COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, October 20, 2007

The US Gamble on Budget and Trade Deficits

How do we get back in the game and win?

US Calls on IMF to Lead Best Monetary Practices
By VOA News
20 October 2007

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to take a more active role in monitoring the international investments of a growing number of state-owned funds around the world.

Such sovereign funds, backed by cash reserves amassed in China and oil-exporting nations, are believed to be worth over $2 trillion. The funds' rapid recent growth, and uncertainty about their operations, has led to concern that their investments could be used for political purposes.

Paulson says the IMF is best placed to monitor the growing number of state-backed wealth funds. He spoke Saturday to finance officials from around the world gathered in Washington for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

The U.S. Treasury secretary says a tightening of credit policies will limit U.S. economic growth, but he expects global economic growth to continue at a rate of about five percent, for both this year and next.

The global economy has been rocked this year by the slumping U.S. housing market, a decline in the U.S. dollar and rising oil prices. Paulson says recent volatile trading in financial markets should serve as a reminder to all governments to remain vigilant about short-term economic developments.

Outside the international meeting Saturday, hundreds of protesters marched to oppose IMF and World Bank policies, which they say exploit poor and developing nations. Police kept the demonstrators far from the bankers' meeting site.

A similar protest in the capital on Friday night took a violent turn when militants in the crowd threw rocks and bricks through store windows. One woman was hit in the face by a brick.


21 comments:

  1. Once we have the Chicoms making EVERYTHING for us, we'll REALLY have them over a barrel of crude.
    You just wait!
    :-(

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  2. Gaia raises the white flags of surrender.

    But not to worry about finances, Rummy and Cheney said deficits don't matter.

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  3. So the IMF is going to tell China how to invest it's monies?

    To keep those investment from becoming "political".

    Whistling past the graveyard.

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  4. This ties in (pretty directly if you think about it, with this post, a VERY Directly with your wind power post.)

    Hybrid Wind/Biomass Power.

    Addresses the, "what do you do when the wind ain't blowing?" conundrum.

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  5. The obvious thing with China is: The U.S. and the Euros HAVE to gang up on them and make them increase the value of the Yuan, and "Import" more goods. Otherwise, the Worldwide "Paper" money system will collapse.

    As for the U.S.: this will solve about 10 - 20% of OUR Problem. Our primary trade deficit problem is the fact that we import about 14 MIllion Barrels of Crude Every Day, and it's going to be at $150 Barrel before we can say, "Help!"

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  6. Okay, I "might've" gotten a little hyperbolic with the whole "world-wide" collapse of paper money system, but they would create some real disruptions if things continue on their present course.

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  7. Talk about lucky--there's a guy up the Snake River who has a home over a small hot springs--bubbles up all year round, heats his home with it in the winter, always has hot water for the shower.

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  8. No, Virginia; Sadly, the answer is NOT to Dig Deeper.

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  9. I just wonder WHERE we'll pick that guy up when "The Volcano Goes," as Jimmy Buffet would say.

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  10. Rufus: I just wonder WHERE we'll pick that guy up when "The Volcano Goes," as Jimmy Buffet would say.

    There was this old geezer named Harry Truman (no S) who ran a lodge at the timberline of Mt St Helens. It was the jumping off point for climbs. One year at summer camp I went up there...it was the last summer before she blew, as a matter of fact. I was 14. Harry Truman didn't run away from his lodge even when a big bulge started to form on the north side as a result of moving magma. On May 18th when the mountain blew old Harry was just gone. More gone than even D. B. Cooper, another mythical figure from around here, because at least they found his money. Bigfoot was smarter than both of them, he hoofed it on over to Minnesota.

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  11. Get the IMF to tell the Sauds where to invest, along with the Russkis and the Iranians.

    Maybe they'll put a call into Hugo, too.

    No political investments allowed?

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  12. Bigfoot came to Lapwai, Idaho where he/she was seen just three or four summers ago.

    New Mexico State 38--Idaho 21 halftime--so far we haven't stopped them once.

    Margaret von Braun, daughter of Werner von Braun, who lobbed missles at London, is giving a half time interview. She helps direct graduate programs at the U of I. Sounds just like an American, too! (daddy,daddy,daddy, wasn't a Nazi she insists--she is quite touchy about the subject)

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  13. Werner von Braun was a NNINO--a n-nino--not nazi in name only.

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  14. Werner von Braun, with a Wolfish Grin, Cigarette,Enjoying Himself at Peenemunde, no doubt. YouTube


    daddy,daddy,daddy wasn't a Nazi!

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  15. And the Turks did not participate in the first genocide of the 20thh century.

    The deficits do not matter.


    So I was going to write a nice little entry, ruling elites and such, when the term "Oligarchical Collectivism" came to mind. It described in just two words how our system operates. Quite original thinking, I thought, to describe the Boners...

    Then I did a google, to discover the correct spelling of "Oligarchical", if there even was such a word, officially ...

    There I discovered that not only was it a "word" but a book had been previously published, in 1949.

    THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM
    by Emmanuel Goldstein.

    Amazing how a plan can come together

    I should have known that someone had gotten there, before me.

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  16. 45 to 24, o man....only the third quarter.

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  17. Guy on Coast to Coast--don't know if he knows what he is talking about--says the warheads on the cruise missiles were W80's that can be tuned up and down yield wise. Says no way could that have happened the way it has been explained. Paranoia reigns. Or truth will out. Might expect a false flag boom one of these days. Bush is fishing with Cheney this weekend. Says he is afraid to go hunting with him. Ha,Ha. I don't know what to think of anything anymore.

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  18. Bobal, I am stunned by the entire incident. I have not posted anything lately because something just not add up. It is inconceivable to me that such a thing can happen. With seventy people being reprimanded or dismissed someone will have more to say.

    A couple of birds have crashed but as yet no falling star. We need a general to go down as they have developed a late habit of doing a lot of talking.

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