[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristjan', '
')Are you just being bitter because you lost some money during the credit crunch or do you just like to play stupid?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', '
')America doesn't have any money to invest:

[Kristjan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ithin the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?

[Kristjan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', 'A')mazingly, Bob Chapman says the first thing to go on 1/1/10 will be CRE loans from any bank receiving TARP. Second thing will be the FDIC being collapsed and all CD's/multitrillion pension and insurance funds forced into US Bonds.

[Kristjan]

Have a look around at BEA. I'm sure you'll find this data series interesting. Take a look at the WWII disposable income. People did have money to buy bonds and this is just a few years after the Depression ended.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristjan', 'T')ake a look at the WWII disposable income

[efarmer]

Part of convincing so many people that becoming investors, whether
directly are via managed retirement funds was to convince them that
their money would fly around the globe, find each opportunity for a
profit, even if their own nation gutted itself and became a gambler on
the labor and potential profits somewhere else. IMHO, this is a large
part of too big to fail, to keep this notion defended and viable.

In essence, the big notion in operation is that a country can go broke,
it's markets can be allowed to cheat and steal internationally, and
somehow the individual investor, if he has chosen the right foreign
markets, will be held harmless and his profits will pass through
the smoldering hulk of his own national economy and into his pockets
right on schedule and unscathed.

I, like Ludi, have a hard time seeing the common sense reason why
this should work on a long term basis unless you have the means
to bully the unwilling somehow to pull it off.

[Quinny]

Command economy & rationing?

[dinopello]

There will always be fights (wars) over resources. When the gobal wars cannot be financed, wars will revert to being more local affairs. Fights over water/fishing/grazing (i.e. resources). If there is an oil well pumping somewhere, it will be fought over too. Relocalization of wars is not going to happen overnight though.

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristjan', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', 'A')mazingly, Bob Chapman says the first thing to go on 1/1/10 will be CRE loans from any bank receiving TARP. Second thing will be the FDIC being collapsed and all CD's/multitrillion pension and insurance funds forced into US Bonds.

[efarmer]

Dupe post. deleted efarmer

[Stonemason]

Wars are detrimental to any free market. In the past governments had to go into massive debt to finance them. In the 20th century they took more control of the money supply and went off the gold standard allowing them to print endless amounts of fiat currency that funded the slaughterhouses of the 20th century, invade the lives of their citizenry, etc.

I don't see the house of cards standing up for much longer unless the people are stupid enough to allow their currency to be debased beyond all reckoning and return to a dark age sort of existance at home while the government becomes the only employer (fuedalism) to wage the wars for resources.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I')'m admittedly extremely dim when it comes to the economy, so I hope you'll cut me some slack if this is a stupid question:

[Kristjan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '1')933 US Gov't FORCES Americans to give up their gold.1 example should do, eh?

[AgentR]

Stipulating the economic collapse mantra for the argument.

It goes like this.

1st, we pay for high tech warfare, and the enemy pays with a very high death ratio.
2nd, we cut back, but still put up some tech, kill ratio falls, but we're all poorer, and the increased casualties are to be expected, as the economy collapses.
3rd, economy fully collapses, and we come to realize that with no jobs, no luxuries, and no fun, we really don't use as much oil as we can still produce.

ie, economic collapse removes the reason to have the resource war, at least for the US.

Whether we nuke Iran for fun and sport at that point, remains to be seen.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristjan', '
')Economies will have collapsed?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', '
')
LOL, thank you for that.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I') guess I'll find it more plausible when the draft is reinstated....

[rangerone314]

Since most wars are about oil anymore, I propose a Constitutional Amendment that stipulates wars must be paid for by way of a gasoline tax.

Seems fair.