The American Empire is Now Bankrupt: This week marks the end ...

[picasso moon]

Key error in Hudson's piece, upon which this article is based: the US military strength is not simply a vestige of its global economic dominance, it was a big reason for it in the first place, the US emerged from WWII as not only militarily dominant but also the only industrial power undamaged by the war. As long as this dominance continues, the US will be hard to push off (not impossible, just hard), and even without foreign support, the US branch of TPTB can do so via draconian domestic austerity, draft,...   all enabled if nothing else works with another 9/11 style "terrorist attack."

[goanna]

about how we subsidize the defense of half the countries in the world.  Let them stand on their own feet.

Many of these countries never have been asked for US defense, this is not and act of good will this is pure imperialism. I think that the world would be far better if the US would concentrate on their own problems and leave other countries alone.

Back to Yekaterinburg: are there any reports out what had happened?

[Max und Moritz]

about how we subsidize the defense of half the countries in the world.  Let them stand on their own feet.

Many of these countries never have been asked for US defense, this is not and act of good will this is pure imperialism. I think that the world would be far better if the US would concentrate on their own problems and leave other countries alone.

+1

FYI, most of those countries would "stand on their own feet" just fine if it weren´t for American supersaints like Enron, Monsanto, etc. pillaging their reserves, polluting their air and water, turning the local population into wage slaves and supporting bananocracies to crush any indigenous protests.

Let the US try to stand on its two fat ignorant feet without the resources extorted by other countries.

[Ray]

blah bla bla US blabba, blabba, blabba...bla is it blub?

[bri]

With all the US pillaging, enslaving, extortion...why is it broke?

i don't consider the united states broke. It is a giant corporation. Question is, how long can it run in the red on the balance sheets (been insolvent for years) and what is it hiding for assets?

Better yet, what assets can actually be confiscated by creditors?

The united states could be considered a big tree. Perhaps a bad analogy but i will put it up anyway.
The roots scatter around the world. The tree trunk is wide and towering into the sky.
So how do you kill the tree? Cut a root it grows another, maybe even further and deeper than the last. Cut a branch it grows another. It may shed it's leaves and looks like it is dying, only to rebloom come spring.
The overshadowing of it's branches effects the growth beneath them. Each placed branch can limit or allow sorrounding growth. It's water is sucked from the earth far and wide, from other plants and vegetation, beyond even the reach of the branches.
So how do you kill the giant tree? Either cut enough roots for it to die, or hope it dies from within. Perhaps rot will take hold and it will rot from within. Then the only question becomes which way the giant tree will topple and who it topples on.
The united states being broke is a strange statement. That is financial, which is debatable in what exactly that means since it spends so much money, much of which could be cut. It also still has resources. But mostly it is the CONTROL that is the asset. The spread of the roots and branches. That is something beyond the balance sheet.

[mos6507]

No doubt the dollar is headed for trouble, but this author is a little heavy on the histrionics.

Par for the course.

[ArmaGoof]

With all the US pillaging, enslaving, extortion...why is it broke?

i don't consider the united states broke. It is a giant corporation. Question is, how long can it run in the red on the balance sheets (been insolvent for years) and what is it hiding for assets?

Better yet, what assets can actually be confiscated by creditors?

The united states could be considered a big tree. Perhaps a bad analogy but i will put it up anyway.
The roots scatter around the world. The tree trunk is wide and towering into the sky.
So how do you kill the tree? Cut a root it grows another, maybe even further and deeper than the last. Cut a branch it grows another. It may shed it's leaves and looks like it is dying, only to rebloom come spring.
The overshadowing of it's branches effects the growth beneath them. Each placed branch can limit or allow sorrounding growth. It's water is sucked from the earth far and wide, from other plants and vegetation, beyond even the reach of the branches.
So how do you kill the giant tree? Either cut enough roots for it to die, or hope it dies from within. Perhaps rot will take hold and it will rot from within. Then the only question becomes which way the giant tree will topple and who it topples on.
The united states being broke is a strange statement. That is financial, which is debatable in what exactly that means since it spends so much money, much of which could be cut. It also still has resources. But mostly it is the CONTROL that is the asset. The spread of the roots and branches. That is something beyond the balance sheet.

Fortunately, or not, our tree grows money.     But in the end, it's gone with the wind.  I listen to Obamas little speech this afternoon about restructuring the financial sector with lots of new regulations.  I once spent 18 months trying to solve Rubik's Cube, too.  The problem these days is that everybody is trying to solve the same cube which only renders it hopelessly far from the solution.

