Japan's debt is still manageable whereas USA's is not.

Japan has a huge trading surplus. Japanese are notorious for saving every Yen available. Japan has not fought a war since WWII.

US has a huge trading deficit. Americans are notorious for spending every borrowed Dollar available. America has been almost continuously at war since WWII.

I'm an American, proud of it, but in no way do I want to be associated with our corrupt'Washington Establishment'... aka, the American government. The American people should not be held responsible for the actions of corrupt government representatives.

We, the people, have no influence in Foreign or Domestic policy, our participation is only measured in tax dollars, therefore we are not complicit in the creation of the current horrendous socio-economic enviroment we are suffering in.

No more stealing from the people under the guise of 'shared responsibilty'!

We must regain control of our government.

Actually, the only reason Japan hasn't defaulted yet it because their debt is financed almost entirely by Japanese purchasing of the debt. This neverending faith in their own government is the only reason they haven't defaulted. Don't worry though, they will.

Domingo,

"The American people should not be held responsible for the actions of corrupt government representatives."

I have to disagree. As long as the American people keep voting for the idiot that promises the most handouts or the most tax exemptions, we are screwed. But it is the people voting for the idiots that are the root problem, and yes, are responsible. If we did not vote, and just lived in a land run by a dictator, then I might agree with you. However, such is not yet the case.

Fire Them All - Never vote for any incumbents.

The American voter is nothing more than a facade, used to perpetuate the myth that we are a free nation ruled by elected representatives of the people. So called, "Democratic, or Western" governments are really puppets run by the wealthiest of the wealthy. We are powerless against those who buy elections and whose corporate avatars enjoy the same rights and privileges as living sentient beings. Even a revolution that overturned the government would not change things since the wealthy would remain isolated, ensconced in their fragmented kingdoms. Borders are meaningless to the global capitalist elite, nations are also meaningless. Their kingdoms are portions of multiple conglomerates scattered across the global landscape. When they finally have everything and the rest of the world has nothing left to offer them the slaughter will begin and it will be unlike anything mankind has ever experienced.

Okay, that's bleak as can be, but once I get going it is hard to know where to stop.

Domingo,

I'm not arguing with you, but...when a government (especially one that's ostensibly a democracy) becomes unresponsive to the will of the people, as ours currenrtly is, then what? This problem can't be fixed within the current framework, because the system has been thoroughly corrupted, and the power of the voters nullified.

I don't say this lightly, but we are at a point when little short of a revolt could effect the needed changes, and I doubt that even that would suffice (remember Waco? that would look like a camping trip compared to the bloodbath that would ensue should the US gov't bring its might to bear against us), since a disorganized mob of citizens bearing mostly small arms would not be nearly so formidable as they might believe themselves to be (and just what, exactly, would be their target?). Most Americans talk a good fight, but are meek as lambs in the face of a superior force.

And why do you suppose that our government has expended so much effort into making enemies around the world? Because they need a few bogeymen to make us all think twice about knocking Big Brother from his perch. Ponder matters for a bit, and it becomes clear that there is method to the madness...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt

Japan has 230% of their GDP in debt, whereas the US has 103%. Some of those "Socialists" countries, i.e., Denmark, has NO foreign debt and 40% of foreign debt.

We need to chop that bloated defense budget and the debt would disappear. The right chooses to cut spending domestically, while increasing the defense spending.

Glen,

you hit it on the head. same every time, people hear what they want to, and thats their guy. never thinking, "hows this person is going to make that happen?" you trim government, you lose jobs. you raise taxes to support those people in some shape or form. same with a lot of other agency's formed/controlled by the government. This president, like all the ones before him, helped form these agency's and some are not accountable to anyone, other than the president himeself. mostly all in finance.

i think the next whitehouse should be made of glass

hmmm almost sounded like an excuse... it isnt (referring to my post 1.8)

see when some person says something like... i will create jobs... ok GREAT! how ya gonna do that? a jobs bill, for infastructure, more accountablility, and shape the economy in a forward direction.

sure can, and easy as hell to do. you need money to get this venture going right? lets see it. but wait.... you didnt say this was all going to be done with taxpayer $$. ($ to this day we fall short on every year as to having to begin with).

this president had 2 yrs, with a congress, and senate behind him to get all his promises and demands met. no republicans held enough seats to vote this dream come true down, so who did? he had to backroom closed door deal enough votes just to get the HCR bill passed, that was never debated live as promised for Americans to see whats in it. we had to "pass it too see it". i have a pretty clear everyday knowledge of every president in the US since Ford. never have i seen more discord in the US government.

guess we all got our "change" we can belive in......

i belive i will work for "change" no matter how hard i work, or what my job entails.

i got change in my pocket after i pay my bills at the end of the week. mostly a few pennies, but its change.

i got my change of wars to read about in the ME, the change of bridges the poor/jobless sleep under due to over crowding...

too much change to list.

Jeff, you prove why the US is so screwed. 1 US Dollar is work about 80 Yen. That means the Dollar is worth more than the Yen. Not the other way around. Basic mathematical understanding, the US ranks 32 in the world.

Someone said, back there in the past, that freedom required eternal vigilance and we, sort of forgot.

Now, we know the US was broken by the extremely expensive wars Bush started, the free trade agreements, and the tax breaks for the rich compounded by the lowering of taxes in general but, what broke Japan's back? They don't have a world trotting military playing superhero nor are involved in all kinds of stupid wars, so what did it?

Note that acording to some there is a group of people looking for a world government. To get that they have to get rid of the most powerful nations in the world. I wonder how Britain is faring.

Oh goody. Since Japan will beat the U.S. to the bankruptcy courts, we can see how they handle their situation in order to facilitate us and our move into poverty.

Lead by example, Japan.....we're right behind you...

...And yet the yen is still worth more than the US Dollar which should give us a clue as to how screwed we really are.

