Could the world survive a US depression?

[Doctor_J]

I am reading about the huge sell-off of dollars, and am wondering if the world would consider TRYING to push us into an economic disaster. I don't doubt that UBL wants to break us, but could Japan and China survive a US economic crisis?

[Maple]

1. Yes

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I think so

because the Euro is gaining strength and can become the new world currency. The US is no longer the largest market (Europe is) and is no longer the premier manufacturing center (China and India and others are). We are losing ground in innovation and invention (with the help of fundamentalists who would like to get rid of science). Really, the only thing that we have that should concern the rest of the world is our military might and WMDs.

[McKenzie]

15. don't know enough about the deep economic stuff

but I posted some links about the dollar vs the euro yesterday (in the Lounge until some kind person pointed out it was the wrong place for such stuff) The gist of the articles was that the current US invasion (sorry "liberation" from scumbag who was formerly a good buddy) is part of US macro-economic policy to try and prevent the ascendancy of the euro to world reserve currency. From a non-economist's perspective the arguments fowarded made a lot of sense, particularly so given the very recent warning by the US about Iranian nuclear development. The Iranian bourse threatens dollar hegemony as did Saddam's switch to the euro so it is reasonable to infer that the US is not happy at the move.

You are right about the WMD threat and it is a major worry. However, several other countries have substantial nuclear capability. Nothing like that possessed by the US but even a few nukes landing on US soil would surely be unacceptable collateral damage? (just love that euphimism for thermo-nuclear destruction of millions of people) There are loads of Russian ICBM's left too.

Trouble is, there are too many funda-mental (purposeful typo) idiots in positions of power who interpret Revelation in the Futurist context. These zealots scare the shit out of me...run a search string on Google's advanced search page with "revelation different-interpretations" in the all words field and see. They wouldn't worry about armaggedon...some of the nutters would welcome it.

[Vincardog]

3. Only if they can shift to EURO based traiding. The war is about

the US dollar being the worlds reserve currency. China and Japan have been supporting the dollar to maintain their own society's. Who elese would buy all their product?

[NMDemDist2]

4. the "world" will survive til the Sun goes nova

our society is another story

[Renew Deal]

7. Exactly

lol

[umtalal]

5. Oh, yes.

[Renew Deal]

6. Of course

Things will recover after the necessary die off.

[Wright Patman]

8. Nuclear war

is the end game. That is how Cheney will respond to a deliberate attempt to plunge the U.S. into depression and replace the dollar as the world's currency.

I told people this before the election. No one believed me. And no one will until it happens. I think I have fairly good discernment of people's characters, particularly after having observed them over a long period of time. No one should doubt the diabolism inherent in the blackheart of Cheney.

And, yes, I do believe he is running the show. He was running the show on 9-11-01. He kept the aircraft out of the skies to let the LIHOP continue (or MIHOP, as the case may be).

He has been running it from Day One. Or even before Day One. He's been running it since he appointed himself the vice presidential nominee in the summer of 2000.

[Fovea]

11. I believe you

the question is-- will the military let him.
That is a side effect of the PNAC military strategy.
They want to take ground combat humans out of the loop.
If we have few troop in the field, we are less exposed to nuclear theatre counter attack.

I don't think Cheney will succeed. I think out economy will be collapsed by spring, and enter a phase very much like War Communism under Stalin.From that point on, domestic sabotage, and fifth column economic action will do for the Dick, and sadly, the rest of America.

[whistle]

9. Absolutely, what they would be more afraid of is a U.S. that....

...is in economic free-fall becoming a renegade super power military force going into hyper-drive and causing massive destruction around the world. I could see Dubya leading that charge.

[MacCovern]

10. Stop scaring yourself....it's going to be fine

Please see my posting about how people use irrational fear to
keep themselves in a constant state of panic.

Chill out,and have some fun, because there isn't going to be a U.S. depression anytime soon.

[illflem]

13. Agreed...

The rest of the world has as much to lose by a failed US economy as we do.
They need us to sell their crap to. As much as they'd love to attack the US economy they won't. In fact they'll most likely devaluate their own currencies so their products don't become prohibitively expensive to the world greatest consumers.
That's exactly what Reagan did when the US dollar became too strong.

[bemildred]

12. Probably better than it would survive the "new world order". nt

[Karenina]

14. Gloria Gaynor's HIT

is STILL quite popular on this side of the big pond. :evilgrin:

Bring it on!

It's CLEAR now that nothing short of a total collapse will bring Americans up to speed. This realization makes me SO SAD. You have access to SO MUCH INFORMATION and collectively REFUSE to learn from the mistakes of others... :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Deja Q]

16. The Euro is their backup and Japan & China rely on more than the US.

They would take a hit but thanks to several years of economic hits, partly due to OFFSHORING and TRADE DEFICITS, they are far less dependent on us than vice-versa.

[cliss]

17. Can the world survive a US crash?

Answer: yes. Can the US survive a US crash? Now we're getting at the heart of the situation. Here, I would have to say it would be toughter in the US than in a foreign country. Why would I say that? Because our economy is soft, padded. We've gotten breaks that other countries have not. Our oil, which is the #1 reason for our economy being the worlds biggest, has been ridiculously cheap. Other countries have had to pay more. They've gotten used to it and have learned to adapt and work a little harder. Here, we're fat and lazy and our society has gotten soft.

So the rest of the world will be able to ride out the storm. Here, however, it's going to be a little tougher.

[Maple]

20. Agreed

The world would carry on, after an initial hit, just like it did when the USSR fell. That skewed the world economy for awhile, but it recovered. Russians are still having problems, but others moved on.

Same would happen if the US economy crashed. And in this case, while it's bigger and more connected, we've had years to prepare for it, because it's not exactly been a secret.

It would be tough for awhile as further adjustments were made, but hardly equivalent to the sun going nova.

[leftyandproud]

18. NO

Not a chance in hell. Imagine an $11 trillion dollar economy going in the tubes...and another $20-25 TRILLION disappearing in a market selloff..

The world can't survive $35 trillion+ being erased...not with a lot of pain for everyone.

[AP]

19. Yes, because Asia, South America, Russia and Europe are all growing...

...and their growth could keep the world form falling apart.

I think what the Republicans WANT is for the US to be the banana republic for the rest of the world's democracies. They want wealth to flow to the top here in the same way that the US supported dictators in the rest of the world in order to feed Democratic US growth in the 50s-70s. In the 80s we supported dictators abroad in order to feed the dicators at home. From here on, Democracy abroad is thriving, and we'll be the only banana republic.

[Smirking_Chimp]

21. US losing status, dollar drop, make China and Japan happy.

That's why those countries support *. They know he doesn't know the value of a dollar, and will give him loans, they know America is good for it.
Let's start a campaign to shift the debt to the * crime family.