bechtel og Halliburton, der får de profitable genopbygningsprojekter.

060705, AFX. Outsourcing (overflytning af jobs fra USA til først og fremmest Kina) betyder stadig reduktion af antallet af anstændige jobs i USA. Indtil nu har 2005 givet planlagte nedlæggelser på 538274, 14 % mere end 2004 for samme periode.

090805, CounterPunch. Paul Craig Roberts: "Den gode nyhed, du behøver ikke længere en dyr universitetsuddannelse for at arbejde i USA". De nye jobs, der skabes er nemlig alle ukvalificerede lavtlønsjobs i servicesektoren.

031205, The Times. Greenspan slutter - med at advare mod den stigende amerikanske gæld. Det kan nemt føre til et bagslag for den frie handel og ny protektionisme. [Vi får sandelig håbe, at han denne gang har ret !!, OJ]

051205, New York Times. Paul Krugman. Selvom den amerikanske BNP vokser bravt (>4 %) så føler flertallet af amerikanerne, at deres økonomi bliver ringere. Der er ingen umiddelbar forklaring på, hvorfor den almindelige amerikaners økonomi ikke bliver bedre, men Krugman finder at mens profitter er steget 50 %, er lønninger steget 7 % og lønningernes vækst er sket, hvor lønnen i forvejen er god.

050106, ICH. Mike Whitney mener, at underskudsfinansieringen har samme effekt som IMFs strukturtilpasningsprogrammer. De flytter rigdommene fra mellemklassen til den lille gruppe fidusmagere, der kører systemet. Greenspan har spillet med. Husboblen er en fortsættelse af aktieboblen. Aktieboblen berøvede titusinder af amerikanere deres pensionsopsparing. Det blev begunstiget af en periode med lave renter (Greenspans medvirken), det finansierer spekulationen, der overfører mellemklassen formue til de rige.

130206, CounterPunch. Paul Craig Roberts, "Forget Iran, Americans Should be Hysterical About This". "This" er beskæftigelsen. USA har tabt næsten 3 millioner jobs i fremstillingsindustrien. De vidensjob, der efter globaliseringsteorien, skulle komme til erstatning herfor, viser sig ikke. Der er 209000 færre leder job end for 5 år siden. Handelsbalanceunderskuddet er på 726 milliarder USD i 2005.

210306 (?) Middleeastforex De Forenede Arab Emirater flytter 1/10 af sine USD reserver til Euro. Chefen for Saudiarabien pengemyndighed kritiserer, at USA forlangte at føre Dubais køb af amerikanske havne tilbage. "Protektionisme eller diskrimination. Er det ok at amerikanske selskaber køber overalt, men ikke at andre køber amerikanske selskaber ?", spørger han. The Commercial Bank of Syria har lagt sine udlandstransaktioner over i Euro (på grund af et amerikansk stop).

240306, David Sirota på Phily.com: Arbejdere på historiens affaldsbjerg. Om afindustrialiseringen af USA. Og ser på eksemplet East Helena's blysmelteanlæg, ejet af Asarco. I l999 købt af Grupo Mexico, der ledes af Larrea Mota-Velasco, der med i Forbes liste over de rigeste i 2001. Og i 2001 lukkede han anlægget, der røg den lille bys 200 arbejdspladser. I 2003 påstod man, at firmaet var i finansiel klemme og derfor forhøjedes præmierne for pensionisternes sygeforsikring. Det føres der sag om. Grupo Mexico havde et overskud på 1/4 milliard USD i 2004s 4. kvartal alene, men står fast på forhøjelserne ! Den samme omvendte Robin Hood teknik er anvendt af Delphi og United Airlines og af GM og Ford.

280306, Bloomberg, GM Begins Firing Salaried Workers at About 30 U.S. Locations. General Motors Corp. tabte næsten 11 milliarder USD sidste år. Man vil fyre 7 % af arbejdsstyrken. Aktierne steg efter bekendtgørelsen og er steget 18 % i år !!?? Nedskæringerne på de månedslønnede skal bane vejen for en reduktion af lønningerne for almindelige arbejdere.

280306, Al Jazira, 'Asia must prepare for dollar collapse'. East Asian economies need to prepare for a possible collapse of the US dollar, the Asian Development Bank says. 

290306 ?, Asia Times, Henry CK Liu, THE WAGES OF NEO-LIBERALISM; PART 1: Core contradictions. Gennemgår USAs handelsunderskud med Kina (202 milliarder USD i 2005), de deraf følgende valutaproblemer. 210705 blev Yuan i stedet for at være bundet til USD, bundet til en kurv af flere valutaer.  Handelsunderskuddet kan ikke hekses væk med en revaluering af Yuan. Valutaproblemet skyldes handelsunderskuddet, ikke omvendt. Både handelen og den globale financielle stabilitet ville være tjent med en stabil valutakurs. At den mindre udviklede økonomi har et handelsoverskud er naturligt og retfærdigt indtil denne økonomi når på niveau med den udviklede.Noget andet ville være imperialistisk udnyttelse, ikke handel. Der er en modstrid mellem en centralbanks 2 hovedfunktioner, at opretholde valutaens købekraft og at øge pengemængden når økonomien sløjer af. Det er nemmere at stimulere en svag økonomi end at bremse en, der kører for vildt. Der er en strukturel årsag til at husboblen har erstattet højteknologiboblen. Huse kan ikke importeres - selvom meget af indholdet kan og selvom man i nogen udstrækning kan lade illegale - lavløns - indvandrere klare de lavest kvalificerede jobs. Men den brister alligevel, når indkomsten ikke længere rækker til betalingerne på lånene. Efterhånden som det kinesiske kommunistparti driver mod markedsfundamentalisme med visse kinesiske særtræk, vil People's Bank of China uomtvisteligt også drive over mod at varetage banksektorens og dens større kunders særinteresser på bekostning af proletariatet og bondemasserne. Det er klassemodsætningen i en socialistisk markedsøkonomi. Tegnene på uønskede konsevenser begynder at kunne ses. Og der er sket en vis kursændring henimod støtte til de fattige og de underudviklede landbrugs- og indre regioner. Vestlige liberale kan forventes at kritisere Folkets Bank for at kanalisere pengene derhen hvor de behøves mest, snarere end derhen, hvor profitten er højest. (På Bretton Woods konferencen låstes USD til guld og alle andre valutaer til USD med accept af kun små variationer. Derfor var der skarp valutakontrol. Man anså ikke, at der var behov for at penge uden videre kunne krydse grænserne, hverken for handelens skyld eller for de enkelte landes udvikling. Man satsede på den hjemlige økonomis udvikling, handelen var kun et supplement.)(Keynes betragtede handelsbalanceafvigelser som et lige stort problem for overskud- som for underskudslande. Kampen mellem Keynes og den amerikanske repræsentant White var geopolitisk i en verden, hvor finanskapitalismen bestemte den nationale magt mere end det omvendte, som det havde været tilfældet under den imperialistiske merkantilisme. Den lille økonomisk forskel mellem de 2 planer var geopolitisk en kløft. Keynes plan passede til Englands behov, som financielt nedkørt med et imperium som solen var ved at gå ned for, mens Whites plan passede til det fiansielt stærke USA, der var ved at arve Jorden. Roosevelt ville have afviklet de britiske kolonier, Truman kunne acceptere deres fortsættelse [så længe det ikke rokkede ved USAs økonomiske magt, OJ] England var i realiteten besat af USA fra 1942 [!].) 150871, hvor Nixon opgav USDs binding til guld er den dag, der markerer slutningen af USAs dominans af verdens finanser og starter en ny manipulation med dollars hegemoni. Det geopolitiske arrangement med at handle olie i USD betyder, at USD kan devalueres internt uden at lide overfor andre valutaer. Handelspartnerne betaler med recession. [Markant for Tyskland og Japan, OJ].     En lang, økonomisk indsigtsfuld og grundig artikel.

