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The Fall of the American Empire


random guy

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http://business.bostonherald.com/businessN...articleid=55356

 

Here's an excerpt.

Economic `Armageddon' predicted

By Brett Arends/ On State Street

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

 

Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish.

    But you should hear what he's saying in private.

    Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity.

    His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.''

    Press were not allowed into the meetings. But the Herald has obtained a copy of Roach's presentation. A stunned source who was at one meeting said, ``it struck me how extreme he was - much more, it seemed to me, than in public.''

    Roach sees a 30 percent chance of a slump soon and a 60 percent chance that ``we'll muddle through for a while and delay the eventual armageddon.''

    The chance we'll get through OK: one in 10. Maybe.

    In a nutshell, Roach's argument is that America's record trade deficit means the dollar will keep falling. To keep foreigners buying T-bills and prevent a resulting rise in inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will be forced to raise interest rates further and faster than he wants.

    The result: U.S. consumers, who are in debt up to their eyeballs, will get pounded.

    Less a case of ``Armageddon,'' maybe, than of a ``Perfect Storm.''

    Roach marshalled alarming facts to support his argument.

    To finance its current account deficit with the rest of the world, he said, America has to import $2.6 billion in cash. Every working day.

    That is an amazing 80 percent of the entire world's net savings.

    Sustainable? Hardly.

 

Hope you Americans enjoyed living in an affluent first-world country, because by the looks of things, that isn't going to last. This is what the Bush tax-cuts and massive spending have done to your country- he's bankrupted it.

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Still trying as hard as you can to put America down every chance you get.

No, fatal, I am not. I am sharing an article in which experts who know a lot more than you and I are predicting economic armageddon for the US because of the way Bush is running the country.

I'm not happy about the fact that at the rate its going your country is going to collapse. Even beside all the poor (ie anyone who doesn't have an offshore bank account) US citizens who will be thrust into economic disaster, it could spell global catastrophe considering the economic upturn that will be an inevitable result. But it is happening, and will happen soon at the rate things are going. That is not my opinion, it is a fact.

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No worries, I will soon move to Australia and hang out all day with my great buddy Random Guy:thumbsup:. We will go out, have pizza, pick up on chicks, party all night, catch up on old times in the local bar; I'll sleep with his girlfriend, etc... Can't wait for America to fall flat on its back, the sooner it happens the sooner me and Random will be out clubbing. :D

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No worries, I will soon move to Australia and hang out all day with my great buddy Random Guy:thumbsup:. We will go out, have pizza, pick up on chicks, party all night, catch up on old times in the local bar; I'll sleep with his girlfriend, etc... Can't wait for America to fall flat on its back, the sooner it happens the sooner me and Random will be out clubbing. :D

All well and good, but the collapse of the largest economy in the world will have some substantial side-effects on the world market. Although, considering the unpayable amounts of debt 3rd world countries owe to America, some countries could well get better off, countries such as Australiia with such close economic alliegances with America will no doubt suffer quite badly. I can't remember who said it first, but this quote sums it up best, "When America sneezes, Australia catches a cold".

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