Coincidentally, I discovered the book EMPIRE OF DEBT just last week in our library. I recommend it to anyone who wants to have burned into their synapses a clear definition and life-cycle of empires. (ps...empire R us!) In addition this book will help you to avoid getting sucked into all kinds of group-think, no matter how appealing on an intellectual or emotional level. The concept of "conventional wisdom" is properly blown to bits here. I can see myself reading this book again down the road. It is quite electrifying!
I doubt that it will take 200 years for our mountain of debt to collapse the economy and ruin the country. The financial markets reacted properly to the situation yesterday for about half the day, stock plunging, gold and silver climbing, then insanity returned to turn a 3% decline into a 3% advance with gold and silver down today! What are these people thinking?
I loved Bill's point that the U.S. just doesn't "do empire" very good. Invade, then pour $ into the money pit we made, then - find another foil. And do it all over again.
Well, Bill, I just read the Comments and you sure stirred up the natives this time; however,I enjoy a few historic facts mixed in with your daily missives. Keep your eye on the pot, your hand on the ladle, and continue to stir vigorously.
It's piracy, privateering and smuggling, Bill. And the anglo-Saxon world has been doing it for a thousand years. It's a bad habit but someone has to do it...or protect someone from doing it. That's why Protestantism came into vogue. So folks can squirm out of catholic, orthodox authoritariatism, or somesuch.😉
In general, I agree with you, PG V. The problem is Putin. He's crazy, with a capital C. He's sitting on the biggest nuclear stockpile in the world, and Russia has developed several nuclear missiles (hypersonic), underwater nuclear drones, etc. that are far superior to anything in the U.S. arsenal. He's already made a veiled threat to use those nuclear weapons. That pretty much ties our hands on how to respond to his aggressions and assist the Ukraine. If we piss him off, I truly believe that he's crazy enough to "press the button."
The real danger is what he plans to do after he crushes the Ukraine. If, as many analysts believe, he intends to keep going and conquer all of the former Soviet satellite countries in order to reconstitute the U.S.S.R., that means he will be invading NATO countries. If he does that, he'll force America's hand and we'll have Russians and Americans killing one another with all of Europe embroiled, and it's literally the beginning of WW III. It may already have started. We're in a "Damned if you do. Damned if you don't" situation, if ever there was one!
Agreed. I've never understood the American position that it's "wrong" or "immoral" to assassinate a head of state who is an obvious threat. How is it "moral" to leave a madman around and give him free rein to start a war that ends up killing millions of people, when the problem could be solved (and millions of lives, saved) by one sniper for the price of a single bullet?
Where are you getting your facts from? 'hands off swift' phone call, fact..do tell. As I see it, as you lead the cannon fodder into the jaws of death 'over there'; your beloved Demo cracy is going to collapse. You might use some of that energy HERE mid terms are coming.
Follow the money.....Yes, man is way too stupid/ignorant/insane to learn from history, and we all are damned to repeat it, so enough of the BS, and just pay us our daily bread, and we will blindly do as we are told.....
It's always been the banks/wallstreet/corporate elite that have been behind all confilct since the creation of money, and the blame continues...in every wrong direction.
Coincidentally, I discovered the book EMPIRE OF DEBT just last week in our library. I recommend it to anyone who wants to have burned into their synapses a clear definition and life-cycle of empires. (ps...empire R us!) In addition this book will help you to avoid getting sucked into all kinds of group-think, no matter how appealing on an intellectual or emotional level. The concept of "conventional wisdom" is properly blown to bits here. I can see myself reading this book again down the road. It is quite electrifying!
I doubt that it will take 200 years for our mountain of debt to collapse the economy and ruin the country. The financial markets reacted properly to the situation yesterday for about half the day, stock plunging, gold and silver climbing, then insanity returned to turn a 3% decline into a 3% advance with gold and silver down today! What are these people thinking?
The new US empire model..... Invade print pay
I loved Bill's point that the U.S. just doesn't "do empire" very good. Invade, then pour $ into the money pit we made, then - find another foil. And do it all over again.
Well, Bill, I just read the Comments and you sure stirred up the natives this time; however,I enjoy a few historic facts mixed in with your daily missives. Keep your eye on the pot, your hand on the ladle, and continue to stir vigorously.
Your quote ‘most empires are built on theft, the United States is the first built on fraud’ springs to mind
It's piracy, privateering and smuggling, Bill. And the anglo-Saxon world has been doing it for a thousand years. It's a bad habit but someone has to do it...or protect someone from doing it. That's why Protestantism came into vogue. So folks can squirm out of catholic, orthodox authoritariatism, or somesuch.😉
In general, I agree with you, PG V. The problem is Putin. He's crazy, with a capital C. He's sitting on the biggest nuclear stockpile in the world, and Russia has developed several nuclear missiles (hypersonic), underwater nuclear drones, etc. that are far superior to anything in the U.S. arsenal. He's already made a veiled threat to use those nuclear weapons. That pretty much ties our hands on how to respond to his aggressions and assist the Ukraine. If we piss him off, I truly believe that he's crazy enough to "press the button."
The real danger is what he plans to do after he crushes the Ukraine. If, as many analysts believe, he intends to keep going and conquer all of the former Soviet satellite countries in order to reconstitute the U.S.S.R., that means he will be invading NATO countries. If he does that, he'll force America's hand and we'll have Russians and Americans killing one another with all of Europe embroiled, and it's literally the beginning of WW III. It may already have started. We're in a "Damned if you do. Damned if you don't" situation, if ever there was one!
Agreed. I've never understood the American position that it's "wrong" or "immoral" to assassinate a head of state who is an obvious threat. How is it "moral" to leave a madman around and give him free rein to start a war that ends up killing millions of people, when the problem could be solved (and millions of lives, saved) by one sniper for the price of a single bullet?
Where are you getting your facts from? 'hands off swift' phone call, fact..do tell. As I see it, as you lead the cannon fodder into the jaws of death 'over there'; your beloved Demo cracy is going to collapse. You might use some of that energy HERE mid terms are coming.
Follow the money.....Yes, man is way too stupid/ignorant/insane to learn from history, and we all are damned to repeat it, so enough of the BS, and just pay us our daily bread, and we will blindly do as we are told.....
It's always been the banks/wallstreet/corporate elite that have been behind all confilct since the creation of money, and the blame continues...in every wrong direction.