By what definition is the yen "worth more than the US Dollar"?

Um, 1 US dollar is worth 79 yen.......

Gee, does this all sound familiar or what, welcome to politics.

This problem can't be fixed within the current framework, because the system has been thoroughly corrupted, and the power of the voters nullified.

Unless you're alleging wide-spread vote fraud, then the "power of the voters" has not been nullified. It isn't a sign of corruption if voters elect the person who spends the most money, slings the most invective or tells the biggest lies. That is the fault of the voter, not the "system". As Glenn pointed out, we get the government that we elect. If we want better government, elect better people.

sandtrich - we need to cut the bloated entitlement budget before military. Entitlement = 62% of the budget, Military 19%. Not saying we shouldn't cut some military, but even if you cut it all out, it would not fix our budget problems. How about starting by cutting any entitlements to Illegals, including education? We are spending billions on them now, and they contribute nothing. (And are sending billions of American dollars out of the country each year.) At least Military personnel pay taxes. Let alone, the unemployment problem would skyrocket if we let lots of Service persons go in those budget cuts. Every working Illegal who leaves the country is one more job for an American, who would be paying payroll taxes as well. And even if the job was "underemployment" for them, it would still reduce their unemployment and food stamps. Getting rid of Illegals is a win-win for America. Getting rid of the Military? Not so much.

Back to the article...

The deficit financing bill, which would allow the government to sell bonds needed to fund almost half of the budget, has languished in parliament as the ruling Democratic Party tussles with opposition parties that can use their control of the upper house to reject legislation.

Fund almost half of the budget?!? They need to give that budget a good hard look!

If there is something that the people who are destroying this country have, it's time. They control the media and politicians, so they can feed hogwash through the news to confuse the people, they can have experts saying all kinds of nonsense through the media to compound the confusion and they can destroy our educational system. We are under attack but we don't realize it yet.

Sandtrich,

While I would like to see about a 50% reduction in military spending over the next 10 years, even that is not nearly enough to get our deficits under control again. According to Obama's own estimates, the Medicare/Medicaid programs will run around a $6 Trillion deficit the next 10 years - and it gets worse after that. Significant entitlement cuts will also be needed, as well as tax increases on everyone (not just the 1%).

I have a question for those of you that think some shadow group is trying to destroy the country...what is their motivation?

If their goal is to accumulate wealth, then they need a strong economy to suck money out of. So, policies that destroy the economy also destroy their chance at accumulating wealth.

I'm not being facetious...I really am curious about what you think "their" end game goal is.

Jeff,

"And yet the yen is still worth more than the US Dollar which should give us a clue as to how screwed we really are.."

How do you figure that? Last time I checked the exchange rate was 79.85 yen per dollar. So how is the yen worth more than the dollar? Is that some kind of "new math" you're using there?

sighber

The American voter is nothing more than a facade, used to perpetuate the myth that we are a free nation ruled by elected representatives of the people. So called, "Democratic, or Western" governments are really puppets run by the wealthiest of the wealthy.

___________________________________________________

Well said Sighber. Sad but true.

It is frustrating that most Americans are oblivious to the truth and prefer to blind themselves by pride in the flag. We , as a nation need to get angry.

This country is owned lock, stock, barrel, media, and bought politicians by the "Fed". They are poised to protect the status quo with the regime of "Homeland Security". They have destroyed and bastardized our Constitutional Rights and Bill Of Rights to the point that this once proud nation is a corrupt, distorted shadow of what our forefathers envisioned.

And instead of a true leader we so badly need, we are spoon fed interchangeable losers like bush, obama and romney.

_____________________________________________________________

Anyone interested in a dose of the truth to the extent of our corrupted state might start here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrHeg77LF4Y&list=UURvfydopchRUdVrF_RJpSQg&index=1&feature=plcp

David .. your "method" is redundant. If yuou think we fight battles in foreign lands to keep a bogeyman in our civil minds you are cracked. I will delight in the aftermath of the collapse of the fool God you and all these people with unsensible rehashed and boring opinions begins, your god dollar.

Close the Fed .. you and your conspiracy btheorist family members, the million nation wide, should drink some of the end of the world kool'aid and have it done already. See each of you on the other side of hell.

It's SOOOOO sad that the rich will fiscally ruin entire countries to keep their money. It's heartless...

Come on, isn't there any decency in the world?

Lore&Wisdom

Close the Fed .. you and your conspiracy btheorist family members, the million nation wide, ,,,See each of you on the other side of hell.

___________________________________________

Hello "Wisdom". Thanks for your kind note and brilliant advise. (What is the million wide nation?)

Do send us a post card from hell if you are dumb/naive enough to believe in your little "here-after" fantasy.

They better check their math of finance and economics method “model”. Just because mathematical finance and economics wish to show off an elaborate mathematical workout, one can not make the end result of money an assumption. Money is never an assumption. It has real value. Its behavior is found in engineering math than imaginary "probability". The act of $1.00 for the day is exactly one dollar where within that day your expenditure should never be greater than $1.00. A 190cc engine is just that. The engine behavior, its torque, its capacity, displacement or required gas and air per/time is known and is set. Any deviation from pre-set conditions, the engine will tell you there is problem. In order to compete with the beauty of quantum-mechanics and electro-dynamics mathematics, Financial and economic mathematicians dragged all sorts of mathematics from those fields without concrete understanding of those fields.

Take this "real" example. The Wall Street can not consistently go up and up. It needs fuel just as a rocket or plane does. Ladies and gentlemen, that fuel is what people really do on the ground. The goods they produce leading up to good tax base to fund government. Jobs for people are needed so they have strong buying and saving power. That is the fuel. You can not make a rocket go up and up with an assumption (speculation) nor is there such thing as negative fuel. One can not make market consistently perform with positive outlook while there is nothing substantial produced and people are not working. There is not a chance in "hell" economics can be built on assumption, wishful thinking, day dreaming and speculation. Money is real and has multi dimensional functionality.