290306, Baltimore Chronicle, Thom Hartmann, Illegal Workers: the Cons[ervatives]' Secret Weapon. Der er 11 millioner illegale (løntrykkende) arbejdere i USA nu. Mod færre end 2 millioner, da Reagan blev præsident. Det er også et led i de samme konservatives plan om at ødelægge fagforeningerne. Hartmann understreger, at problemet med illegale arbejdere nemt løses ved fængselsstraf til de arbejdsgivere, der hyrer dem !

 310306, ICH, James Petras: "Record Profits and Rising Authoritarianism" The Ascendancy of Finance Capital. Det er finanssektoren, der tjener penge. Bankerne tjener især ved at låne penge ud til de store fusioner. Bankernes spekulation kan også være baggrunden for en del af stigningen i oliepriserne. Netop nu arbejder de største banker med med økonomisk imperialisme i Kina og Indien.

020506, The Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: "Dollar Drops As Great Sell-Off Looms" Den almindelige opfattelse er, at centralbankerne langsomt nedsætter deres USD beholdninger. Guld er oppe i 660.95 USD/ounce, det højeste i 25 år. Underskuddet på betalingsbalancen er på 7 % af BNP. Kina og Japan ligger med 1400 milliarder USD.

210506, The Times, David Smith: Markets 'are like 1987 crash' Barclays Capital siger at opløbet til "sorte mandag" i oktober 1987 var karakteriseret af et stigende amerikansk betalingsbalanceunderskud, svag USD, frygt for stigende inflation, en boble i amerikanske huspriser, der aftog og en ny formand for Federal Reserve. Alt som nu.

230506, Freemarket News. Der kan blive tale om valutakontrol, hvis USD falder for meget. Det engelske system i 1971 beskrives som en mulig model.

240506, Forbes, OECD advarer om at USAs betalingsbalanceunderskud skal bringes i balance og det vil betyder en kraftig devaluering sf USD. Det kan give recession også uden for USA. Man skylder mere end 20 % af BNP. Virkningen i USA svækkes af, at amerikanske tilgodehavender gennemgående er i andre valutaer !

140706, The Telegraph, London, "US 'could be going bankrupt'" siger professor Laurence Kotlikoff, der sidder i US Federal Reserve. Budgetunderskuddet, en pensions- og velfærdsbombe truer. Hyperinflation truer. Budgetunderskuddet er dog under den typiske europæiske værdi på 3 % af BNP. Og underskuddet på budgettet skyldes mere store sundhedsudgifter end pensioner

070806, The Observer. Fed admits US recession on cards. Regner man efter Federal Reserves egen markeds model er risikoen for recession indenfor de næste 12 måneder 38 %. [Man skal ikke tro for meget på økonomiske modeller, OJ].

220906, CounterPunch, Michael Donnelly: "It's the Maniupulaled Economy, Stupid. Med en ikke helt umulig teori for sammenhængen mellem økonomien og Bush's opinionstal - og styringen heraf.

240906, Al Shindagah, Dr.Eckart Woertz: "Why the Gulf Countries continue to embrace the Doomed Dollar" USAs gæld - intern og extern [hvor rimelig en sådan sammenregning så er] er på 44000 milliarder USD, en 3 - 4 gange BNP. USA skal skaffe 80 % af Verdens samlede opsparing hjem for at dække sit valutaunderskud. Det ville man forvente betød, at alle kreditorer stod i kø for at få mest muligt af deres penge tilbage. Reelt har talen om at flytte overskuddet til andre valutaer hidtil kun været mundsvejr. Selv Iran afregner stadig sin olie i USD. Woertz anfører følgende årsager: politiske overvejelser [et gammelt mafia trick, at opkræve beskyttelsespenge, bare i den helt store stil - det aftalte FD Roosevelt allerede i 1945 med Saudi Arabien, OJ]; der mangler bedre alternativer, Euro og Yen områderne er lige så forgældede, Yuan er stadig for lille; der er for mange dollars (skylder du banken 1 milliard, er det banken, der har et problem). [Det, som OJ ikke forstår, er hvorfor køber de obligationer (US treasury bonds), hvorfor køber de ikke værdier: Microsoft, Ford, SAAB, Volkswagen, Mærsk, Walmart, oliefeltet i Alaska, havne, veje, miner, o.s.v. ???].

250906, Los Angeles Times, "Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short". Hæren vil have knap 25 milliarder USD mere i 2008. Budgetchefen siger, at man tilpasse sin kvægflok til den mængde hø man disponerer over. Går det ikke må man skaffe mere hø. [Hvor meget der er realitet og hvor meget, der er spil for galleriet i den almindelige budgetkamp, kan man ikke se, OJ]. Avisen anfører, at en del af pengene skulle gå til ny kostbar udrustning.

021006, Larry Elliott, America is living beyond its means. "China and India will be calling the shots when the US is no longer top dollar. Peger på historien, hvor GBP blev afløst af USD.

041006, Asia Times, Jephraim P Gundzik, Beijing holds whip hand over slowing US. "The Bush administration's efforts to isolate Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela economically are implicitly designed to promote "regime change" from unfriendly to friendly government in each of these countries. Beijing has explicitly worked against Washington's isolation and regime-change endeavors by deepening its relations with Tehran, Pyongyang, Damascus and Caracas.... Early this year, Tehran successfully test-fired two new, sophisticated cruise missiles that were developed with Beijing's assistance...Syria has deployed several sophisticated Chinese missile systems, including the M-9 and M-11 medium-range type...Washington appears oblivious to the asymmetrical increase in economic risk to the US from deteriorating relations with Beijing. Rather than succumbing to intensifying export and exchange-rate pressure from Washington, Beijing could retaliate by liquidating its massive holdings of US Treasury securities, pushing US interest rates higher and the value of the dollar much lower against other major currencies. "

191006, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Treasurer Seeks Orderly Withdrawal From U.S. Dollar. Peter Costello beder Østasiens centralbankchefer signalere deres ønsker om at sprede investeringer væk fra USD, så man kan få en ordentlig tilpasning. Centralbankerne i China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea og Hong Kong har umådelige reserver i amerikanske obligationer, hvad der hjælper med at holde USDkursen oppe og den amerikanske rente nede. Men strategien er ændret og de kinesiske bankfolk leder efter alternativer. Forud for G20 mødet i næste måned i Melbourne opfordrer Costello reform af de anakronistiske financielle systemer. Østasiens underudviklede financielle markeder er årsagen til at de voksende østasiatiske økonomier sender 94 % af deres udlandsinvesteringer til de "aldrende" lande udenfor regionen.

241006, SPIEGEL, Gabor Steingart: "A SUPERPOWER IN DECLINE - America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser". Uddrag af Steingarts bog: ""World War for Wealth: The Global Crab for Power and Prosperity". USA har altid været præget af optimisme og kampen for det nyeste nye. [Hvad Steingart ikke nævner i den forbindelse er, at optimismen leder til, at man er parat til at tage store miljørisici, i tillid til, at problemerne siden kan klares med endnu et teknologisk fif, OJ]. To andre faktorer, en global orientering og det, at USD er gangbar mønt overalt, er supplerende årsager til USAs økonomiske magt. Halvdelen af alle handler afsluttes i USD. Bagsiden er, at den indelandske industri slides ned. Møbelindustri, forbrugerelektronikindustri, produktion af reservedele til biler, computerindustri har forladt USA. Dollarsstyrken er også en sårbarhed. Store dele af den amerikanske arbejderstyrke står med ryggen mod muren. De nye jobs skabes andetsteds. USA har afsat sine værdier, sin produktive kerne. Det der tidligere var den store udlåner er nu blevet den store låner. Udlændinge ejer værdier for 2500 milliarder USD i USA, 21 % af BNP. Og det er ikke olieimporten, der giver USAs handelsunderskud, det er biler, computere, fjernsyn, spillemaskiner, som USA vejer tungest i importen.

