<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Hakki Alacakaptan wrote: > > If the cost of financing is shooting up then surely the rate of profit is > too? That's what happened in Turkey & Argentina, where a rentier class was > created and banks dropped everything else in favor of govt bonds. Profits > are sweeter the nearer youget to defaultville. > But that's precisely the point:  the cost of capital, as measured by interest rates, is at an all-time historical low.  That reflects a low rate rate of profit, even lower as capital prefers bonds to expansion of production.  The gov prefers that, too, as the means for finance its budget deficits.  In fact, the US gov could be said to have a vested interest in snuffing out sources of productive investment right now, which would draw funds away from financing the war budget. This guarantees a further downward recessionary spiral with more layoffs, all conveniently covered ideologically as "war sacrifice".  Eventually this will hit some (unknown) point at which profits will begin to recover.  This will draw capital out of bonds, etc., and yields (interest rates) will begin to spike upward. The real danger for the rulers of the US is if another economic zone, say the EU, begins to recover profitability before the US.  Then both Fed budget and USD must collapse (relatively speaking).  So I look for measures to prevent EU or E. Asia recovery relative to the US. > You're right about US workers being ready to be squeezed even more. The dumb > shits are lining up at the recruiting centers so I hear. It's not gonna be a > problem turning the country into a military camp. Them fasces are coming > together around the Fuehrer like moths around a candle. I hear people are > spouting lines straight out of Starship Troopers like "We must bear the > sacrifice to enjoy our freedoms." I've not heard of people lining up for the chance to get killed.  I think that the syndrome here is pathetically simple:  Americans desperately crave "feeling loved".  You could call this the "Love Me (or else)" war.  The 9/11 message was: "They don't love us?"  >From talking to relatives and others, my sense is that the propaganda expectation that "they" would cheer "us" on arrival was crucial for support for this war.  It's yet another reason why Americans make lousy Romans.  Oderint, dum metuant?  The American psyche couldn't handle it.  Psycho-emotional cripples without any real encounter with profound historical experience (as with the Great Depression, WW2) will be too weak and fragile to rule the world.  To rule the world, you first have to be a human being. The generation that lived through those profound experiences - the Kissingers, etc. - have virtually departed the scene, now left to a whole generation - my generation and younger - of Idiot Princelings.  And the younger cohorts - who don't remember Vietnam, only the glories of Reagan and the Gulf War - are even worse.  The 'embedded' infantilism of American life has not lessened, but grown much more intense, since I was a child in the late '50's and early '60's. Now, that russkie report of 03/29 seemed to suggest two things:  1) big battle soon shaping up around Karabala; 2) A new, revamped Anglo-American propaganda offensive aimed at Iraqis will soon be launched.  On this last point they neglect to point out that this propaganda offensive will also be directed at the Americans, and I would predict this will include an embedded stream of "They Love Us" stories interspersed, in seeming psychotic alternation, with stories preparing the Americans for a bloodbath (like this one <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=615&e=1&u=/nm/20030331/pl_nm/iraq_usa_price_dc_3">U.S. Prepared to Pay 'High Price' to Oust Saddam</a> - there was a 'They Love Us' story on Yahoo a couple of hours ago, but it is gone now.  I'm sure there will be more).   It _is_ an American psychosis, the infantile craving to be loved, that, upon rejection, rapidly converts into a murderous rage.  How this plays out in objective political terms is hard to predict, but I wouldn't overstate the fascist tendencies (even that takes a certain amount of psychological fortitute lacking in the Americans), and that rage could be turned against Uncle Sam as well. On the first item, I consider this a kind of test of the reliability of the russkie source.  Let's see if a big battle is brewing.  If it is, then it raises again the possibility that the US forces are being politically rushed again into a premature engagement in search of 'quick victories', since it will still be a couple of weeks before the 4th Infantry (30K troops) will be in position as a unit to have any effect.  Unless they forward its regiments or batallions to the frontlines in piecemeal fashion.   -Brad > || -----Original Message----- > || From: Brad Mayer [<A HREF="mailto:bradley.mayer@sun.com">mailto:bradley.mayer@sun.com</A>] > > || The key is the relative rate of profit.  So long as rop is > || relatively higher in > || the US than EU or Japan, then foreign capital will remain in US > || to finance the > || trade deficit.  This will push the Fed + states budget deficit > || 'wall' to the > || high end, ~%10 according to the below. > || > ||  Simple principle:  Capital goes where the highest profits are. > || > || If relative rop advantage of US is threatened, look for more massive > || unemployment to rectify this.  Here the US has greater > || elasticity over the EU. > || Americans can be made to pay, just as they are paying with their > || lives in Iraq, > || because they are, for the historical time being,  clueless > || adolescent dumbasses. > || > || So the real wall is:  how much death and unemployment will > || American workers > || tolerate?  Until the shopping malls are empty, for lack of money > || and fear of > || terrorist attacks?  I don't know that point right now. > || > || When _that_ point is reached, then it is the real end of the USD. > || > || -Brad > || -- /**********************************************************************/ Brad Mayer Technical Support Engineer, Forte DCE Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Forte Tools Direct: (510) 869-3466 Fax: (510) 869-3400 Email: bradley.mayer@sun.com /***********************************************************************/</html>