U.S. is the next Greece

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Dick Morris: US is the Next Greece

Thursday, May 6, 2010 09:03 PM
By: Dan Weil

The U.S. economy will ultimately suffer the same fate as Greece, which is struggling to avoid default on its government debt while rioters run wild in the streets, says Newsmax contributor Dick Morris.

It’s the socialist policies of President Obama that will get us there, the political consultant extraordinaire told Newsmax.TV.

“When you look at Greece you’re looking at the U.S. in two or three years under Obama’s policies,” Morris said.

“The same deficits and lack of control of spending that have landed Greece in such turmoil . . . will eventually spread to the U.S. and Britain because our deficits are just as high and contracted just as irresponsibly by socialist regimes.”

During the financial crisis of 2008-09, there was a run on banks, because investors were worried they couldn’t repay their obligations.

“That was brought to a halt because the government stepped in and said we’re standing behind the banks. You can trust us,” Morris explained.

“Inevitably with the government having a huge deficit and totally unnecessary spending, investors will soon get smart and say I question you Mr. Government. I question whether you’re serious about holding down spending.”

Morris is no more impressed with Obama’s anti-terrorism policy than he is with the president’s economic policy.

“There are obvious holes in our defense,” Morris said. “After 9/11, the U.S. went seven years under the Bush presidency without any attack on U.S. soil. Now in 1 ½ yrs of the Obama presidency, we’ve had three of them.

The problem: law enforcement officials’ hands are tied.

“We Miranda-ize people we apprehend in terrorist attacks,” Morris noted. “We have attorneys sitting right there during investigations. We can’t follow leads. Our personnel are told to avoid at all costs violating the civil liberties of anyone we arrest. Interrogation techniques have to be super gentle.”

Bottom line: “Those doing the investigations are more frightened of the government than of the terrorists being investigated,” he points out.

The White House is to blame for the fact that the Times Square terrorist Faisal Shahzad was able to board a plane despite being on a no-fly list, Morris says.

“That’s a result of the Obama administration minimizing the war on terrorism and refusing to describe it accurately as a war against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism,” he explained.

“You can’t have the loosening of our guard that Obama has brought about and still expect to avoid terrorism.”

As for Iran, Morris faults both the Obama and Bush administrations for failing to prevent the outlaw nation from developing nuclear weapons.

We should be imposing a blockade on Iran’s imports of gasoline from Dubai, he says. The weakness of our sanctions means that Israel will ultimately have to attack Iran.

“Israel will lose huge numbers of men and aircraft doing so,” Morris said. “It will be a tragedy for world peace, Israel and Iran. And it could have been avoided had the U.S. moved against Iran early enough.”

On the political front, Morris was encouraged that in primaries this week, Democratic turnout dropped substantially, while Republican turnout surged.

“More and more people are coming to agree with the observation I made six to eight months ago that Republicans will take the House,” he said. “They still haven’t come around to my way of thinking about the Senate, but they will.”

In Florida, a recent Rasmussen poll showing former Republican turned independent Charlie Crist leading the pack doesn’t mean much, Morris says.

“He can’t win,” Morris maintains. “It’s just a burst of enthusiasm after his declaration. He just had a lot of statewide media attention.” Prior to Crist’s switch a Rasmussen poll showed him second to Republican Marco Rubio, with Democrat Kendrick Meek trailing.

Morris was happy to note that the latest Rasmussen poll showed Meek with support of only about 19 percent.

“Crist engaged in an unpardonable act of egomania,” Morris said. “But if he’s elected, so be it. Just as long as he doesn’t split the vote and elect the Democrat Meek.”
 
Because what's being reported has little to do wit reality right now, what worries me is that a crash could literally come completely without any warning. Everything is a house of cards.
 
socrates was gay :p not saying they all are...just saying the system in which they take care of crisis and debt is just as gay as america :p
 
Bill: [approaching Socrates] How's it going? I'm Bill, this is Ted. We're from the future.
Socrates: Socrates.
Ted: [whispering to Bill] Now what?
Bill: I dunno. Philosophize with him!
Ted: [clears his throat, to Socrates] "All we are is dust in the wind," dude.
[Socrates gives them a blank stare]
Bill: [scoops up a pile of dust from the basin before them and lets it run out of his hand] Dust.
[he blows the remainder away]
Bill: Wind.
Ted: [points at Socrates] Dude.
 