041206, Comment is free, Guardian, James K Galbraith, The dollar melts as Iraq burns. "the US...can run any deficit that the world is prepared to finance. But, sooner or later the world may start to get other ideas." 

Giraud, Pierre-Noël, Comment la globalisation faconne le monde, Politique étrangère, 4, 2006. 927 - 940. USA har færre og færre midler til at udøve sin hegemoni. Den fremkomst af landeblokke, der ikke længere accepterer at bøje sig for de rige landes diktat og som blokerede Doha-runden viser at udviklingen allerede er nået langt. Det vil være spild af ressourcer at gå ind i et militært kapløb med USA. Det rækker med at besidde et afskrækkelsesvåben = kernevåben. Det er årsagen til at USA (med al grund) er så besat af problemet med spredning af kernevåben [!]. USAs meget dyre militær accellererer USAs økonomiske nedtur.

040107, HindustanTimes.com, Uma Shankar Sathya Kumar, Why the US should be worried'. Flere fremstillingssektorer har forladt landet. Der er ingen opsparing. Væksten i antallet af arbejdspladser holder ikke takt med befolkningstilvæksten. 27 % af de amerikanske statsobligationer ligger i Japan og Kina - derfor kritiseres de to lande ikke meget nu. USA kan ikke engang holde et handelsoverskud overfor Ukraine eller Ghana. Selv avanceret teknologi importeres. Amerikanske skoleelever vælger ikke matematik eller naturvidenskab - det kommer til at true landets position som teknologisk førende. "The statement that "US is a melting pot" is indeed a pot full of lies."

140107, The Financial Times, Euro displaces dollar in bond markets. Og det ere for andet år i træk. Der cirkulerer også flere Euro end USD. "[T]he trend atnong some Asian and Middle Eastern countries to diversify their assets away from the dollar has further boosted this trend." En forstærkende faktor er, at Den europæiske Centralbanks rente skifter mindre end Fed funds rate, som er den amerikanske styrerente.

150107, The Raw Story, Major investment bank issues warning on strike against Iran. ING udsendte 090107 en analyse: "Attacking Iran: The market impact of a surprise Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities." Hvis Israel vil angribe kan man være ret sikker på, at det skal ske mens Bush og Cheney sidder i Det hvide Hus. Februar - marts i år anses for sandsynligt. Et israelsk angreb sandsynliggøres også af de personforandringer i den amerikanske militære og efterretningsledelse Bush lige har gennemført. INGs analyse findes i artiklen som billedfil. ING forudser fald for USD, aktier, US-statsobligationer, råvarer. Olie og guld vil stige.

170107, Harpers Magazine, Chalmers Johnson, A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States. Prof. Johnson beskriver den amerikanske økonomi som drevet af militær keynesianisme. [Det er det samme fænomen, som Eisenhower døbte "Det militær-industrielle kompleks", OJ]. Økonomisk er problemet, at man ikke (kan ?) skrue(r) ned i gode tider. Det var jo det, der var Keynes' recept, øg statens udgifter under recession og nedsæt dem, når økonomien kører godt. I stedet øger man stadig "behovet for våben" og holder dermed økonomien i gang. Militær keynesianisme koncentrerer magten hos præsidenten og resultatet af den positive feedback mellem økonomi og præsidentmagt bliver krig. Præsidenterne kryber udenom de begrænsninger (War Fowers Act of 1973, Budget and Impoundment Control Act of of 1974, Freedom of Information Act of 1966, President Ford's Executive Order 11905 of 1976, Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980), som Kongressen har forsøgt at gennemtrumfe. Bl.a. gennem "signing statements" (de 42 tidligere præsidenter nåede ialt op på 568 signing statements. Bush har udstedt over 1000). "Military Keynesianism is an un-stable one-part system. With no political check, debt accrues until it reaches a crisis point.". Chalmers Johnson har udformet sin artikel som en National Intelligence Estimate, som CIA plejer at lave over vigtigere stater. Han har været konsulent på den slags, 1967 - 1973.

270107, Bloomberg, Abdullah [Malaysias premierminister] Says Malaysia Has Shifted Reserves Away From Dollar.

060207, The Nation, Nicholas von Hoffman, Will China Choke on US Dollars? I Davos sagde Wu Xiaoling, næstkommanderende i Folkets Bank i Kina at 1000 milliarder USD i et fremmed lands valuta var tilstrækkeligt. "Americans claim that the Chinese are cheating by "artificially" keeping the yuan so cheap in relation to the dollar, but that argument is dribble. In these realms everything is "artificial." Money itself is just an idea that people have made up...' The whole business is a muddle. Obviously, a strong dollar brings with it financial power for the United States around the globe, even as it accelerates the "great sucking sound" of jobs fleeing overseas. ... He's [Kina] opening his wallet to lock up oil and minerals in South America and Africa. He is using that American money to make deals in the Middle Fast as people everywhere learn that the yuan spends as good as the dollar."

080207, The Times, HSBC warns over US mortgage bad debt. "HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, last night gave warning that bad debts in its troubled US mortgage lending business would be 20 per cent higher than forecast... Analysts had previously expected HSBC to report a bad debt charge of $8.8 billion"

210207, ICH, Mike Whitney, The Second Great Depression. Faldet i de amerikanske huspriser fra slutningen af 2005 til slutningen af 2006 er det største årsfald siden National Association of Realtors startede med at gøre det op i 1982. Husboblen er skabt af Greenspan for at udvide kløften mellem rig og fattig. Mellem 2000 og 2006 steg lån i fast ejendom fra 4 800 milliarder til 9 500 milliarder - og pengene blev brugt. USA har brug for en tilførsel på 70 milliarder USD/måned, sidste måned forsvandt i stedet 11 milliarder. Der lurer 2 kriser, en økonomisk og en valutakrise. Whitney citerer Paul Alexander Gusmorimo "Main Causes of the Great Depression": "Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part that same decade". Bortset fra at spekulationen i dag er i fast ejendom, ikke i aktier, ligner de 2 situationer hinanden. En amerikansk depression vil, som dengang, smitte af på resten af verden.

280307, Al Jazira, Plan to set up Islamic mega-bank. Banke oprettes i Bahrain og påregnes i løbet af 7 år at have en kapital på 100 milliarder USD.

240407, ICH, Mike Whitney Housing Bubble Boondoggle: "Is it too late to get out"? "Unfortunately, the problem won't be "fixed" with a $30 or $40 billion bailout scheme. The problem is much bigger than that. There is an estimated $2.5 trillion in subprimes and Alt-A loans....In Henry C K Liu's "Why the Subprime Bust will Spread" (Asia Times) the author states that the bursting housing bubble will trigger a major penson crisis...But when the housing bubble crashes into Wall Street's credit bubble, we can expect the "big bang". That may explain why America's wealthiest investors are running for cover before the whole thing blows."

