[lit-ideas] Re: What Clinton thinks about Bush's borrow and spend
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:34:03 -0400
I never understood that metaphor either and never bothered to look up why it's
used pejoratively. In this case those nice cows are the debt that we live off
of. Our biggest lenders are Japan and China (or China and Japan, not sure in
what order). Japan's economy is on the rebound. Yes, they've been rebounding
for over a decade, but this time they really seem to be picking up speed. If
they do recover, they can easily start investing in themselves, i.e., stop
lending to us.
I wouldn't put it past China to beat us at our own game. Help us dig a hole
and then watch as we fall in, fell in. They have the ability to look longer
range than we do, for example, cultivating South America and Africa. There has
to be a reason behind their apparent madness, investing in countries we don't
give a second thought to. Sort of like someone investing in a stock others are
overlooking, knowing it will rise. What we have going for us right now is
that both China and Japan (and Saudi Arabia and others) have a lot of money
invested us, specifically about $2 billion a day's worth, which we use to
rebuild from Katrina, fight Iraq, whatever. They won't want to see their
investment go under. We've been borrowing against that knowledge, but if any
one of them wanted to destroy us, they wouldn't need bullets. All they have to
do is call back their debt. How would we ever pay it? It's in the trillions.
That combined with China's ascendency. It's said that by th
e year 2040 China will be #1 in all respects. Our debt to Saudi Arabia also
limits us in negotiating over their role, if any, in terrorism.
There's another big unknown at the moment, and that's the bird flu. There's
not a whole lot anyone can do against it. It's not profitable for pharma to
invest in, so we can't vaccinate against it. At the same time it's a natural
disaster that could make Katrina look like a warm up in its effect on the
economy. Maybe we'll be lucky and it won't happen. Eventually another
pandemic will happen, but by then maybe another president will have pulled this
country out of the ashes. All we can do is hope. Not a real powerful place to
be.
----- Original Message -----
From: david ritchie
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 10/12/2005 12:55:34 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: What Clinton thinks about Bush's borrow and spend
What, by the way, is sinister about chickens coming home to roost? What could
be more comforting than knowing that you'll have eggs in the morning?
To continue the theme of the generous ear, there's this, from the Apple website
(Dandi is the nickname of someone called Dent de Lion du Midi...really...he's a
Swiss photographer who takes pictures of golf):
Dandi Light and Magic
The perfect storm of a content-hungry HD market, sophisticated Apple tools and
the zooming popularity of golf puts Dandi (who is, like Clark and Burdon, a
passionate golfer) right where he wants to be: at the intersection of sport,
art and technology.
But as ever, if you're looking for tin, the Sports section is the place to be.
"I left my guts on the field; I left my heart out there," Rodriguez said. "So
I'm not going to hang my head."
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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