On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:30:02 +0000, Invisible wrote:

> (Random: Is the USA actually *the* richest nation on the face of the
> Earth? Or is there somebody richer?)

One could argue that China is the richest country in the world....

Jim

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:4905f2f4@news.povray.org...

> presumably I will shortly be homeless. But let's not think about that too 
> much, eh?

Perfect time to start looking for your own place (rent or buy)

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I'm probably going to regret asking this, but here goes...
>
> As far as I can tell, everything was going just fine. Then one day we
> started hearing reports about some bank that nobody's ever heard of
> called "Northan Rock". Something about them being in financial trouble.
> Que scenes of people standing in the street trying to withdraw their money.
>
> A few weeks later and people are talking about "credit crunch" and
> "ecomonic meltdown" and "global recession" and stock markets tumbling to
> the ground, and now there's some talk about Japan's currency collapsing...
>
> So, seriously, does the entire world really fall apart in a few weeks
> just because one nobody company goes bust? Or is there something bigger
> going on here?



No. It is because a few selfish, childish pentagon squatters
(The civilian Defense Policy Board actually wields more control over the
military establishment than the Defense Secretary or the generals and admirals)
got too greedy and pulled a "power grab" without regard for anyone that might
get hurt.

911 = Operation Northwoods reborn.

Real reporting by John Pilger
http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=9-11/need-new-pearl-harbor.txt



In other words, innocent people will be killed by the United States. This is
reminiscent of Operation Northwoods, the plan put to President Kennedy by his
military chiefs for a phoney terrorist campaign - complete with bombings,
hijackings, plane crashes and dead Americans - as justification for an invasion
of Cuba. Kennedy rejected it. He was assassinated a few months later. Now
Rumsfeld has resurrected Northwoods, but with resources undreamt of in 1963 and
with no global rival to invite caution. You have to keep reminding yourself this
is not fantasy: that truly dangerous men, such as Perle and Rumsfeld and Cheney,
have power. The thread running through their ruminations is the importance of
the media: "the prioritised task of bringing on board journalists of repute to
accept our position".

"Our position" is code for lying. Certainly, as a journalist, I have never known
official lying to be more pervasive than today. We may laugh at the vacuities in
Tony Blair's "Iraq dossier" and Jack Straw's inept lie that Iraq has developed a
nuclear bomb (which his minions rushed to "explain"). But the more insidious
lies, justifying an unprovoked attack on Iraq and linking it to would-be
terrorists who are said to lurk in every Tube station, are routinely channelled
as news. They are not news; they are black propaganda.

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>> presumably I will shortly be homeless. But let's not think about that 
>> too much, eh?
> 
> Perfect time to start looking for your own place (rent or buy)

No - *that* happens when the housing market bottoms out. ;-)

(Or at least when I get a job that pays more than the minimum wage 
anyway...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:49061931$1@news.povray.org...
>>> presumably I will shortly be homeless. But let's not think about that 
>>> too much, eh?
>>
>> Perfect time to start looking for your own place (rent or buy)
>
> No - *that* happens when the housing market bottoms out. ;-)
>
> (Or at least when I get a job that pays more than the minimum wage 
> anyway...)

And how is the job hunt going?

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Invisible wrote:
> (Random: Is the USA actually *the* richest nation on the face of the 
> Earth? Or is there somebody richer?)

It's fiat money, so the question is meaningless.

Iceland used to have an excellent economy. Then the government said 
"Whoops, our money isn't worth much", and overnight they have food 
shortages because nobody knows how much the Kroner is to the Euro 
without the government imposing it.

Money that's only of value when someone threatens you with a gun if you 
don't accept it?  Priceless.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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Gail wrote:
> That's not too bad. The rand's gone from R8 = $1 to R12 = $1 in 3 weeks

There are worse places in Africa to be right now. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5231836.stm

 > And I'm going to the US in 2 weeks. :-(

Oh? Where will you be? West coast, east coast, middle?

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message 
news:490623c6$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail wrote:
>> That's not too bad. The rand's gone from R8 = $1 to R12 = $1 in 3 weeks
>
> There are worse places in Africa to be right now. 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5231836.stm
>
> > And I'm going to the US in 2 weeks. :-(
>
> Oh? Where will you be? West coast, east coast, middle?

Seattle. I'm attending and speaking at a conference there.

Hope it doesn't snow.

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On 27-Oct-08 16:30, Invisible wrote:
>>> So, seriously, does the entire world really fall apart in a few weeks 
>>> just because one nobody company goes bust? Or is there something 
>>> bigger going on here?
>>
>> A couple big banks in the US crumbled. Apparently they're taking the 
>> rest of the world with them.
> 
> That makes significantly more sense...
> 
> (Random: Is the USA actually *the* richest nation on the face of the 
> Earth? Or is there somebody richer?)
> 
It is rich only for a certain value of rich. If you look at the curve of 
the debt of the government it has been steadily rising fast (ok, it 
leveled a bit of at the end of the clinton era). What this government 
did is use taxpayers money (that they didn't have) to buy a lot of goods 
from american companies at possibly slightly inflated prices (mostly war 
and 'terrorism' related. e.g cruise missiles, blackwater). So a group of 
wealthy americans (with the right friends) got much richer indeed. It is 
effectively a way to let a lot of people pay a bit (in taxes) and give 
it to a few. There were sound economic reasons for that, but I can't 
remember which. The Bush administration will continue adding to this 
shift in money by spending and allocating lots of more money soon a) to 
increase the change of mccain winning and b) if he looses to prevent the 
next government to be able to keep their promises. Or perhaps they did 
that already.

So, some people in the country are rich. You might say that the country 
as a whole is rich too (in goods at least, but also in debts). The 
government OTOH is more or less bankrupt, except that that can not 
happen because the dollar is the world currency.

See indeed that googledoc thing for some explanation on how the rest of 
the world got involves. Add to that that nobody knows who owns the good 
stuff and who owns the rubbish. Hence Bank A will not lend to Bank B, 
because it is not sure if Bank B actually can pay the loan back. 
Governments around the worlds are now backing the banks, saying that if 
Bank B should turn out to own the rubbish, they will pay back the loan.

BTW in case you were wondering, I don't know how much of this is true 
and how much is propaganda ;) Read a book about this crisis in 50 years 
time (if you are still alive), maybe that will be more objective. 
Possibly not, that depends a bit on who will be winning.

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andrel wrote:
> You might say that the country 
> as a whole is rich too (in goods at least, but also in debts). 

At least we have enough food for ourselves!  That's a big step forward. 
:-) And plenty of vacant houses!  If we could get that whole 
energy-independence thing going, we'd probably be OK.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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