040607, ICH, Paul Craig Roberts, Losing the Economy to Mythology. Det sidste kvarte århundredes fremvækst af frihandelsøkonomien har fjernet en del begrænsninger i virksomhedernes magt. Det er svært at argumentere for, at det skulle være et ønskværdigt resultat. For eksempel har den mediekoncentration, som Clinton-regeringen tilod i 1990erne ødelagt de amerikanske mediers uafhængighed og dermed reduceret regeringens ansvarlighed.

june 2007, Yahoo, Robert Kiyosaki, Booms Were Made to Go Bust. "During the height of the real estate bubble, I wrote a column saying that the crash was coming and suggested selling any piece of real estate that was overpriced, questionable, or non-performing. As  expected, I received angry replies. Today, I'm predicting the next crash, what I believe will cause it, and why it'll be a severe blow to the global economy. The signs are already here. Busts Beat Booms  First of all, it's no big deal to predict booms and busts. All markets boom and bust. It's just easier to predict a bust because the signs are so obvious....A World of Debt.   In 2003 and 2004, the Bank of Japan created 35 trillion yen to save the dollar and their economy. It was like a loan of $320 billion to the United States, and probably prevented a run on the dollar.  This loan kept interest rates low, which prolonged the boom with easy money from cheap debt....So instead of spending their U.S. dollars in China, the Chinese buy our assets, especially U.S. bonds, with them. Because they buy our bonds, interest rates in the U.S. remain low, and low interest rates encourage Americans to borrow more money. This causes bubbles in real estate and the stock market...Then, in the early 1990s, the Japanese boom busted. Their stock market crashed and the most expensive real estate in the world became cheap. Today, the Japanese economy continues to struggle. China Isn't Japan .China's advantage is that it learned from Japan's mistakes. That's why the Chinese stubbornly refuse to revalue their currency -- they don't want to make it more expensive the way the Japanese did ...The problem is that the Chinese know from the Japanese experience that we can talk tough but not act tough - they simply hold too much of our debt for us to take measures. And if the Chinese started dumping U.S dollars and bonds on the world market, the world economy might well crumble, just as he Japanese economy crashed nearly 20 years ago."

300607, ICH, Mike Whitney, The Fed's role in the Bear Stearns Meltdown. "The Bank for International Settlements issued a Warning this week that the Federal Reserve's monetary policies have created an enormous equity bubble which could lead to another "Great Depression".... GDP continues to shrink. That's because the wages of working class people have stagnated and not kept paee with productivity. When workers have less discretionary income, consumer spending - which accounts for 70% of GDP - begins to decline...Now the effects of their "cheap money" policies have spread to the hedge fund industry where hundreds of billions of dollars in pensions and savings are in jeopardy. ...The bank said it was far from clear whether the US would be able to ignore the consequences of its latest imbalances, ($800 billion per year) citing a current account deficit running at 6.5% of GDP, a rise in US external liabilities by over $4 trillion from 2001 to 2005, and an unprecedented drop in the savings rate. 'The dollar clearly remains vulnerable to a sudden loss of private sector confidence.'..Existing-home sales are down 22% in May and mortgage applications have ¦alien a whopping 18%....In Florida home sales are down 34%, not 28% as NAR reported; Arizona sales are down 38%, not 28%; and California's lown 37%, not 24% as NAR reports."

070707, Global Research, Richard C. Cook, The Crashing U.S. Economy Held Hostage. Our Economy is on an Artificial Life-support System. "Remember when the U.S. was the world's greatest industrial democracy? Barely thirty years ago the output of our producing economy and the skills of our workforce led the world...The problems aren't confined to the U.S. Unemployment worldwide is increasing, debt is rampant, infrastructures are crumbling, and commodity prices are rising...Rather what is happening highlights the growing failures of Western globalist finance whose impact on political stability has been so corrosive....Even so, these investors are increasingly uneasy with their dollar holdings and are bailing out anyway. Foreign purchase of U.S. securities has plummeted....When the final history of the housing bubble is written, its beginnings will be dated as early as 1989-90, when credit restrictions on the purchase of real estate first began to be eased. ...The Fed started inflating the housing bubble in earnest around 2001, after the collapse of the dot.com bubble, which failed with the stock market decline of 2000-2002. Then, over a trillion dollars of wealth, including working peoples' retirement savings, simply vanished....There could not have been a sudden onset of industry-wide illegal activity without direction from higher-up in the money chain. It could not have continued without reports being filed by whistleblowers with regulatory agencies. Today the government is prosecuting mortgage fraud, but they certainly had to know about it while it was actually going on....And it's not just lower-income home purchasers who are affected. The Washington Post has reported that or the first time in living memory foreclosures are happening in Washington's affluent suburban neighborhoods in places like Fairfax, Loudon, and Montgomery Counties....But there's much more to it than that. These bubbles are symptoms. They are created because our wage and salary earners lack purchasing power due to stagnant incomes and various structural causes...Today the rank-and-file of our population must increasingly turn to borrowing in order to survive. Only the banks and the credit card companies are the beneficiaries. The total societal debt for individuals, businesses, and government is over $45 trillion and climbing. This is happening even while the real value of wages and salaries is decreasing...The financial world, which Dr. Michael Hudson calls the FIRE economy    Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate has been producing millionaires and billionaires among those who know how to play the game. The Wall Street hedge funds stand out as the most irresponsible financial scams in history....Interestingly, since 1965, the U.S. dollar has lost eighty percent of its value....As I have been pointing out in articles over the last several months, the key to a rational solution would be immediate monetary reform leading to a fundamental shift in how the world conducts its financial business. It would mean taking control of the world's economy out of the hands of the private bankers and giving it back to democratically elected governments...The fundamental objectives of monetary policy should be to secure a healthy producing economy and provide for sufficient individual income. The objectives should not be to produce massive profits for the banks, fodder for Wall Street swindles, and a blank check for out-of-control government expenditures....Back to income. The idea of ""income,"" as opposed to "jobs," is a civilized and humane idea. When are we going to realize that everyone doesn't need a paying job in order for an industrial economy to provide all with a decent living? When are we going to realize that the productivity of the modern economy is part of the heritage of all of us, part of the social commons? Why can't mothers have the choice of staying home with the kids like they could a generation ago? Why can't some people choose to do eldercare? Why can't others comfortably go into lower-paying occupations like teaching or the arts? Why can't some just opt to study or travel for a while or learn new skills or start a business without facing financial ruin as they often must today? Why can't retirees enjoy their retirement instead of having to stay in the job market or worrying about Social Security going broke?"

200707, ICH, Johan Galtung ,What Comes After The U.S. Empire? "The annual global income is 54 trillion dollars, and China's reserves are more than one trillion. The US currency reserves right now amount to 47 billion, which is nothing. That means when you want 100 billion for more fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, you have to take more loans."

hentet 010807, Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, The Liberator. "Let's not forget Saddam's threat to the dollar. It's simple to understand why he had to be eliminated. As Congressman Ron Paul puts it, the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement solidified the dollar as the preeminent world reserve currency, replacing the British pound. Due to the American political and military strength, and due to its huge gold reserve, the world readily accepted the dollar (defined as l/35th of an ounce of gold) as the world's reserve currency. However, the U.S. printed more dollars for which there was no gold backing. But the world was content to accept those dollars for more than 25 years with little question - until the French and others in the late 1960s demanded it fulfill its promise to pay one ounce of gold for each $35 they delivered to the U.S. Treasury.... An agreement was struck with OPEC to price oil in U.S. dollars exclusively for all worldwide transactions... In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. It was his arrogance that was a threat - to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a threat."

080807, The Telegraph. [Så kom den økonomiske bombe, som en fornuftig amerikansk økonomiminister havde forhandlet sig ud af/balanceret budgettet ud af/undgået på anden vis, OJ] "China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales".

090807, MarketOracle.co.uk, The "Plunge Protection Team" Working Overtime to Save US Stock Market. Artiklen har en samling kurver over kursudviklingen, som sammenholdes med "nyheder" fra PPTfolk. Uoverskueligt, men særdeles interessant læsning.

110807 Nu er det Kina, der bestemmer USAs rentesatser, Paul Craig Roberts.

110807, William D. Hartung, Myths of Mideast Arms Sales. Hvad Hartung glemmer er, at oliekrisen i 1974 løstes ved, at Saudiarabien lovede at handle olie i USD og købe våben for overskuddet. Derfor salget netop nu, hvor USD er på vej ned. Det er sværere at se, hvorfor USAs allierede i Mellemøsten, skal have 43 milliarder USD i militærhjælp - med mindre der under beskrivelsen skjuler sig en kompensation til Israel for salget til Saudiarabien.

