CapitalistMarks

USA losing economic status . . . and clout!

Posted on 22. Aug, 2009 by scott in economic daydreaming

It doesn’t help that America’s public debt will soar from under $5 trillion to over $20 trillion in just a couple of presidential terms, that is for sure.  Who would want our debt?  China right now, but not for long, I think.

America is losing the economic supremacy it has held for over a century.  We have gone from a nation of winners to one of losers.  That goes for the stock markets (I remember just a few years ago a friend of mine from Netherlands wanted only American stocks–now he never calls) and for the real estate markets (losing nearly half of our legacy net worth in just three years).

Even Warren Buffet is concerned with our debt and its growing size relative to overall GDP and frankly he supported Obama and the billions and trillions he has spent on less-important things that are politically expedient (Bush is responsible to).

China is building an economic wall around their own internal interests and we stand by congratulating everyone.  They are buying up up natural resources around the globe and it is easy for them because our $$ is weak and our corporations are running scared.

All the while, our President just wants to make nice (he let that moron Putin ramble and complain for 90 minutes in their first personal meeting before responding).  Our Secretary of State seems more worried about how she stacks up against her former President husband that in accomplishing anything (she embarrassed our country and herself by her outburst in Africa).

I read that developing nations now account for half of the world’s GDP . . . and they are ‘developing’ while we are ‘backsliding.’    We used to be preeminent in this area but now the combined output of China, India and Brazil are equal to that of the United States (estimates from the International Monetary fund . . . but according to other figures from The Economist they aren’t even close when it comes to percapita comparisons).

Huge trade imbalances are washing our incomes and wealth overseas.  Some economists say this is not a problem . . . but of course it is.  At some point America’s debt will be ‘called’ just like that of all of neighbors who are losing their homes.

We have been a nation of spenders, though, due to the recent and unrelenting crisis, Americans are starting to save.

I just wonder if it is too late.  Has the global power shift to Asia and South America become irreversible?  Are America and Europe destined to become the lowest on the economic totem pole in the next generation?

Dang, it seems so and that is NOT a good thing. We have to stop or at least slow the trend.

Our technological and intellectual superiority (education-wise and not inherently) have been a big advantage for decades.  Our abundant natural resources were a tremendous foundation on which to build.  In both areas we are in rapid decline (can’t you remember that incoherent rambling by Miss California in the Miss America pageant?).

Something can be done about this.  Bailing out financial and auto companies and their executives to the tune of several trillion $$ is NOT one of the ways. Let the capitalist economic system destroy the weak and open doors for the strong.

We need to put our money where our mouth is.  We need to ‘recreate’ our infrastructure.  We need to create millions of jobs (there are 12 million more workers in the U.S. now than there were in 2000–yet nearly 7 million jobs have been los!t).  We need to invest in the best technologies and we need to subsidize education so that is available to all (imagine an inner-city ghetto child with an IQ of 150 who is forced by circumstances to forgo an education that just might lead to the discovery of a truly unlimited alternative fuel–then multiply that by ten million or more!).

By the way, one of the things that makes America great is that virtually anyone with the desire, innate capacity and the time can accomplish great things.  Not in China it seems, Newsweek informed us (July 20 issue) that 91% of the 3,220 multi-millionaire Chinese are the children of top Communist Party officials.  Yeah people, that seems fair and balanced!!

Back to the issue at hand.

Sure healtcare is important, but we can’t forget all the other things that make healthcare even a possibility for most.  Create a strong foundation and let’s build up again from there.

I hope Congress (and now the President) who are on vacation for the next two weeks get rested and come back ready to start facing the tough decisions that time will only make worse.  Yet, I fear they only worry about getting re-elected.

America was better when we were an economic power house . . . guess what, so was the rest of the world!

Go USA!!

thanks to smokingpermitted for the photo from flickr

Tags: american economic status, brazil, china, congress on vacation, GDP, India, obama and putin, secretary clinton