Don't you thhink that a tiny-weeny part of what got them off there arses was the end of the cold war and the emergence of a totally hot-doggin' United States?
I really can't beleive that they've pulled this off, when I think of just a few years ago. The US hegemony is like the Y2K problem, it can't be put off. Had to be dealt with.
The US "restructured" in the 80's, industry by industry, plus NAFTA. The Europeans "restructured" the continent so that they might achieve the same ends, hopefully by different means.
BTW, I never understood what Canada and the US we're after by joining in NAFTA. We're we afraid the US alone wouldn't have enough jobs to send to the south?
Will an Asian block be next? Sans Japan? Or led by Japan? Will we have a tri or quad world?
BTW, what's the deal with Schroeder? Wasn't he pretty gung-ho on bombing Iraq? And now I heard that he's being much stingier towards poorer countries than Kohl was. Am I misunderstanding? ****************** Speaking of Y2K, today a woman I feed once in awhile came in, always seemed pretty smart, we usually talk about the School Of the America's or cats, anyway, she is stockpiling, getting burgerler bars, the whole bit. She and her partner have already moved 100,000 into cash in a safe deposit box, which she will tranfer to her house in several months. She was practically hysterical, only 11 days of ffood in grocery stores type thing. Reminded me of me when I was a kid and I'd just read 4 or 5 books on the Kennedy assassination, or when I was 16 and became a born-again Christian for about 18 months, trying to save everybody. Till we found out the bible said the Jews would go to hell, which none of us bought.
****************** Today I had a feeling that I should call Legg Mason and move my IRA into bonds. I'm just not greedy enough, I guess. Got my little 27% of sweat, and folded. Till the Spring Clearance sale, anyway. The only thing that almost stopped me, and probably should have, was a White House guy on TV saying that in some form or another, the consensus had gelled around some sort of privatization so we could get better returns on SS funds. Why don't we just pay ourselves higher interest, eh? Somebody's going to have to buy the bonds.
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BW reports that hundreds of economists with the AEA are honoring those noble prize winners who whored for Long Term Capital Management, at a luncheon today. I wonder how much money they made personally. Compared to normal economist pay.