120807, Mike Whitney stock Market Brushfire; Will there be a run on the banks? Fed har pumpet 62 milliarder ind i kursstøtte. Det er virkelig et frit marked ! "In the present case, they are asking Big Brother Bemanke to bail them out on trillions of dollars of non-performing subprime garbage-loans which masquerade as securities in the secondary market. The Fed has already indicated that it is only-too-willing to help... If the Fed doesn't help out, we'll see at least one or two major bank closures....And there's more bad news, too. If the stock market corrects more than 10 or 15%, the massive overleveraged $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry will crash-and-burn...we can expect a major breakdown in credit insurance-trading with trillions of dollars in derivatives disappearing overnight."

120807, Taipei Tomes, Joseph Stiglitz, A day of reckoning for Americans who lived beyond their means. "But it was largely predictable, as are the likely consequences for both the millions of Americans who will be facing inancial distress and the global economy...The housing price bubble eventually broke and, with prices declining, some have discovered that their mortgages are larger than the value of their house. Others found that as interest rates rose, they simply could not make their payments. ..A return to fiscal sanity will be good in the long run, but it will reduce aggregate demand in the short run. "

140807, Financial Times, Jeremy Grant i Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned. Det er David Walker, comptroller general of the US, en slags chef for statsrevisorerne, der udtaler sig. Den førte politik er "unsustainable", ikke-bæredygtig er den sædvanlige oversættelse, når det drejer sig om miljøproblemer, vi kan også sige "uansvarlig". Han henviser til computersimuleringer, som statsrevisorerne (Government Accountability Office) har foretaget. Han sammenligner med symptomer før Romerrigets fald. (Han er dog udnævnt af Clinton, og derfor næppe politisk neutral). Udover udlandsgælden, underskuddet på de offentlige finanser, underbudgetterede militærudgifter o.l. peger han på mangler i sygehusvæsenet, på vejområdet, bl.a. broer !, lufthavne, vandforsyning og kloakvæsen.

170807, BBC, New York rally ends turbulent day. "The world's markets were subject to another day of chaos on Thursday, with London's main FTSE 100 index seeing its sharpest fall in four-and-a-half years....Even further intervention by the Federal Reserve, which pumped an extra $17bn (£8.6bn) into the US banking system on Thursday to try and restore confidence seemed unable to allay concerns that the problems in the financial markets was a portent of what lay in store for the wider economy... Over the past week, the Fed has now injected $88bn (£44.3bn), while the European Central Bank has put up 211bn euros ($283.2bn;£142.6bn). [Hvorfor fanden skal vi bære byrden for deres overforbrug ? OJ].

170807, ICH, Paul Craig Roberts China Is Not The Problem. "When a company shifts its production from the US to a foreign country, it transforms US GDP into imports. Every time a US company offshores goods and services, it adds to the US trade deficit...The fuss about tariffs makes even less sense once one realizes that the purpose of tariffs is to protect domestically produced goods from cheaper imports. However, US tariffs today would be imposed on the offshored production of US firms...Tariffs would benefit American labor, something that the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Republican Party would strongly oppose. A wage equalization tariff would wipe out much of the advantage of offshoring. Profits would come down, and with lower profits would come lower CEO compensation and shareholder returns. Obviously, the corporate interests and Wall Street do not want any tariffs...In fact, offshoring is labor arbitrage... The free market economists ignore that a country that offshores its production also offshores its jobs. It becomes dependent on goods and services made in foreign countries, but lacks sufficient export earnings with which to pay for them...The enormous and continuing US deficits are wearing out the US dollar as reserve currency. A time will come when the US cannot pay for the imports, on which it has become ever more dependent, by flooding the world with ever more dollars."

200807, Bloomberg, Merkel Says Credit Crisis Warrants Probe Into Rating Companies. Hun (og Sarkozy) vil have undersøgt "Moody's Investor Service, Standard & Poor's and other rating companies", markedet har brug for større gennemskuelighed. [Det har hun ganske ret i, men hun bliver nok ikke genvalgt efter den udtalelse. NED vil nok satse på en anden. USA og UK har foreløbig afvist et tysk forslag om en adfærdskodex for Hedge Funds, der er en hovedkilde til markedets manglende gennemskuelighed. OJ]

280807, The Guardian, George Monbiot, How the neoliberals stitched up the wealth of nations for themselves A cabal of intellectuals and elitists hijacked the economic debate, and now we are dealing with the catastrophic effects. "These problems appear unrelated, but they all have something in common. Tley arise in large part from a meeting that took place 60 years ago in a Swiss spa resort. It laid the foundations for a philosophy of government that is responsible for many, perhaps most, of our contemporary crises. When the Mont Pelerin Society first met, in 1947, its political project did not have a name. But it knew where it was going. The society's founder, Friedrich von Hayek, remarked that the battle for ideas would take at least a generation to win, but he knew that his intellectual army would attract powerful backers....wherever the neoliberal programme has been implemented, it has caused a massive shift of wealth not just to the top 1%, but to the top tenth of the top 1%. In the US, for instance, the upper 0.1% has already regained the position it held at the beginning of the 1920s. ... In practice the philosophy developed at Mont Pelerin is little but an elaborate disguise for a wealth grab...The first great advantage the neoliberals possessed was an unceasing fountain of money US oligarchs and their foundations - Coors, Olin, Scaife, Pew and others - have poured hundreds of millions into setting up thinktanks, founding business schools and transforming university economics departments into bastions of almost totalitarian neoliberal thinking. The Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institute, the American Enterprise Institute and many others in the US, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Adam Smith Institute in the UK, were all established to promote this project....But the most powerful promoter of this programme was the media. Most of it is owned by multimillionaires who use it to project the ideas that support their interests."

290807, Stephen Lendman, The War On Working Americans. "... "the share of (US) national income going to corporate profits (compared to labor) is hovering around a 50 year high."...By the 1880s, ...New labor organizations arose, older ones expanded, and as they did, they grew more active and militant. It led to the "great uprising of labor" in 1886, including the landmark Chicago May 4 Haymarket Riot protesting police violence against strikers the previous day. Its impact was hugely negative at first. It forced organized labor to regroup and settle in for a long period of recovery...and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) that at its peak in the 1920s had 100,000 members...It's a long way today from when the landmark Wagner Act passed in 1935 under Franklin Roosevelt. It established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) guaranteeing labor the right to bargain collectively on equal terms with management for the first time ever, but it wasn't an act of kindness...The passage of the harsh 1947 Taft-Hartley Labor-Management Relations Act showed how tenuous their position always was. Harry Truman vetoed the bill but was overridden....The law throttles organized labor by giving the President power to stop strikes by court-ordered injunction for 80 days. He can claim the national interest, some other one, or none at all that's always the same one - to help corporate management deny workers their rights...Taft-Hartley is still the law and was last invoked by GW Bush in the  summer of 2002 against 10,500 west coast dock workers "locked out" (not striking) by the Pacific Maritime Association representing shipping companies and terminal operators. Earlier in 2001 and new in office, Bush showed his anti-labor stripes straightaway. He invoked the Railway Labor Act blocking a threatened strike by 10,000 mechanics, cleaners and custodians at Northwest Airlines set for March 12....It enacted a list of "unfair (union) labor practices" prohibiting jurisdictional strikes (relating to worker job assignments), secondary boycotts (against firms doing business with others being struck), wildcat strikes, sit-down;, slow-downs, mass-picketing against scabs brought it, closed shops (in which employees must join unions), union contributions to federal political campaigns, and more while legalizing employer interventions aimed at preventing unionizing drives...[Reagan] showed it in August, 1981 by firing 11,000 striking PATCO air traffic controllers, jailing its leaders, fining the union millions of dollars, and effectively busting it in service to the monied interests backing him...Union membership has been in steady decline from its post-war high of 34.7% in the 1950s. It held fairly constant through most of the 1970s at around 24% where it stood in 1979. At the end of the Reagan era, it was down to 16.8% and is currently around 12%....Bush further ended the Clinton administration's regulation requiring federal agencies vet companies' compliance with the law when awarding federal contracts...and mandated contractors henceforth must inform employees they no longer had to join a union without having to tell them it's their legal right...In April editions of the American Prospect, the Washington Post and ZNet, Harold Meyerson wrote about "a radical new direction for the globalized economy" in his article titled "Unions Gone Global." He noted the United Steel Workers (USW) here are negotiating a merger with two of Britain's largest unions to create "the first genuinely multinational trade  union"." 

