Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

14 comments

  1. Chris Blask

    and that doesn’t happen every day.

    The tension in the air could be cut into cubes and used to erect bunkers.  What does this mean?  How many companies will fail to issue pay checks this month?  What are the long term ramifications of “investing” this money in mortgages that may be sold at far less than we pay for them?

    Will this financial fiasco seriously compromise the long-term future of this country?

    Will we be a Superpower in ten years?

    Damned if I know the answers to any of these questions, and I have the distinct impression that no-one else does, either.

  2. Peter Jukes

    America, the new kid on the block, was part of a global financial failure. But was this the end of American power and global influence.

    No, thanks to both the adroitness of Roosevelt and his policies, and the terminal nationalistic decline of European nations, the depression of the 30s was a prelude – after the horrific (for Europeans) interim of WWII – of the great rise of American culture and power.

    This could go either way. Certainly, if McCain is elected, we could see America slipping into the militaristic imperium of late Rome, where conspiracies and juntas prolonged Roman power, but increasingly ceded influence and status.

    If Obama is elected, there is still the chance that America will rise again, and this time as part of a community of interlocked democracies and economies who have learned the value not only of free trade, but of some kind of commonly accepted norms of governance. All the post war institutions that served us so well NATO, IMF, UN, Bretton Woods, for three decades after World War II were set up under the aegis of American power, and its thrust for some kind of consensual global governance.

    That was rapidly unpicked in the 70s following Vietnam. It was abandoned in Chile and Nicaragua and other Latin American countries, and only re-established briefly during the first Gulf War and Bosnia/Kosovo.

    The second Gulf War, where America pursued its self interest with very few allies (and most bullied into acquiescence) undermined those very global institutions like the UN which the US had created over half a century. Financially, the deregulation of debt which floated the Iraq War will be seen like the explosion of petrodollars that funded Vietnam, as a simultaneous over reaching of both military and economic might.

    Sorry, this is turning into a bloody essay…

    Anyway, the jury is still out. But to hear Chris, the eternal optimist, even wonder that this is the end of America as a superpower is deeply worrying.

    America alone cannot survive. America as the leader of democratic nations who believe in the rule of law, open markets, and some kind of collective safety net like Roosevelt, that idea has plenty more mileage in it yet.

    IMHO

  3. alyssa chaos

    but in theory the markets work in cycles. we’re in a downturn and when you’re experiencing a downturn it seems like things only get worse. The laws of economics say there must be an up to a down. [then again this theory only works in fair markets]

    I have nothing to lose.

    I wont shed one damn tear or feel one ounce of pity for giants that are being cut down at their knees.

    people were in poverty before this shit began, no one was crying for them.

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