[Kosh]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4780844.stm


Now this should be interesting........

[Mefustae]

$8.2 trillion

I think I just filled the cup.

[Turnsky]

well there goes the world economy. either way this goes, it'll have a domino effect.

[Nuke]

looks like you all will need to give up your decidant lifestyles and live in the woods feasting on small rodents. yum!

[Windrunner]

8.2 trilion. Thats insane. Is there even a number that trilion

[aldo_14]

Yard sale at the Whitehouse!

[Kosh]

well there goes the world economy. either way this goes, it'll have a domino effect.

The only reason the dollar hasn't crashed yet is because there just isn't a totally developed alternative. Meaning that when it finally does crash, it will crash even harder.

The domino effect will be hardest for those countries that are overly dependant on America for exports; namely Japan, South Korea, and China. At least China is starting to move towards a more balanced approach to currency management (the "basket" that is uses now), but Japan and South Korea are not.

[Grug]

Ha ha ha America.
China wins!

[Rictor]

" Aircraft Carriers - $15 or best offer!
Liquidation Sale, everything must go!"

[Flipside]

Thing is, it's not just a question of stopping the money flowing out of the coffers, it's actually a question of turning it around so that money is flowing into the coffers. That's a big job, and regardless of how high they set their own credit limit, America is going to have to make some cut-backs, and start looking at making their exports profitable.

Defence spending will have to drop for a start. That doesn't mean less defences, it means spending the money more wisely, and dealing with the large corporations that are constantly skimming money of the top of America's outflow with no regard whatsoever for the effect it has on the country. I wouldn't be surprised if, should America stamp on it's own corporate corruption it would go a hell of a long way towards stemming the flow, that will hit a lot of congressmen hard, but at the end of the day, theres a few thousand of them, and hundreds of millions of people paying the price for it. Better to have a nother Watergate than another West Germany.

[achtung]

I'm converting my savings to Euros......

What I think should be done is:

A.) Abbolish many Labor Unions, people don't deserve $15-$20 an hour to stick a piece of metal on a car.  This would lower the price of American goods and hopefully increase Exports

B.)Raise Tarrifs on Chinese Imports and Lower Tarriffs on South American ones.  It's Cheaper to get something from Mexico to the U.S. than from China to the U.S.  This would stimulate Retailers to acquire goods from American factories, and South America could act as a temporary fall back if something should go wrong.

C.)Raise the requirements for Welfare Programs.  Welfare is a major drain on the government, and of people are simply taking advantage of the programs.

D.)Increase assistance to small businesses.  Allowing a small business to grow in the U.S. could increase exports and benefit everyone.

E.)Let the illegal Immigrants stay, they make good, cheap labor.

F.)Having a form of money not backed by gold seems incredibly risky, although it may not be possible, backing the Dollar with something more stable than people's confidence in it seems like a much better idea.

G.)Require everyone to go through High School as people are required to go through Grade School.  Educated people are always useful, well, almost always.

H.)Raise taxes on Credit Cards, they only cause problems.  Buying stuff on Credit is one thing that caused the Great Depression it should be obvious it's risky and should be controlled.  Of course it was buying on Margin that was the main factor that caused the Great Depression, but people using Credit knowing they couldn't pay was also a major factor.

I know some of the ideas would probably be near impossible, but they're ideas none the less.  I'm sure there are things I've not thought of, anyone got some ideas?

[Wild Fragaria]

It sounds like we should stop saving US dollars and start buying foreign currencies  

[an0n]

Better to have a nother Watergate than another West Germany.

You wouldn't be saying that if you were French....

[an0n]

Uh....

These include tapping the civil service pension funds

They're 'fixing' the budget crisis by ****ing over the people who run all the police, fire and ambulance services? Yeah, that's smart....

[Flipside]

The problem is not really with wages and welfare, they are a pittance compared to what is skimmed off of the massive grants that are handed out to large corporations, reducing welfare and wages will only really increase dissent and do very little to help the problem. Better to look at the corps themselves, look at diversification and providing/encouraging jobs to those on Welfare etc, get rid of the 'Rubber Stamp' idea of handing out benefits.

However, your biggest problem is, in my opinion, grants of, say half a billion dollars being handed to companies for jobs that cost about 150 million to do, as long as those finances are managed correctly.

[Goober5000]

E.)Let the illegal Immigrants stay, they make good, cheap labor.

Bad idea.  This drives the people who would be doing cheap labor out of work, because the immigrants do it cheaper.  Law of supply and demand: if the supply of labor goes up and the demand for labor stays the same, the price of labor (i.e. wages) go down.