So Japan, US or Greece go back and check your logic of un-real analysis when you should be using real practical analysis. Sit down and ask yourselves if money is “wave or particle” first before you drag all that theoretical physics equations in to finance and economics. For 99% of the world community money is particle. They do not like it to wave.

Japan's economy has been bumping along the bottom since the 1990's with no relief in sight and no ideas as to what to do about it.

I am not going to incite the Tea Baggers, but I would stronghly suggest that people read what advice the US gave to Japan on how to fight their recession back in the 1990's. This was bipartisan advice based on the best economists and economnic models available. Japan did not follow the advice because their government was conservative and there were just too many links between the banks and the government.

But compare that advice with what the GOP is advocating today. And compare what Japan did with what the GOP is currently advocating. You will find that we are following Japan right down the rat hole.

According to Obama's own estimates, the Medicare/Medicaid programs will run around a $6 Trillion deficit the next 10 years - and it gets worse after that.

Really? Care to provide a source for that "deficit" number? By the way, lumping Medicare and Medicaid together makes absolutely no sense. Medicare is funded by dedicated taxes and premiums and is a 100% federal program. Medicaid is a joint federal/state/local program that is usually paid out of general revenues. Since it has no dedicated revenue source, it misleading to describe Medicaid as running a "deficit." Do you also claim that the military is running a deficit?

and a breakdown in fiscal spending could increase skepticism that politicians are losing their grip on public finances.

From the base of the article: I don't think this statement was made directly at the Japanese bureaucracy. Governments all over the world are unstable in the financial sectors of their countries. Something tells me that their lavish lifestyles of "It's just money, and I have so much that I can afford anything" has gotten to their heads and fallen back on the rest of their countries citizens to finance.

So of course they have lost their grip on public finances, as well as their citizens.

Odd economic question... The dollar is based on the gold standard. Has the amount of discovered gold equal the amount of population increase? Shouldn't moneys be based on the amount of people who use it? if the population grows, isn't there less money for everyone? Why do we base so much of our culture on a worthless metal? The fact that the whole world is messed up, seems kinda strange to me.

"Japan to go broke by October?"

Guess what, Japan is broke and so is the rest of the world. This is just matter of time before the whole system collapses. This is just a numbers game and the game is OVER.

Sandtrich: I would hope that before a person asked for major cuts in defense and then said "the debt would disappear" would at least take 5 minutes to do a little research first. Why? Because that comment was incredibly unintelligent and naive.

So let me educate you. Our annual deficit is about $1.5 Trillion dollars. That means we spend $1.5 Trillion MORE than we bring in with tax revenues. This is a deficit which means EVERY YEAR!! Our debt is the total deficits to date and is nearly $16 Trillion but that is for another discussion. So you make an unintelligent comment like "cut defense and the debt would disappear". I think you meant deficit. To say "debt" means you don't know what you are talking about. So let's assume deficit.

But there is a problem. Defense is just under $700 Billion a year. So even if you cut out ALL defense you still only cut into half of the deficit. But that wouldn't matter because if we cut out ALL of defense we would be overtaken, raped, and murdered by our enemies so the remainder of the deficit wouldn't matter anyway because we wouldn't have a country. But let's assume we could cut even 10% of defense (heck, let's get crazy for a moment and actually cut 20% of defense). That is only $140 Billion. But our deficit is $1.5 Trillion so subtracting the $140 Billion we STILL have a deficit of $1.36 Trillion. In other words your comment was asinine, unintelligent, and naive.

But while on the subject you have this incredible belief we spend too much on defense well let's look at the largest annual budget items:

1) Medicare: $801 Billion

2) Social Security: $739 Billion

3) Defense: $675 Billion

4) Income Security: $374 Billion

5) Interest on the Debt: $225 Billion

Notice something: If we add Medicare, Social Security, Income Security, and Interest on the Debt it costs us every year a little over $2.1 Trillion. Every year we bring in about $2.3 Trillion in tax revenues. In other words before we pay the president his check, before we pay Congress, before we hire a police officer, before we build another road, before we pay a park ranger, and before we hire a teacher we have ALREADY SPENT EVERY DOLLAR WE HAVE TO SPEND!!

In economics we call this "unsustainable" and we are spiraling into a financial collapse never before seen in this country. You talk about cutting defense but yet we are spending nearly $2 Trillion on items that have nothing related to actually RUNNING a country? These entitlement programs have pushed this country to the brink of financial collapse. We have two choices: Significantly alter our entitlement programs to where we can actually afford them or just watch once was a great country drive completely over the cliff. All I can say is hold on tight because this train is getting ready to crash.

Gee, all they need to do is follow the lead of the U.S. They can solve all their problems by issuing bonds and buying them up themselves with money generated from running their printing presses 24/7, just like we do here.

We seem to be oblivious to any consequences of 16 trillion dollars (and growing) of debt because for most of the dregs in this country, it's just a meaningless number.

However, I think the Japanese have a better grip on reality than we do here in America and they don't want to travel down that debt path towards the abyss like we're doing.

Ron-1861300

Sandtrich,

While I would like to see about a 50% reduction in military spending over the next 10 years, even that is not nearly enough to get our deficits under control again. According to Obama's own estimates, the Medicare/Medicaid programs will run around a $6 Trillion deficit the next 10 years - and it gets worse after that. Significant entitlement cuts will also be needed, as well as tax increases on everyone (not just the 1%).

50% reduction in the DoD budget, elimination of foreign aid, tax at Clinton era taxes, and reform Medicare and Social Security. Medicaid is for the nation's neediest and should not be a perpetual benefit. I think there should be means testing for Social Security anyway. I don't need it and won't apply next year when eligible. If we're talking solutions---no lobbyists, no PAC's, no Congressperson should be able to buy and sell stocks and pass legislation for insider tips, etc.