310807, ICH, Stephen Lendman, The War on Working Americans

010907, My Way Finance, Former Subprime Leader Ameriquest Closes.

020907, ZMag, Gabriel Kolko, The Predicted Financial Storm Has Arrived. "The near-failure of the German Sachsen LB bank, which had to be saved from bankruptcy with 17.3 billion euros in credit, revealed that European banks hold over half-trillion dollars in so-called asset backed commercial paper, much of it in the U. S. and subprime mortgages. A failure in America caused Europe too to face a crisis. The problem is scarcely isolated...Throughout August the American and European central banks plunged about a half-trillion dollars into the banking system in an attempt to unfreeze blocked credit and loans that followed the subprime crisis-an event which triggered a "flight to safety" which greatly redueed banks' willingness to loan."

070907, MoneyandMarkets, Feds start bailing as housing takes on more water! (by Mike Larson). "The FHA's guidelines will be modified so that adjustable-rate loan holders who fall behind on their payments due to a rise in rates can refinance into FHA loans....Lastly, Bush is pushing legislation designed to ease the debt forgiveness tax burden...Some 5.12% of the country's mortgages are also now delinquent, meaning the borrower is at least 30 days behind on payments. That's the highest in five years."

070907, ICH, Mike Whitney, Are The Banks In Trouble? "They know it has something to do with derivatives, but none of them realize that it's more than a $20 trillion mountain of unfunded, unregulated paper that has just been discovered to not have a market and, therefore, no real value."

110907, Bloomberg, Erik Larson, Retirement Funds Vanish as Bankruptcies Hit Tax-Deferred Scheme.

200907, AlterNet, John F. Ince, America's Addiction to Debt Finally Crashes the System. "The national debt last week topped $9 trillion, up from approximately $5 trillion when George Bush took office. To put this in perspective, the government of Bush & Co. has borrowed almost as much as the governments of all the other presidents of the United States combined....Central banks worldwide have reacted to the crisis by injecting over $700 billion into he global financial system....By pumping so much liquidity into the system, it ultimately inflates the currency. [Der er nemlig købt amerikanske statsobligationer for pengene, hvorved der bliver flere USD, OJ]...For the average worker who is already struggling to make ends meet, this could have devastating consequences. Median family earnings of $48,201 in 2006 were 2 percent less than they were in 2000....And this is where things really start to get dicey, because the stability of the entire financial system is at risk. In other words, the downward spiral of real estate assets puts the solvency of major financial institutions in jeopardy..... It used to be that banks could assess their portfolio and fairly easily identify the trouble spots. But now, we don't really know how far into the layered labyrinth of leverage the trouble goes...Amidst all the questions and the complexities, there is one simple truth that has to be addressed in a meaningful way before the system is stabilized. The root cause of all the problems is -- put simply -- for America, living in debt has become a way of life.....In other words, our economic system as it is has exacerbated inequalities. The stability of the overall economy is threatened by imbalances when increasing numbers of people are marginalized economically. The conventional wisdom holds that in an ideal society the imbalances can be mitigated either by governmental intervention or by the activities of the social sector. But the conventional wisdom breaks down when the private sector becomes so powerful that the public sector becomes captive of private interests....When a nation becomes a debtor nation, this signals a fall of international stature, as evidenced by the fall of the Dutch Empire in the 1600s, the Spanish Empire in the 1700s, and the British Empire in the 1800s,".....The United States doesn't have to default on its debt. It can simply pay back lenders with dollars that are worth less than the dollars that were borrowed. And if this happens to the public debt, private debt will be similarly affected and the entire monetary system will be destabilized. These are not happy scenarios to contemplate. But by pumping such massive amounts of liquidity into the financial system, the Fed has already started a process of increasing the supply of a commodity and thereby decreasing its value. This process is otherwise known as inflation. With the value of the dollar plunging against foreign currencies, the cost of everything we buy from abroad increases."

011007, ICH, Stephen Lendman, Greenspan's Dark Legacy Unmasked. "[Greenspan] who the Financial Times also praised as "An Activist Unafraid to Depart From the Rule" - by taking from the public and giving to the rich." Lendman argumenterer for denne sin konklusion, og giver eksempler. Aktieboblen, forhåndsadvarsler til de store selskaber, kampen mod New Deal og Great Society programmerne, konfiskeringen af pensionsfondene, redningsplanker til store firmaer i nød (1987, 1998, efter dot.com) "... his lawyer, Robert Barnett says "virtually every major investment-banking firm" in the world wants to hire him for his rainmaking connections. They have value, not his market advice." Og så forsøger Greenspan at rette på historien, m.h.t. til sin tilslutning til Bush' skattenedsættelse til de rige, bl.a.

200908, Michael Moore, The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning.

221208, James Petras, Wall Street Swindler Strikes Powerful Blows For Social Justice (Bernard Madoff).

010109, Counterpunch, PAM MARTENS, The Worker-Capitalist Con, Wall Street's Collapse and the Ownership Society. Om fidusen med at omlægge pensioner til fondsinvesteringer. Den indgik i Milton Friedmanns første økonomiske omstruktureringsplan, den i Pinochets Chile. Derefter promoveret af IMF og gennemfført mere eller mindre helhjertet selv i Danmark og Sverige. "Today in the U.S., with both corporate bonds and stocks suffering massive losses and over $2 trillion of taxpayers' dollars doled out by the Federal Reserve to shore up Wall Street firms in various stages of insolvency, we finally grasp the true meaning of "the ownership society:" the Wall Street execs absconded with the so-called profits; the little people own the losses; the next generation owns the bailout debt. This scheme makes Ponzi artist Bernie Madoff look like a piker. Nogen firmaer supplerer fidusen med at arbejderne afskriver sig retten til at gå rettens vej og i stedet henvises til mægling ! (mandatory arbitration).

040109, NYTimes. By MICHAEL LEWIS and DAVID EINHORN, The End of the Financial World as We Know It. To that end consider the strange story of Harry Markopolos. Mr. Markopolos is the former investment officer with Rampart Investment Management in Boston who, for nine years, tried to explain to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Bernard L. Madoff couldn't be anything other than a fraud. Mr. Madoffs investment performance, given his stated strategy, was not merely improbable but mathematically impossible. And so, Mr, Markopolos reasoned, Bernard Madoff must be doing something other than what he said he was doing. ... What's interesting about the Madoff scandal, in retrospect, is how little interest anyone inside the financial system had in exposing it. It wasn't just Harry Markopolos who smelled a rat. As Mr. Markopolos explained in his letter, Goldman Sachs was refusing to do business with Mr. Madoff; many others doubted Mr. Madoffs profits or assumed he was front-running his customers and steered clear of him. ... OUR financial catastrophe, like Bernard Madoffs pyramid scheme, required all sorts of important, plugged-in people to sacrifice our collective long-term interests for short-term gain. The pressure to do this in today's financial märkets is immense. ... Indeed, one of the great social benefits of the Madoff scandal may be to finally reveal the S.E.C. for what it has become.

060109, The Telegraph, Willem Buiter Warns of Massive Dollar Collapse.