F.)Having a form of money not backed by gold seems incredibly risky, although it may not be possible, backing the Dollar with something more stable than people's confidence in it seems like a much better idea.

QFT.

[achtung]

The problem is not really with wages and welfare, they are a pittance compared to what is skimmed off of the massive grants that are handed out to large corporations, reducing welfare and wages will only really increase dissent and do very little to help the problem. Better to look at the corps themselves, look at diversification and providing/encouraging jobs to those on Welfare etc, get rid of the 'Rubber Stamp' idea of handing out benefits.

However, your biggest problem is, in my opinion, grants of, say half a billion dollars being handed to companies for jobs that cost about 150 million to do, as long as those finances are managed correctly.

Yeah, good point about the welfare thing.

One major problem is that most large corps are ingernational these days, thus they don't really need the U.S anymore.  That's why I say make it easier on small businesses, they will benefit the economy the most in the future.  I see the grants as the government afraid of the corps leaving, which is bad and has the whole system turned upside down.  A good example of this is the Industrial Park, the businesses never stay, and the government always takes the loss.  Paying a business to come to an area is an incredibly stupid idea.

[Nix]

Keeping illegal immigrants here is plain stupid, because it encourages businesses to behave as though they do not have to pay near as much as they should to thier honest American citizen workers.  On the other hand, if the stupid, lazy Americans that live off of welfare would actually get up off thier asses and look for a job, we wouldn't need the illegal immigrants to fill low-paying jobs.  There's plenty of American jobs to be had, which get filled up all too quick by the illegals, leaving no room for honest American citizens to get a job.  Americans are lazy, and they'll do whatever it takes to get by, by doing as little as possible.  And if the government is willing to pay for it, then they'll let it.  Either change welfare so it has extremely difficult standards to fill, or get rid of it entirely. 

[vyper]

I'm converting my savings to Euros......

What I think should be done is:

A.) Abbolish many Labor Unions, people don't deserve $15-$20 an hour to stick a piece of metal on a car.  This would lower the price of American goods and hopefully increase Exports

So you expect a man to feed his family for less, without mentioning any associated change in the actual price of goods. Think about that.

B.)Raise Tarrifs on Chinese Imports and Lower Tarriffs on South American ones.  It's Cheaper to get something from Mexico to the U.S. than from China to the U.S.  This would stimulate Retailers to acquire goods from American factories, and South America could act as a temporary fall back if something should go wrong.

It's been proven time and again that protectionism is ultimately self defeating.

C.)Raise the requirements for Welfare Programs.  Welfare is a major drain on the government, and of people are simply taking advantage of the programs.

Ah so now we blame the poor. Your financial prowess stuns me.

D.)Increase assistance to small businesses.  Allowing a small business to grow in the U.S. could increase exports and benefit everyone.

This you are correct about.

E.)Let the illegal Immigrants stay, they make good, cheap labor.

Until they stay long enough to become second or third generation families who inevitably start to enter the same high-paid professions and their native counterparts.

F.)Having a form of money not backed by gold seems incredibly risky, although it may not be possible, backing the Dollar with something more stable than people's confidence in it seems like a much better idea.

You abandoned the dollar/gold system for a reason. It wasn't worth **** compared to other nations' systems.

G.)Require everyone to go through High School as people are required to go through Grade School.  Educated people are always useful, well, almost always.

You're not already? Alright suddenly things are starting to make sense...

H.)Raise taxes on Credit Cards, they only cause problems.  Buying stuff on Credit is one thing that caused the Great Depression it should be obvious it's risky and should be controlled.  Of course it was buying on Margin that was the main factor that caused the Great Depression, but people using Credit knowing they couldn't pay was also a major factor.

Yes but generally speaking today most people CAN pay off their debts in the long term; Or they have assets that can do it.

I know some of the ideas would probably be near impossible, but they're ideas none the less.  I'm sure there are things I've not thought of, anyone got some ideas?

[deftonesmx17]

A.) Abbolish many Labor Unions, people don't deserve $15-$20 an hour to stick a piece of metal on a car.  This would lower the price of American goods and hopefully increase Exports

Hold on, you feel that someone who works in a car factory should be making less money than me($15-20 an hour range). Let me explain my job, I sit at a desk and use a computer to fix errors that a computer makes with connecting patent families. Heck, I am at work right now. My job requires so much work that I have the time to sit here and reply on forums. I'm sorry but the person working in the car factory is doing much more work than I am(i know as many of my family members work at Honda). Maybe I'm nuts, but I believe the more work you do, the more you should be paid.