Also, the DoD budget doesn't include the VA, (a direct cost of war), nor the interest on the debt for past wars, and they don't disclose the budget of the CIA. 750+ bases on foreign soil that can be closed and park 8 of the 12 carriers and the flotillas of 21 accompanying ships. Put those that are displaced from the military to work on the infrastructure, border patrol, law enforcement, etc.

Let the 'spending' stop! Romney 2012.

MarcDLS

Jeff, you prove why the US is so screwed. 1 US Dollar is work about 80 Yen. That means the Dollar is worth more than the Yen. Not the other way around. Basic mathematical understanding, the US ranks 32 in the world.

MarcDLS I really hate to be so cruel but you are a moron... The Japanese don't have an equvilant to dollars and cents they just have yen. So that being that 1 yen would be like 1 penny.... which means you give me a dollar i give you 80 cents back.. seriously marc.. wow.. especially when you point out your US math statistics....wow...

Mickey-1983943

Jeff,

"And yet the yen is still worth more than the US Dollar which should give us a clue as to how screwed we really are.."

How do you figure that? Last time I checked the exchange rate was 79.85 yen per dollar. So how is the yen worth more than the dollar? Is that some kind of "new math" you're using there?

Micky read the above post to get your answer.. sadly the previous poster is not only proving Americans lack of basic math but basic world knowledge as well. So even at 79.85 straight across for a dollar is about 79.85cents to the dollar.. 馬鹿。。。

Wet Willy

Gee, all they need to do is follow the lead of the U.S. They can solve all their problems by issuing bonds and buying them up themselves with money generated from running their printing presses 24/7, just like we do here.

Willy, the Japanese cannot print their way out of debt, nor can any other country on the planet EXCEPT the United States. Why? because the US dollar is the world reserve currency. However everytime congress orders up another batch of freshly printed Benjamin's they have to pay interest on it to the Fed. That makes the Fed happy because they make more money by printing money for the government out of thin air. It also keeps our debt to income ratio artificially low because the true debt is never realized.... that is to say never realised until the rest of the world decides it will no longer accept the US dollar as the world reserve currency. At that point we become a third world country over night... For the moment no other nations want that because we also have more weapons than any other nation and if we are so aggressive now.. how bad would we be when desperate. It's a terrible catch 22 that the American people and the rest of the world are forced to choke down. Instead of severing ties they spin around the toilet bowl with us.

@JPinMN,

Since no one answered your question, I will take a shot at it. US currency is not backed by gold and has not since the turn of the 20th century. This was a major issue that Teddy Roosevelt worked with. The problem was that there was not enough gold in the US Treasury to have enough gold-backed money in circulation to allow the economy to grow. So the country went to fractional gold backing, which means that it was partially backed by gold. This had dropped to less than 20% gold backing by the Great Depression and stayed there for a while as the economy had stalled. But as the economy started up again, it became obvious that gold wouldn't hack it so the money was backed by silver (actually a combination of silver and gold.) Then it became fractional silver pretty qquickly and finally all backing was abandoned under Nixon in favor of a blue sky elastic currency. That means that the government monitors inflation and ptints money when there is deflation and pulls it out of circulation when there is inflation.

The bottom line is that if the US possessed all the gold, silver, and platinum in the world, it would not be enough to back our currency, even fractionally. The country (and the world) simply outgrew the ability to back its currency that way.@Jeff,

You simply have no idea what the Treasury Department, the Fed, and Congress do. The Fed never prints money. They can create tiny amounty by allowing banks to leverage money and that's it. The Department of Treasure prints money with the express approval of Congress. But even then the Fed can choose to withdraw the money and not put it in circulation if it thinks it will cause excess inflation.(A little inflation --- sconsistent with the population growth and the growth of the GDP is okay.)

and yet it is still not a US dollar it is a federal reserve note. pull one out of your wallet and read it.

Savings rate is going higher. Tax is going higher. Debt payments are all time high. There won't be much disposable income left to spend. Borrowing is down. Credit is deflating. Deflationary crash is coming. Japan had it for 20 years. Do not think we are immune!

www.kondratieffwavecycle.com/economy/deflationary-crash/

Since no one answered your question, I will take a shot at it. US currency is not backed by gold and has not since the turn of the 20th century

Actually, the dollar was backed by gold until President Nixon formally broke the tie between the two.

sadly the previous poster is not only proving Americans lack of basic math but basic world knowledge as well. So even at 79.85 straight across for a dollar is about 79.85cents to the dollar..

Arguing that a yen must be the same as the penny is ridiculous. You can't translate two currency systems on a one-for-one basis like that. Secondly, comparing two currencies at a single point in time yields no information about the strengths of their economies. A British Pound is "worth more" than a US Dollar, but that doesn't mean that the British economy is in 50% better shape than the US economy. The British could be in a deep recession and the US enjoying low unemployment/high incomes and it is quite likely the GBP would be trading at over $1.00.

@Barry-NJ,

Nixon did not end gold backing of the dollar --- that had been steadily eroding since the early 1900's when it became obvious that there simply was not enough gold (and later gold + silver) to back the currency. What Nixon ended was two things --- the Bretton Woods agreement that allowed foreign governments to exchange dollars for gold, and any remaining specific relationship between US prescious metal holdings and the value of the dollar. He ended "convertability" not gold backing. Just prior to this the dollar was backed by less than 1/100th of a grain of gold and the silver equivalent. It was so small that the currency was actually considered to be "silver certificates" since FDR's days.

What Nixon ended was two things --- the Bretton Woods agreement that allowed foreign governments to exchange dollars for gold, and any remaining specific relationship between US prescious metal holdings and the value of the dollar.