140109, Rolling_Stone, Paul Krugman, Back to What Obama Must Do. There was, however, a big difference between FDR's approach to taxpayer-subsidized financial rescue and that of the Bush administration: Namely, FDR wasn't shy about demanding that the public's money be used to serve the public good. By 1935 the U.S. govemment owned about a third of the banking system, and the Roosevelt administration used that ownership stake to insist that banks actually help the economy, pressuring them to lend out the money they were getting from Washington. Beyond that, the New Deal went out and lent a lot of money directly to businesses, to home buyers and to people who already owned homes, helping them restructure their mortgages so they could stay in their houses. ... You need to give the real economy of work and wages a boost. In other words, you have to get job creation right - which FDR never did. ... It took the giant public works project known as World War II - a project that finally silenced the penny pinchers - to bring the Depression to an end. ... But let's be clear: Tax cuts are not the tool of choice for fighting an economic slump. For one thing, they deliver less bang for the buck than infrastructure spending, because there's no guarantee that consumers will spend their tax cuts or rebates. As a result, it probably takes more than $300 billion of tax cuts, compared with $200 billion of public works, to shave a point off the unemployment rate. Furthermore, in the long run you're going to need more tax revenue, not less, to pay for health care reform. So tax cuts shouldn't be the core of your economic recovery program. They should, instead, be a way to "bulk up" your job-creation program, which otherwise won't be big enough. ... First, let's put the costs of the economic-recovery program in perspective. It's possible that reviving the economy might cost as mucn as a trillion dollars over the course of your first term. But the Bush administration wasted at least twice that much on an unnecessary war and tax cuts for the wealthiest. ... Universal health care, then, should be your biggest priority after rescuing the economy. ...conservatives warned that wage gains would have disastrous economic effects - that the rise of unions would cripple employment and economic growth. But in fact, the Great Compression was followed by the great postwar boom, which doubled American living standards over the course of a generation. ... You can make a start on reversing that process. Clearly, you won't be able to oversee a tripling of union membership anytime soon. But you can do a lot to enhance workers' rights. One is to start laying the groundwork to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it much harder for employers to intimidate workers who want to join a union. I know it probably won't happen in your first year, but if and when it does, the legislation will enable America to take a huge step toward recapturing the middle-class society we've lost. ... There is, however, one area where I feel the need to break discipline. I'm an economist, but I'm also an American citizen - and like many citizens, I spent the past eight years watching in horror as the Bush administration betrayed the nation's ideals. And I don't believe we can put those terrible years behind us unless we have a full accounting of what really happened. I know that most of the inside-the-Beltway crowd is urging you to let bygones be bygones, just as they urged Bill Clinton to let the truth about scandals from the Reagan-Bush years, in particular the Iran-Contra affair, remain hidden. But we know how that tumed out: The same people who abused power in the name of national security 20 years ago returned as part of the team that, under the second George Bush, did it all over again, on a much larger scale. It was an object lesson in the truth of George Santayana's dictum: Those who refuse to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. ...It's probably best if Congress takes the lead in investigations of the Bush years, but your administration can do its part, both by not using its influence to discourage the investigations and by bringing an end to the Bush administration's stonewalling.

130209, Global Research, Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay, Obama, like Bush, is Throwing Public Money into a Black Hole. This was then, and it is now, a plan designed primarily to use hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to prevent banks from declaring bankruptcy, while in fact doing little to accomplish its presumed primary objective of getting banks to resume normal lending. ... With more public money thrown at the problem with little strings attached, large U.S. banks will only use the new cash to de-leverage themselves and pay off their debts, buyout smaller banks and find a way to reward their incompetent executives with large bonuses, but little will trickle down to the real economy. ... Let's look coldly at the situation. The ratio of total debt to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now higher than it was in 1933, when it reached the lofty and unsustainable level of 299.8 percent. It took nearly twenty years to bring down the debt/GDP ratio to below 140 in 1952. In the second quarter of 2008, all debt records were broken when the total debt ratio in the U.S. registered at 356,7 percent of GDP. ... The Geithner bank bailout plan must not be confused with the $800 billion-plus fiscal stimulus plan for the entire economy that Congress is about to adopt. The latter, contrary to the former, is designed to cushion the fall of real spending in the economy and is likely to have a net positive impact. Indeed, as households increase their savings rate and curtail their discretionary spending to compensate for the loss of housing and financial wealth, government spending has to take up the slack. [Dem der ejer butikken, bankerne, skal åbenbart bestikkes, for at man kan få lov at lette på krisen ! OJ]

130209, ICH, Paul Craig Roberts, Obama's voodoo economics. Deficit Nonchalance. -Who remembers economists' hysteria over the "Reagan deficits"'' Wall Street was in panic. Reagan's fiscal irresponsibility was bringing the end of the world. ... Paul Krugman, for example, couldn't damn Reagan's puny deficits enough. But today he thinks the deficit can't be large enough! ... Only we supply-side economists never said that deficits don't matter. We said that deficits have different causes and consequences. Some are problematic. Some are not, or are less so.... Today no policy maker or establishment economist is thinking at all.  [Notitsen kan være et udgangspunkt for at få styr på forskellen mellem Keynes og Friedman økonomer. OJ]

130209, Al Jazeera, Economic Crisis 'Top Threat to US' The current global economic crisis remains the top security concern for the US, the country's new Director of National Intelligence has said. (Dennis Blair)

290411, CNSnews.com, U.S. Treasury: China Has Decreased Its Holdings of U.S. Debt. ... Chinese ownership of U.S. Treasury securities peaked in October 2010 and has declined in each of the four most recent months reported by the Treasury Department. In the end of October 2010, China owned 1.1753 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. That dropped to $1.1641 trillion by the end of November, $1.1601 tniiion by the end of December, $1.1547 trillion by the end of January, and $1.1541 trillion by the end of February 2011. ... In the two years between September 2008 and September 2010, China increased its U.S. government debt holdings by $533.7 billion — from $618.2 billion to 1.1519 trillion. By the end of October 2010, China's holdings of U.S. government debt had increased to their peak of 1.1753 trillion. ... At the end of February, according to the Treasury, the total U.S. debt was $14.194764 trillion of which $9.565541 trillion was publicly traded Treasury securities. Of those $9.565541 trillion in public Treasury securities, foreigners owned $4.4743 trillion - or almost 47 percent.

040511, The Economist, Exchange rates: Forty years of hurt,  Daily chart, The dollar falls to its lowest value yet. ... A weak currency should be good news for a country's exporters, but that hasn't stopped America from running a persistent trade deficit.

hernu

Uligheden

170705, Jason Miller: "Economic Injustice: America's New Leading Export."

 310306, ICH, James Petras: "Record Profits and Rising Authoritarianism" The Ascendancy of Finance Capital. New York City har en formuefordeling, som er blandt Verdns mest ulige, lige over 1 % af befolkningen sidder på over 80 % af værdierne (det er på niveau med Guatemala og Brazilien).

100506, Kevin Zeese, CounterPunch. I perioden 1967 til 1980 steg de fattigstes andel af indkomsterne med 6.5 % (basis for procenten er uklar), men det blev der rettet op på under Reagan. Fra 1980 til 1990 tabte de fattigste 10 %, mens de rigeste vandt 20 %.

Sundhedsudgifter

The Department of Health and Human Services opgør sundhedsudgifterne til 1550 milliarder USD i 2003 (5440 USD/person) 15 % af BNP. Stigningerne skyldes liberaliseringerne. Størst er stigningen for hospitalerne. Samtidig er det offentliges andel af sundhedsomkostningerne lavere i USA end i resten af OECD, 45 % mod et gennemsnit på 72 %.

Sygdom og medicinudgifter opgives som årsag til næsten halvdelen af de personlige konkurser, wrgb.com, 020205.

USAs økonomiske prioritering

Regeringen har bedt om 87 milliarder USD i 2004 som extraomkostninger i forbindelse med krigen i Iraq. USAs budget for U-landshjælp var i 2002 på 10 milliarder USD, George Soros, i The Guardian, 260104.

I forvejen har USA meget store militærudgifter, forklaringen ser du nok i "Orlas lille lærebog i økonomi - marked, lønninger og demokrati".

Der er et meget stort spild i USAs militærbudget. F. eks har GAO i marts april 2004 rapporteret om Future Combat Systems og systemets mulighed for at levere det ønskede til planlagt tid og pris. Og det er et generelt problem, skriver Wired.

