[ close ]


Bg1

Spread this message with Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, and subscribe to the RSS Feed to track articles

Our Debts- A Ticking Time Bomb

Published 10/20/07 Economy In Crisis - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

America is sitting silently with a debt bomb, a bomb that affects every citizen, job and industry from coast-to-coast. The facts of this are known, the results could be catastrophic - but still our leaders do nothing.

Today’s Government debt is almost $9 trillion and costs approximately $1.1 billion per day in interest alone. This cost goes directly to our debt lenders, almost half of whom are foreign nations. Big lending countries like Japan and China channel much of these proceeds into their own domestic economies, as well as state-run Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF). China’s SWF is currently worth $1.4 trillion, to put it in another way: they can buy almost any U.S. company they want (and most U.S. companies are for sale on the open stock market).

The debts around us continue to grow as we increasingly import more than we export:

Year US Balance of Trade Deficits

2001 $361 billion
2002 $421 billion
2003 $495 billion
2004 $611 billion
2005 $711 billion
2006 $765 billion

The world is fine with the U.S. trudging deeper into debt because they profit from it.

Foreign countries earn billions through ownership of U.S. debt. Much of that wealth is used to acquire American companies. Without domestic ownership American companies’ profits are sent overseas. The U.S. produces less at home, consumes more from abroad, and in doing so, amasses more debt.

This increased dependence on foreign countries to continue lending to us causes us to lose leverage in negotiations with them. As a consequence, we have given many companies in these countries advantages that have caused American owned companies to lose money and become uncompetitive. Major American industries are now teetering on the edge and could possibly collapse: witness our auto industry.

This is the debt bomb's vicious circle.

You must ask yourself, do we want to live in a country where the effort of the American workforce resides in the profits of overseas countries and companies who have bought out America?

Our answer at EconomyInCrisis.org is no. We hope yours is too. Write to your congressional representatives and demand that we reduce our deficits. If we do not act soon the debt bomb may destroy the entire economy.

Click here to contact your Representative in Congress.

Unless the above article is already copyrighted, this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, EIC grants permission to use this article in whole or in part provided attribution is given, preferably in the form of a link back to EconomyInCrisis.org.

MORE OF TODAY'S NEWS | Comment on this Article | Read Comments


Spread this message with Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, and subscribe to the RSS Feed to track articles

Register for newsletter

Bg2

Please Donate to EconomyinCrisis.org today



Please do your part, send a donation of $5, $10, $15 or any amount by PayPal or major credit card.

Bg2

Download our Podcast from iTunes

Itunes

Bg2



Bg2

Follow us on Twitter

Twitter


Download our Podcast from iTunes

Itunes

Bg2

Additional Recommended Articles from the Archives


Bg2

Follow us on Twitter

Twitter

Bg2

Donate Today


Bg2

Comment on this article

Subject

Comment



Bg2

Article Comments From Readers

guest says "crisis on crisis" on 10/21/07
The explosion is nearly here. With such debt, inflation rising, illegal aliens running over the borders, contributing to welfare rising, escalation of costs of welfare and costs of living, soon they will be taxing us higher and higher and making more wars to get us into further debt. Vote Ron Paul, he is the only one that will commit to getting our country out of this. He is the most honest polititian of our age, and 20 years of voting records to prove that he is what he says he is.

guest says "Planned Economic Terrorism" on 10/21/07
The billionaires and wealthiest corporations of the world have quietly conspired together to reshape the world to reflect their goals, priorites and values.

They have also brought along many myopic small investors who seek short term profits who have not contemplated the natural outcomes of the policies of outsourcing jobs, importing illegal labor, ignoring environmental protections, granting tax breaks to the wealthy, divesting from the USA, and shopping the world for tax havens.

To the wealthy, ideas such as environmental cleanliness and responsibilty, fair wages, taxes on wealth, the middle class, and democratic principles are obstacles to their vision a world of tycoons and serfs.

The wealthy and the corporations have infiltrated and corrupted the democratic process of elections in the USA effectively pricing nonconforming candidates. This helps them to buy cooperative candidates and continue to retain control and protection as they wage economic terrorism against the middle class.

It will make no difference whether a Hillary or a Rudy is in the White house or whether Democrats or Republicans control the Congress.
Until a people's democracy is restored to the USA, we can expect status quo policies from both parties will continue to gall the poor and middle classes.

guest says "debt" on 10/20/07
This is another form of colonization. The profits of the colonies go to the mother countries. In this case it is the lenders