In other words, he ending gold backing. I'll agree with you that it had been diminishing for decades. FDR administration ended the right to convert dollars into gold (outstanding "gold" certificates were also recalled). The price of gold was also fixed at $35/ounce, a price that remained in effect until 1971.

Barry trying to explain the obvious to you is getting old so this is my last attempt. yes the Yen is worth more than the US dollar and has a greater buying power than the US dollar. Dollars and Cents\Pounds and Pence these concepts are WESTERN CONCEPTS of money.. THERE ARE NO FRACTION IN THE JAPANESE MONETARY SYSTEM. $5.99 in value is represented as a whole number.. I'm taking it you've never traveled to Japan..

人は失敗、日本または米国か。

.

政治家はどの国でも同じ。皆アホだ。‚

(translated: Politicians are the same in every country; they are all idiots.)

For me, I'll have to blame the Democrats where they #$@#$ everything everybody and everyone to pad their narcissism and spend us into a corner where we have no choices at all.

16 out of 20 poorest states belong to red states, those also receive the most food stamps and federal aids. Not sure where you get your fact, but it seems GOP receive a big portion of money "spending to oblivion".

spend us into a corner where we have no choices at all

dubya got handed a surplus and 8 years later spent trillions without paying for it on a war based on lies. On top of that, he cut taxes to the rich during the same war (a first in our history as a matter of fact). He lost 4 million jobs in his last 10 month alone and handed a budget deficit of 1.4 trillion to President Obama. Those are facts.

A lie there, Sam. What "surplus" there was acredited to Bill Clinton was a 60 billion dollar "surplus" from a 120 billion some loan the Chinese gave to the United States to pay off Social Security in 1998. The Nation by the end of 1999 had a 5 Trillion dollar Debt. There was only one year a ,"surplus" ever existed in anyform and that was when the Congress sought to start borrowing, a Newt failure of an idea, from a foriegn and hostile Nation to offset tax revenues that were not covering the bases of basic government programs since Congress of both Democrat majority before 1994 and Republican "revolution" of 1994 sought to squander dollars on various grants and projects even taking out of the Social Security funding to reallocate to other programs. By this time in 1998 we were flat broke in Social Security, among other problems, unless you forgot that the Captial had to shut down once due to Bill Clinton and Congress playing hardball on how to fund anything.

But go ahead, just ignore the Nation had a 5 trillion debt before the Internet Business bubble bust.

dubya got handed a surplus

Starting a post with a non fact is not a good way to start a post.

On top of that, he cut taxes to the rich

Following with a complete distortion of fact doesn't strengthen a post. The tax cuts signed into law by Bush included every American not just the rich. It can be argued that the poor and middle class got the better end of the deal since many deductions and credits they use helped increase the number of tax payers filing a zero tax liability return. Worse yet, those credits helped give people back more money than they paid through withholding.

Its really too mixed up to tell, I'll say Both don't lose your wallet at the whitehouse..

I would say that both parties are at fault. In reality there is very little difference between them. That's why Al Gore said that the Democratic party was the Republicans party left. In other words, the democratic candidate admitted during his presidential race that there was no such thing as a Democratic party. They play us, make us think that they want different things but in the end, they work with the same end in mind, and it's not in our favor.

buckeye

As per the COB and many individual analysts, 80% of the Bush tax cuts went to the top 2%. In fact, tax cuts since the Reagan era were overly skewed towards the rich, but the tax increases since that same time were considered equitable. Net effect was that the rich got more, hence we have the so-called super-rich right now.

FDR imposed high levels of taxation on the rich as well as draconian corporate laws because he wanted to prevent the dynastacization of America, thus preventing another robber baron era (so called gilded age) and all that it meant to the US, including the '30s depression. The attack on FDR legislation which started during the Nixon era, and has continued almost unabated, has returned us to similar level of economic risk as at 1930. Take a good look - a broken middle class, stagnant economy, etc, etc.

@butteye,

Sorry, guy but you have confused a budget surplus (which means that for that year there was more income than budgeted expenditure) with the national debt.

Actually, TEDDY Roosevelt was the first person to realize that large corporations would seek to destroy the u7nions and the middle class. That was the essence of his trust-busting and his war against "robber barons" that controlled the country's finances and industry. He was hugely successful and the country had a huge growth spurt. But the money got to Taft and he tried to undo everything TR had done. A lot of FDR's policies were based on TR's trust-busting and its beneficial effect on the country. TR was a Republican who turned against the Republican Party and destroyed Taft for his duplicity.

Well Sam Adams,

I guess you convienently forgot that Congress (run by Democrats at the time) also voted to fund those wars... using the same intel that Dubya had... what a bunch of Liberal liars on here....

@Fed Up,

Awwww, come on. You know perfectly well that Bush/Cheney fabricated the WMD reasons for the invasion of Iraq citing "intelligence" from a source so doubted that his handlers named him "Curveball" and forged documents. When one of the documents was exposed as a forgery, Cheney had Valerie Plame "outed" because her husband had exposed the fraud. This was the FALSE intelligence that Congress used to approve the invasion of Iraq.

The Afghan War was essentially won until Bush/Cheney redirected all efforts into Iraq and allowed the Taliban to retake control. It was Bush/Cheney who called off the bin Laden hunt when they had him cornered at Tora Bora. A live boogeyman is much more valuable to the right than a dead boogeyman.

And it was Bush/Cheney that told the Congress and the American public falsely that it was Iraq behind the destruction of the WTC on 9/11 when they knew all along that it was Saudis who were the hijackers, Saudi money that financed, a Saudi who directed the operation, and Saudis who controlled every phase of the attack.

Liberal liars indeed ---- I really don't think of Bush/Cheney as Liberals.

アメリカ合衆国は、失敗する運命です。オバマがそれを保持する場合は、すべて困っています。

and Obama as their president too! Who knew?!?

They call it the "Rice Party".