De nedskæringer Bush har planlagt for budget 2005 og 2006 - hvis han får en 2. periode - viser en del om hans prioriteringer. De vises - helt summarisk i The Guardian, 270504:

Alle til 2005. Det virker apparte, at man med allerede nogle tusinder extra sårede - og viden om, at 1991 krigen gav 1/3 af de udstationerede som søgende hjælp i løbet af de første år after krigen - kan budgettere med det største fald netop på Veterans Affairs. Men det fortæller noget om den faktiske foragt for dem, der er dumme nok til at blive soldater, hos en præsident, der trods sin officielle stupiditet, var smart nok til at undgå at blive sendt til Vietnam.

I Bush' regeringstid tabtes først 2.6 millioner arbejdspladser, heraf er 1 million genvundet. Men til en ringere løn, fordi de findes i sundhedssektoren, restauranter og vikarbureauer. Udover dårligere løn mangler de nye jobs ofte sundhedsforsikring. Gennemsnitsugelønnen er nu nede på  525.84 USD (under 3700 DKK), det laveste siden 2001, Houston Chronicle, 160804.

270804, Financial Review skriver, at der 2003 er 36 millioner fattige i USA, 12.5 %, højeste siden 1998, op fra 12.1 % i 2002. Fattigdomsgrænsen er sat ved 9563 USD/år for en enlig, det dobbelte for en familie på 4.

Labor Department, IRS og Census Bureau er alle nået til den konklusion, at lønningerne i USA har stagneret eller er direkte faldende gennem de sidste 3 år. Samtidig er arbejdsgivernes betaling til Health Care plan steget med 1000 USD/år i hvert af de seneste 2 år. Og det er ikke fordi det er blevet billigere for den arbejder, der dækkes.

IRS registrerer et indtægtsfald på 9.2 % i 2001 og 2002. The Census Bureau registrerer, at gennemsnitshustandsindkomsten faldet fra 45000 i 1999 til 43349 USD/år i 2003.

Nu begynder økonomerne igen at fatte deres Keynes. Hvis ikke arbejderne som helhed får bedre økonomi - enten i form af flere i arbejde eller højere løn, så trues "fremgangen", Jeffrey McCracken, Detroit Free Press, 060904, BBC har i det væsentlige samme historie, 050904. Den artikel supplerer med, at arbejdsløsheden er steget med 1.3 procentpoint siden 2001, hvor den stod på 4.3 %.

Sygeforsikringen i USA steg med 11.2 % i 2004, og forventes at stige tilsvarende i 2005, og det er 4 år i træk der er to-cifret stigning. Den mest populære forsikringstype ligger nu over 10.000 USD/år. (inflation var på og lønnen steg 2.2 % i 2004), Tucson Citizen, 100904.

021104, Globe & Mail. For anden måned i træk har oktober mere end 100000 fyringer. Så 2004 kan måske nå op på over 1 million. Bush er den første præsident siden Herbert Hoover (1928 - 1932), der har haft en netto nedgang i beskæftigelsen over sin samlede præsidentperiode.

071104, Financial Times. Indien, Rusland og mellemøsten sælger USD, Kina som har 515 milliarder af dem skulle være ved at skifte USD ud til fordel for en pakke af asiatiske valutaer.

240105, Financial Times, Chris Giles: OPEC har nedsat den andel af deres reserver, der holdes i USD, fra 75 % til 61.5 % over de sidste 3 år

Bank of Thailand (50 milliarder USD) vil reducere fra 80 & til 50 %. Rusland går samme vej. Kina dækkede i 2004 207 milliarder USD, ca 1/3 af det løbende underskud.

FT har hørt centralbankernes reserve managers, hvad de tror. De forventer nedsat vækst i de officielle reserver.

290105, Bloomberg, Bill Gates arbejder udfra en nedsat kurs på USD. I Davos sagde den kinesiske centralbankdirektør, at USAs regering skulle gøre mere for at få styr på sit betalingsbalanceunderskud. Kina vil give sit bidrag, men verden skal ikke lægge for stort et pres på Kina. Gates har fået lov at investere 100 millioner USD i yuan aktier og obligationer.

Michael Ventura: "America No. 1 ?", 030205: USA importerer nu mere mad end man eksporterer.

310305, This is London, Mahathir Mohammad råder på Asian Business Conference til at undgå at acceptere USD, som er ustabil og formentlig vil falde yderligere. Det eneste der holder faldet tilbage er en verdensomspændende frygt for, hvad der vil ske, når den går ind i et styrtdyk. [Han bærer vist nag fra 1997].

070805, Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Saudiarabien meddeler, at man vil forsøge at hjemtage 360 milliarder USD, som er investeret i udlandet indenfor de sidste 18 måneder. [Det bliver spændende at se, om det lykkes - og hvilken virkning det får på USAs økonomi. Er det første trin i en afskaffelse af petrodollarsaftalen fra første oliekrise ??, OJ]

150506, The Guardian, Even China cannot feed a pernnanent bull.

Perkins, (p. 212) Den amerikanske gæld på 7000 milliarder USD, svarer til 24.000 USD/indbygger. Den amerikanske papirdollar har ingen reel basis, den bygger alene på en almindelig verdensomfattende tillid til den amerikanske økonomi og evnen til at styre imperiets magt og ressurser - det imperium [amerikanerne] har skabt for at støtte [ameikanerne].

071209, Obama's Financiers Okay Extra $60 Billion for Pentagon: http://snipurl.com/tl8o7

Skattepolitiken

Virksomhedernes andel af skatten er i 2003 7.4 %, det laveste niveau siden 1983 og næst laveste siden 1934.

En GAO rapport afslører at mere end 60 % af de amerikanske firmaer ikke betalte forbundsskat mellem 1996 og 2000 (Contracostatimes, 070404)

Hjemløse

USA har mange hjemløse. 3.5 millioner i.h.t. The homeless Coalition.  Nu har man også en National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day. Man holder blandt andet candlelight ceremonier for de hjemløse, der er døde i årets løb (Philadelphia, 33, Baltimore, 79, Ohio, over 40, Honolulu, omkring 30 (ap.tbo.com, 221204)

070805. Houston Chronicle. Dallas regler forbyder uddeling af mad til de hjemløse og henviser det til bestemte steder.

050406, New Standard News. Den praksis har bredt sig til mange andre byer. Der kommer også flere og flere forbud mod at ligge i parker og på bænke - og opholde sig i biblioteker.

Huspriserne

Stigningen i huspriserne i hele verden er historiens største økonomiske boble. Vær forberedt på lommesmerter når den brister. The Economist analyserer situationen, 160605. Som sædvanligt bristede boblen, masser af skattepenge blev udbetalt til de rige - og det fortsætter.

070406, MoneyWeek. Six months to housing hell  Der er nu flere sælgere end købere. Det kan bedre betale sig at leje. Der kan forventes et hav af tvangsauktioner. Det vil øge problemerne.

250406, Infoshop. Antallet af tvangsauktioner steg 72 % fra 1.kvt 2005 til 1. kvt 2006. Det ligger nu på 1 ud af 358 husholdninger. Iværksættes, når skyldneren er 90 dage bagud. Samme historie: http://wwwxhicagotribunexornA)usiness/chi-0604250181apr25J3999687.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=l&cset=fr^^ 

jan. 2011, Vancouver Sun, IMF warns U.S., Japan on debt:

USAs skattesystem

De store virksomheder slipper uden om (2/3 af dem betaler ingen skat - samlet betaler de 12 % af indkomstskatterne) - med det resultat at almindelige arbejdere og småhandlende betaler 45 % af statsudgifterne. Det har fået advokaten William John Cox til at skrive en korthistorik om systemets udvikling - med forslag til et nyt (jeg er ikke sikker på, at det er bedre): A Smart and Simple Tax. 041209.

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