[guitarbuddy]

No doubt the dollar is headed for trouble, but this author is a little heavy on the histrionics.

Par for the course.

What gets me about these kinds of articles, and we've seen them before from otherwise reliable sources, is that when the collapse isn't as catastrophic as was made out to be it serves to reduce the credibility of the genre. I remember an article perhaps as old as 1.5 years ago that was saying we were headed for serious shortages and to stock up, so I did. I know it's a good idea to be cautious and all, but it didn't happen. It's a weird waiting game because until "it" happens - whatever that means to any of us - we still have to go on with our lives more or less the same way. I still have work, for example. I still put gas in my car and drive to the grocery store and buy the week's provisions. Yes, there have been changes, but so far in my area it's not that bad. I mean come on; Detroit's been going through this shit for 30 years and it's still there, though it's lookin' pretty bad from the reports. Seriously, how seriously can we take it every day?

[highstreet]

about how we subsidize the defense of half the countries in the world.  Let them stand on their own feet.

Many of these countries never have been asked for US defense, this is not and act of good will this is pure imperialism. I think that the world would be far better if the US would concentrate on their own problems and leave other countries alone.

Back to Yekaterinburg: are there any reports out what had happened?

Exactly.

As far as the conference went, all I have heard is that they came out with the weakest kind of statement they could have made about the countries trying to trade in things other than dollars.

[LuckyLarry]

The thesis of the article, however, is nonsense IMO.  "Hudson told me. 'It means China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran are forming an official financial and military area to get America out of Eurasia.'......."  Hmmm.  Let's parse a little.  India and Pakistan part of an "official financial and military area...."?  Yeah right.  When did pigs start to fly?  These dudes want to nuke each other and would if they honestly thought they had first strike capability.  India and China?  Righto.  These dudes fought a war and the only folks the Indians #2 enemy after Pakistan is China.  Iran?  That place is a basket case, even before the political upheaval.  Russia?  I thought all of you understood peak oil?  What does that mean for the Bear?  Think about it.  The rouble will be toast before the dollar.  China and Russia aren't the best of friends either.  There's history there.  Americans have never understood history.  Too boring in school I guess or more likely because the football coach was the history teacher.

Well said, Dirt Farmer, but war often does make strange bedfellows . . . On the other hand, the collapse appears to be world wide with every country in a race to the bottom . . . Aside from bartering with one another there's no real visible alternative to the dollar, not that that makes it a stable currency. So I suspect we and they will continue sliding down the slippery slopes of the financial mess made by the Wall Street quants with a lot of help from the same esoteric stupid types in Washington. Like John Galt said, "Get the hell out of my way!" Never mind, who is John Galt? Where the hell is he now that we need him? Ayn must be looking down and saying, I told you so . . .

[AnnS]

The American Empire still has some life yet...China Forced to Support U.S. Dollar to Defend $2 trillion Currency Reserves (http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11012).  Furthermore, what the IMF said is that there will be realignment in the future away from the dollar into more SDRs (which are valued in US$ anyhow).  Therefore, what we are likely to see larger domestic inflation, as the US prints more money to pay off its creditors, and the other countries sopping up the dollar by increasing the value of their own currencies.  Which will make life even tougher in the United States and possibly North America, but other regions of the world will prosper.  I doubt it will result in the end of the Guns & Butter arguement, for the US military also makes the world "safe" for the other global powers (witness the events in Gulf off of Somalia).  Therefore, other powers which might prefer to deliver more butter will continue to bail out the guns portion of the equation whilst demanding more cuts on the butter end.

[bri]

I actually wonder if it would be in chinas best interest to become the reserve currency. They have a lot of people to employ and seem to need their currency valued low to keep the exporting going. Seems they could end up in the same situation as the united states, but much quicker. thoughts? 

[goanna]

How about the EUR?
Is a reserve currency needed at all?

[picasso moon]

China and all its efforts cannot save the American empire either, at a certain points its powers-that-be will decide to cut their losses and quit this hopeless rescue, see the Albert Edwards article i just posted.
This American "tree" needs petroleum and other depleting resources to grow. Of course, as Dmitri Orlov points out in the article posted elsewhere on this forum, some people just can't grok depletion, or its scale.

[wiccawench]

some people just can't grok depletion, or its scale.


nor understand that no matter how high the tower grows......when the concrete cancer eats the foundations it WILL come toppling down.