At least in Japan, they don't have the DEMONCRAT Party, and their "Tax and spend" evil leader, Comrade "Barry the happy Kenyan".

OK tell me again how many House bills comrade Reid has allowed to be debated in the Senate, much less voted on.... talk about obstructionist... he knows that if he lets his Socialists vote down jobs bills, they'll get voted out at re-election time... what a bunch of cowards... like the rats that ran from Wisconsin to avoid voting... the 51% who pay taxes have their numbers...

This is the moron thread...one of them anyway.

It's a very tiny picture you are painting...step back and get a better view of what's going on Globally.

Japan's ultimate crash will make Greece look small. Part of this is, well, Greece IS small (Japan's economy dwarfs Greece's by several times). Japan's debt to GDP is well over 220% (Greece was recently 167%). Japan has been able to forestall its debt/fiscal deficit problem via its high internal savings rate and mercantilist economy. However, its average age is increasing more rapidly than any other industrialized nation (low birth rate and one of the highest life-spans). Unfortunate demographics have begun to catch up with Japan--significantly raising the sales tax and still facing a money shortage is just an early-warning sign that their internal deficit funding days are almost over. Once they have to go to international financial markets, their interest rates will start to climb...and quickly. At the rate their working-age population is shrinking, it won't take the markets long to figure out that their federal debt is unpayable.

@Jay,

Good post and quite correct. We gave a lot of good advice to Japan on what to do to get out of their reecession in the 1990's they followed exactly none of it for over 10 years and then belatedly only paid lip service to it. The path the Japanese government followed is exactly the path that Hoover followed and the path advocated by the neo-con GOP today.

And let's not forget Greece. When Greece entered the eurozone the French and German bankers went over the country's books with a fine-toothed comb. They found exactly one discrepancy --- the way that the military booked purchases --- and that had already been changed and was already scheduled for implementation. The reasons the Greek economy tanked is two-fold. 1) the German and French central banks used their positions to speculate in the drachma by dumping drachmas, driving down the value of the drachmas, buying them cheaply and then cashing them at an unbelievably high "par" on cutover day. This along took almost 30% of all the savings of both people and the government. and 2) Much of the Greek governments investments to support things like pensions was invested in AMERICAN AAA+ mortgage derivatives. When these tanked, AIG did not insure them like it did the American banks that held them. They just said so long sucker and refunded their premiums (less than a penny on the dollar.)

@Jay,

Another aspect of the Japan/Greek economy thing is that Greece's eco9nomy is basically subsistence agriculture and fishing with tourism being the primary source of foreign exchange. Japan is just the opposite. It is an industrial export economy, which has virtually NO raw materials. Raw materials are so important to Japan that when they were restricted by FDR that Japan felt it had no choice but to go to war to secure its supplies of raw materials. If the yen falters, the first thing that will be hit will be the credit necessary to factor the raw materials. Once factors drop out Japan will be unable to import the things like scrap metal and oil that are so critical to their economy. Because of JIT,k which was started to keep save money on warehousing of parts and raw materials, a credit collapse could shut down the Japanese economy in as little as five days. You only have to look at the tsunami's ripple effect to see how quickly it could happen.

Are you serious? Did the two wars Dubbya started benefit anyone in the States besides his and his VP's buddies? Where were all of you when all that "bleeding" was going on? I'm so absolutely sick and tired of hypocritical Republicans ridiculous attempts to whitewash history. Are you really that stupid as to think the nonsense you spew is actually true or do you just like to parrot party lines? I've always been a Democrat but had zero problem with Republicans until they became the party of the inane and hateful. You claim to want less government involvement in your lives but want to restrict who can marry who and to decide who has to have a baby they don't want even though you want to cut any programs that might help people take care of those babies. You cry about Obama driving up the national debt but were mum about the billions wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan. You complain about Muslim countries oppressing their citizens but seem happy to have the States turn into a theocracy, as long as it's a theocracy where you get to decide what we all believe. You're full of it and too stupid to realize that that's what comes out of your mouths. I used to believe that civility and reasonable debate were possible, but if the Republicans have taught me anything, it's that that is no longer true. There used to be actual intellectuals in the Republican party, people who you could respect even if you disagreed with them. That is no longer true either.

Ambrosia~

AAAAAAAAMEN!!!

Ambrosia

Please ignore the reich wingers. You can tell them by the tone of their posts, and their language. There are a lot of people in society who prefer to drink the kool-aid, rather than think. It is called intellectual laziness.

steven100 and others of your ilk - I am an independant consrvative, so you can shove the left wing ad hominems.

Ambrosia, I disagree with you, I know a lot of democrats who want to be involved in the lives of others and how they live it. I am a republican/christian and in noway do I try an stop a person from living the life they choose or are born with. You are speaking of the folks at a national level and I don't think it represents the majority of the republican party in a whole.

Steven; the affordable health care does benefit the people of the United States! look at the outrage when our country tries to help the people of the United States!

The country of Japan has the same problem, the people of the United States have; the wealthy are not paying their fair share.

weallhaveopinions: I'm not exactly sure which part you disagree with but I am certainly open to healthy disagreement and debate. I never said that Democrats don't want to be involved in the lives of others and how they live it and I would never say that. That is one of the things about the Democratic party that I've supported, particularly when it comes to people not being allowed to discriminate against others on the basis of gender, color, religious faith or lack thereof or sexual orientation. I support children getting an equal education regardless of how much money their parents make or how poor the tax district they live in is. I support a compassionate country which wants people to be housed and as healthy and well-educated as is reasonably possible, even if that means -shocker here - we don't go into other countries and invade them for no good reason. I support anyone who wants to live their live without a god or with one if that is what they choose. So if that means I want to be involved in the lives of others, then yes I do!

