Re: Politics and the military (Re: The rise in military science fiction)

In message <436kxHg8kUxDFw75@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Brett Paul Dunbar
<brett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
>In message <IGTNsgLWASxDFwfS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Robert Sneddon
><nojay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

>> The US doesn't actually need to borrow money, it could do what every
>>other country at war has done in the past, go on a war footing and raise
>>taxes and demand sacrifice from its population to support the war effort
>>-- it's expensive but it would be easy to raise 100 billion a year in
>>taxes for the next twenty years or so to fund the war until victory is
>>achieved. For some reason it seems reluctant to do this though.
>
>You really don't have a clue what you are talking about.
>
>The bulk of first world government borrowing is internal debt, money
>borrowed from its own population, by means of selling securities some
>of which then gets sold on the international bond markets.
>Intergovernmental loans typically form only a small part of government
>debt.

That used to be true. Not now, since US personal savings have cratered
over the past few years and the Dow is struggling. The US government is
borrowing about 40 billion dollars every month to finance current
expenditures (including 8 billion or so pcm for the Iraq adventure) and
of that about 20-25 billion comes from abroad, mostly from Chinese and
Japanese sources. The Chinese money sources all lead back to the central
banks which are Government controlled.

In the past five years the Republican administration with the aid of
the Republican-controlled Congress and Senate have borrowed from foreign
sources more money than all the previous administrations put together.
Even allowing for inflation that's quite an achievement.
>
>In any event what do you think the Chinese government would be able to
>do with the bonds?

Resell them cheaply on the world market causing the US to be unable to
sell any more debt in the short term. This would also cause a run on the
dollar as other holders dump and run. It would cost the Chinese
financially but they've got a lot of slack in their system. It could
cripple the US economy and it would certainly put a crimp in the world's
confidence in the US dollar.
>
>Given the US governments credit worthiness it can raise considerable
>sums fairly cheaply on the bond markets, if needed.

Oh it needs to as long as the borrow-and-spend Republicans are in
charge. A country at war is a much riskier place to loan money to, of
course.

Why does the President not call for personal sacrifice from the people?
They're at war, after all. They'll understand that taxes need to go up
to pay for better body armour for the troops, for decent VA treatments
for the wounded, for all the war expenses now and into the future. He
seems sort of reluctant to do so. Perhaps he believes there is no real
war going on.
--
My gmail account is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
.

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