The Ancient Greeks had a completely different view of sexuality than our culture. Donald Hall's book, "Queer Theory" talks about this a little bit. Men could have sex with men as long as the man in the receptive position was of lower status than his partner. If Socrates had sex with Plato, this would have been acceptable so long as Plato was the receptive partner, since Plato was Socrates's younger student, thus, held less social 'power.'
 
He's not saying the Greeks are gay. He's saying that our government's view of money and debt is as random as Yahtzee. You called it a house of cards - I think Pete just prefers his own metaphor.
 
....you've given Pete far too much credit.
But, it is interesting that when he reads, he reads books title "Queer Theory."
 
I guess I can't hate on Pete too much. After all, he has my gun collection - all the guns I have plus all the guns I want.
 
Morris is a partisan (now for the right, as much as he was for the left under Clinton) so I find him hard to read. Good insights on voting though.

The US is in a unique situation. Since we are the 'major' reserve currency, we can theoretically print until the rest of the world goes completely belly up.

Then it's our turn.

There's not much any of the rest of them can do about it, atm. China certainly doesn't want to be the reserve, the Euro is about to die, and there really isn't another economy big enough, or with enough trust underlying it's governance to take over.

That said, all the spending going on now (designed in large part to give money to the financial institutions, either overtly or covertly, who in turn buy the governments debt) will eventually have to be paid for.

Tell your children.
 
Tell your children.
It has to be paid for either in debt or hyper-inflation.
We're currently doing both.

The amount of paper money in circulation today is nearly three times what it was just two years ago. In 2007 there was about $800B in circulation. Now, it's about 2.1 Trillion.

Printing more money, monetizing debt, these are all "taxes" that aren't discussed, they aren't voted on, and we have no say in.

But we can't just print until the world goes belly up.
Because the rest of the world isn't necessarily going to take currency that is increasingly worthless.

The OPEC countries are constantly talking about unhinging from the dollar, for both strategic and economic reasons. If that were to happen, our economy would immediate fall into shambles as the price of oil sky rocketed (even faster.)

Any country, except some of the EU countries, can print their own currency. Eventually you end up with a Zimbabwe or Weimar situation.
 
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=532490

Spiraling debt is Uncle Sam's shock collar, and its jolt may await like an invisible pet fence.

"Nobody knows when you bump up against the limit, but you know when it happens it will really hurt," said fiscal watchdog Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The great uncertainty about how much debt is too much has tended to make fiscal discipline seem less urgent, rather than more. There is no obvious threshold beyond which investors will demand higher real yields for holding U.S. debt. Vague warnings from ratings agencies about the loss of America's 'AAA' status haven't added much clarity — until recently.

In the wake of the financial crisis and recession, Moody's Investors Service has brought new transparency to its sovereign ratings analysis — so much so that 2018 lights up as the year the U.S. could be in line for a downgrade if Congressional Budget Office projections hold.
 
It has to be paid for either in debt or hyper-inflation.
We're currently doing both.

The amount of paper money in circulation today is nearly three times what it was just two years ago. In 2007 there was about $800B in circulation. Now, it's about 2.1 Trillion.

Printing more money, monetizing debt, these are all "taxes" that aren't discussed, they aren't voted on, and we have no say in.

But we can't just print until the world goes belly up.
Because the rest of the world isn't necessarily going to take currency that is increasingly worthless.

The OPEC countries are constantly talking about unhinging from the dollar, for both strategic and economic reasons. If that were to happen, our economy would immediate fall into shambles as the price of oil sky rocketed (even faster.)

Any country, except some of the EU countries, can print their own currency. Eventually you end up with a Zimbabwe or Weimar situation.

No.

Monetary policy only has to be tied to fiscal policy (for the country with the 'reserve currency) if there are other countries with stronger balance sheets and an economy sufficiently large enough to absorb the demands of the world for currency to trade.

At the moment, the entire world is in or headed towards fiscal calamity. That makes our position, vis a vis printing money, not only viable but expedient. I'm not advocating that course of action, but this is an economic discussion.

Once the rest of the world goes boom, we go boom.
 
Buy silver and gold. Stock up on ammo and food and hard assets.

Amen!!

I had to sell my gold/silver to get through my unemployment but once I make it good with this job I'm back to buying them again :-D
 
another good asset is gemstones. Buying Flawless or high clarity gemstones are good to get even online because they'll sell them or cheap but get them appraised for far more. Gemstones will be a possible currency in the future as they used to be in the past and were very easily tradeable.
 

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