Today's rant

This is a long rant to something that I saw on Marylou’s page. I’m in a shitty mood today and it’s coming out in my writing

It’s funny, sad and ironic to hear someone from outside of the US saying this. Unfortunately, today I don’t have the wit, wisdom or time to craft a proper response to Gregers position. Suffice it to say, the part about “imports of certain products” is the root of so many of today’s economic problems. So, just in case everyone hasn’t been following along, here’s how a lot of very smart people think about this:

The US economy has consistently expanded for a very, very long time, even with a few minor (which we’re actually in now) downturns. But, during this long expansion, the US has consistently been importing significantly more goods and services than it has been exporting, leading to a huge trade imbalance. Part of this was the strong dollar, which made imported goods cheaper than domestically produced goods.

But, with long term trade imbalances, a lot of dollars were ending up over-seas with no way to get back here. Also, during this period of time (oh, say the last 30 – 40 years), the US has consistently run deficit spending, which increases our debt level. Now, since US debt is so attractive to everyone else, because their own countries are so screwed up, they used our own dollars from the trade imbalances to buy our own debt. Pretty neat trick, right?

So, some geniuses thought “Hey, let’s drop the value of the dollar, which will help with the trade imbalances”. It’s also devaluing trillions of dollars in US debt held overseas, but hey, let’s ignore that for now.

One of the problems that these super smart people really didn’t account for was that the US dollar is used as the basis for a huge number of foreign exchange transactions and is the primary basis for valuing a lot of commodities that are traded internationally. For example, oil.

Now, as the dollar has dropped, oil has gone up because the smart towel heads have said “Hey, those dollars you’re giving me are worth less, so I want more of them for my product”. This has driven oil up, (let’s also not forget global oil demand has skyrocketed, which is another issue), which is driving inflationary pressures in the US, which, in turn, was right when the Fed was raising interest rates to curb the inflation. But, then the credit crisis came along, so, to bail those poor, poor over-extended home owners out, we had to drop interest rates, fueling even more inflation.

All the while, we’ve been trying to kill a whole generation of terrorist that want to end our way of life, and the whole world is pissed at us because we didn’t ask their permission first. Oh, sure, they’ll blame us if we’re not the first in line to offer assistance during disasters, or when some messy political situation comes up where they don’t want to get their fingers wet. But when we want to do something to protect ourselves, they all stand up and say “Fuck you, upstarts. What do you know about the ways of the world?”

So now we have the whole world standing around saying “I hope they elect a President that’s more favorable for our best interests”, when most of us in the US look at these three and think “I wouldn’t let them run my checkbook for a month, let alone run the whole country”. Two of these idiots I seriously think that their policies will only ruin us further and the other one is a “maverick” in his own party. You know when a maverick is useful? When you’re storming the heights of an emplaced fortification, because you’re not so concerned if this maverick (who you think is a raving asshole, but everyone else loves him so you keep him around) gets blown away. Not really someone you want running your country.

Do I really care what the rest of the world wants? Fuck no. Go solve your own problems. When we fix our ship we’ll be back buying all your shit, propping up your failed governmental systems a while longer so you don’t have to face the truth about your own failing societies.

If you don’t agree with me, fine, like I really care. If you want to debate economic points, I’ll listen, but you’d better be prepared to back your shit up. I’m also not going to listen to any half assed crap about how it’s all President Bush’s fault either. We have over 500 other elected officials in Washington that haven’t done shit during the last eight years to change the road we’re on, so don’t lay it all at the feet of Bush. And the great thing is, so of these people that haven’t done anything are trying to get a better job, all at our own expense. I’m so in the wrong line of work.