I support national health care because I live in Japan and have for a very long time and believe me when I say that getting ill and not having to worry about whether or not your insurance is going to cover your treatments or whether or not you have to call an insurance agent before a treatment to get permission or any of the other things involved in the whole farce of the insurance industry in the States and you will seriously understand how great universal health care coverage is.

I've never met a single person in Japan who's gone bankrupt because they couldn't pay for medical treatment nor do people wait forever to see a doctor or not have the ability to chose which one they'll see. Those are all things that the right would like you to believe are going to happen in the U.S. Japan's financial problems are not due to its health care system because it is not free, far from it. The financial problems are due to colossal mismanagement of the nation's finances by the government coupled with a nearly non-existent birth rate which means that the taxes of one person are going to support more elderly than is reasonable. Japan's xenophobic reluctance to accept more foreigners will be the downfall of the country if they don't quickly change their policies.

I don't understand how anyone thinks it is anything but in the national interest for its citizens to be healthy and have access to health care, to be educated, to be accepting of others even if you disagree with them, to be welcoming to foreigners who are willing to work and obey the laws. You say that the people of whom I'm speaking are on the national level but I'll have to respectfully disagree with you. Those folks were voted in by people on local and state levels, people who either wholeheartedly believe what the politicians are selling or who've got a lot of answering to do if they don't believe the message but voted them in anyway. Any politician who sells hatred, fear-mongering, ignorance or intolerance will not get my vote regardless of which party they represent.

dale-763548

The country of Japan has the same problem, the people of the United States have; the wealthy are not paying their fair share.

Dale the Japanese are not the American people and they do not think and act the same as we do. Different history different culture and different way of thinking.

your comment is very narrow minded and uninformed

The wealthy in that country hold the majority of their governments debt. meaning they are potentially throwing their money away to keep their nation going. Especially since they can't print their way out of debt like the US government can.

Yeah, maybe it's true that there are a group of very powerful people out to create a world government and what better way to beat the opposition than breaking their economies? Destroy their ability to arm an army and defend themselves, eliminate existing armies, like ours, by eliminating their capacity to buy weapons and ammunition and so forth. If I remember right, this is how Saddam Hussein was weakened before Iraq was invaded. By the time his country was invaded his army was a joke.

@ Jibaro - how is "creating" a world govt. going to solve these problems? (chirping crickets) That's right, it's not going to fix the problem. The "world govt." won't have any more money than the individual countries have now. Only fiscal responsibility will solve this problem. They all need a huge Dave Ramsey intervention. (If you hate Dave, feel free to insert your favorite financial guru who advocates (and CAN) balance the budget in his place.)

@ G White - why should you be surprised? I think you will find they have the same poor policies in place that got them into this mess. It is unfortunate they all went belly up at the same time. But in the academic world, it would be proof positive these policies do not work. People need to get that through their head and move on to better (fiscally responsible) policies!

@ wilowbrook - "Creating" a one world government keeps the ultra rich in control. They don't have the same problems as us, nor do they give a crap about ours. They care about control. Look into how our own banking system came into be. The Federal reserve bank was implemented due to a economic collapse due to speculation. "Our savior" at the time was the rich financiers that controlled much of America's industry, the very same that caused that negative speculation in the first place. They were given a "right" to print money into debt. What we are seeing now globally is the same practice that happened here in the early 20th century. I believe in an attempt to stabilize the worlds economy, a world bank will be implemented. Ask yourself... Who will run that world bank? sovereign Nations? Or the Ultra Wealthy who fabricated this current fiscal situation. World Trade=World Bank=World Government. And that my friend does not allow Americans to live like Americans. The Ultra wealthy want to screw and abuse everybody equally. Beyond that, its all about population control. Its the best way of stopping consumers of natural resources.

A world govt would do what the US govt does right now.... redistribute wealth from richer countries to poorer ones to pander for billions of votes in Africa and S America... and they'd print money they don't have and the Gaia currency would be so devalued that a wheel barrow of it would be needed to buy a loaf of bread....

A world govt would do what the US govt does right now.... redistribute wealth from richer countries to poorer ones to pander for billions of votes in Africa and S America...

Like how the federal government takes money from blue states and gives it to red states? It kinda sucks, but having a economic union like we do has been very beneficial to all states in the US.

Anonymous 1-942242........We are a republic, not a democracy, point being we do not get to vote on these issues, we only get to vote on the representatives who will vote on these issues. I do agree about term limits and pensions, the founding fathers never envisioned lifelong career politicians or for that matter, the Federal bureaucracy we have created.

Anonymous, Term limits are a great idea and we have two choices as to how term limits can be implemented.

Method 1 - Ask members of Congress to voluntarily remove their respective snouts from the trough by having congress enact term limits. Actually, this has been done many times and in each case, congress has refused. Most notably, in the late 1970's when asked to do this, congress reacted by creating Political Action Committees which would allow by law the ability of special interests to make campaign contributions far larger than those allowed by law to be made by individuals. This was also the point at which the economy went off the rails.

1982 - 1 trillion dollars of national debt. 2012 - 16 trillion dollars of national debt, 35 trillion unfunded social security, 45 trillion unfunded medicare, 3 trillion on the Fed books, trillions in unfunded federal retirement, trillions of liabilities on the books of Fannie Mae and freddie Mac, still more on the books of HUD, over 1 trillion in outstanding student loans backed by the taxpayer, and on and on. 1982 - 1 trillion. 2012 - over 100 trillion.

PAC's are at the heart of this financial fiasco as PAC's have been used to fund campaigns for members of political parties that are competing for dominance. The only way all these idiots seem to be able to campaign is to promise to give something that is not theirs to give to someone in exchange for that someone to vote for them. It does not matter that this barter for votes is in the form of benefits or tax exemptions. The end result is exactly the same. Both parties at fault. Both parties should be fired. bottom line is we have tried method one of getting term limits and have failed for 40 years.

Method 2-Never vote for an incumbent. One term and one term only for all of them. In doing this, the special interests will not have a political dynasty to work with, meaning the demise of special interests as well. I suggest we all try to convince others to go this route as soon as possible as this is the only way we will ever be rid of the 535 idiots that spend us into oblivion to buy votes to stay in office, and exempt contributors from taxes to stay in office. Currently, what we have is 535 idiots that collectively spend more and tax less to keep their respective snouts in the Washington power trough, and we wonder why we have deficits? More spending and less taxes and poof, we are broke. A third grader understands this, yet congress can not seem to get the basics of something so simple, so Fire Them All.

i'm willing to give up my small tax cut I get but those cheapo free loading gop'ers too cheap to even buy their family health insurance or their employees won't they are the cheapo no good free loaders who are so cheap and disgusting they won't even pay their fair share when it hurts the nation, yet they call them selves good americans, truth is their a poor example for humanity itself, nothing worst than a free loader who can afford it!!

You are a troll.

I have a better idea... fire 90% of govt employees at all levels. Get rid of pensions. They can contribute to 401Ks like the rest of us. Make them pay a good hefty % of their health care. And make it lots easier to fire deadbeats. Next reduce welfare to zero over two years. If you haven't found a job by then, you're not looking. Then, look at the remaining budget minus those expenses.... and whatever % we are over what we take in, slice every line item by that %. And that's all the money you get. Spend it wisely. This is exactly what households do when they're overextended... and it's what the govt ought to do too.

Well troll... you can spout Liberal lies all you want... but the economy was tanked by the Liberal "give houses to people who couldn't pay mortgages" wealth redistribution scam. Legislation under Carter gave the govt leverage to force banks to give loans to bad risks.. under the protection of Frank and Dodd, Fannie and Freddie bought them all up (costing us taxpayers nearly $200Billion and counting), and legislation passed under Clinton allowed them to package them as securities and sell them to our 401Ks. Taxpayers and investors took a soaking so that Liberals could buy votes... if you had half a brain you'd be dangerous...

nonreturn: Japan may have risen out of the ashes before but it will not again become one of the most productive countries in 20 years. While it's admirable that you respect Japan, I'm sorry to tell you but three years here, didn't make you an expert. You've barely seen the top of the iceberg, let alone all that lies beneath it.

Japan's financial problems began long before the recent disasters. They don't call the past 20 years The Lost Decades for no reason. The work ethic of the Japanese people is also somewhat questionable if you want to consider that what you're calling a work ethic is more akin to peer pressure. The Japanese don't stay in the office for longer hours because they're so hard working but because there is enormous pressure to not leave before any of your superiors. Additionally, many of those superiors came of age at a time when work and the company was the family so they don't expect you to mind staying in the office and twiddling your thumbs until nearly midnight. And there is a lot of thumb twiddling and paper shuffling in Japan. Business and the government are notoriously slow to make decisions and overly bureaucratic. Why do you think the nuclear disaster unfolded the way it did?

The will of the Japanese people is that of one of the lowest voter participation rates in the democratic world, people who will tolerate most anything because it's easier to say "shoganai" than it is to actually do something that instigates real change.

The birthrate is falling, the young are become more insular and the country as a whole is fairly xenophobic - unless you're a white westerner who's stay will be short, say for about three years. Japan is stuck in a morass of its own making. The recent disasters may have added to the problems but they certainly didn't create them.

Going to cite where you got yours? CNBC says nothing ...

Now I am cracking up....your article is from 2008???? Might want to check your facts before you tell someone else to. Sigh...

Now, I went on line and to be fair...I chose an article from FOX (LOL) dated 9/16/11 "America's Poorest States" on the FOX Business site. Figured I would at least get the info within the last year or so.

According to the article....the top 10 poorest states are all but one RED!!! And this comes from a right slanted media! LMBO!

1. Mississippi-RED

2. Arkansas-RED

3. Tennessee-RED

4. W. Virginia- Used to be blue but now considered RED

5. Lousiana- RED, though trending more and more towards blue

6. Montana-RED

7. South Carolina-RED

8. Kentucky-RED

9. Alabama-RED

10. North Carolina- Blue

Well most folks on the social programs vote democrat. Democrats views are every man/woman is created equal, should have equal wealth no matter if he/she works for it or not.

Ummm that would be a NO. I am firmly a Democrat and stand tall in working for what I have and Im not sharing what I earned...per se. If you are hungry I will feed you....if you love someone, marry them....yes, we are all equal under the eyes of the big guy upstairs...BUT, you also have to earn your keep as well.

So no darlin...you statement is NOT accurate and in fact, quite the opposite. Shaking my head at some statements.

weallhaveopinions: Again, you're talking nonsense. I don't know a single Democrat who believes what you claim. I know Democrats who believe it's well and good to help someone get back on their feet but then again, that's pretty much the whole message of the New Testament, the book that so many Republicans claim to believe in. And please don't try and tell me that the bible says God helps those who helps themselves because nowhere in the bible does it say that.

No SweetAZ the article isn't from 2008, the data compiled and used was from 2008. I wasn't disputing the fact that the poorest states are Red. Cuong suggested that those same states were accumulating the bulk of the welfare because they were the poorest state that simply is not true. Prove the statistics wrong that the states I listed aren't leaders per capita in welfare income.

IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE ? Your answer is citizens united . when you no difference folks wake up and realize the top one percent income earners are running politicians and dumping millions into elections for their candidates . Citizens united was created by a party vote in the supreme court . As mitt romney says " corporations are a person "

Contrary to the voices in your head... it's not the 1% vs the 99%.... It's the 51% (of us who work and pay taxes) vs the 49% of you who don't.... And corporations ARE people... millions of workers, and millions of investors... what's difficult about to understand about that? Now I know you're upset by the ruling because unions can no longer unilaterally buy elections... waaaa... poor Progressives... a level playing field....