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Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The End of the World As We Know It...
From the Steyn:
What does that mean? In 2009, the United States spent about $665 billion on its military, the Chinese about $99 billion. If Beijing continues to buy American debt at the rate it has in recent years, then within a half-decade or so U.S. interest payments on that debt will be covering the entire cost of the Chinese military. This year, the Pentagon issued an alarming report to Congress on Beijing’s massive military build-up, including new missiles, upgraded bombers, and an aircraft-carrier R&D program intended to challenge American dominance in the Pacific. What the report didn’t mention is who’s paying for it. Answer: Mr. and Mrs. America.
Not quite. It's Mr and Mrs America's children.
Posted by Richard Anderson on January 11, 2011 | Permalink
Comments
When you stop to remember the amount of aid the US poured into China, during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s, this mess is even more maddening. Now they're sending planes to Japan to protect them from China. It's so f**ked up, there are no words to describe it.
Posted by: dp | 2011-01-11 8:08:40 PM
The real fun will begin if china tries to cash in the IOU's it is holding. Also a point to remember is that the 99 billion china is spending on the military is probably equivelant to the 665 billion the USA is spending as it is mostly internal and government controled. Not outsourced with a 80% profit margin to private companies that give kickbacks and political donations to get contracts.
Posted by: peterj | 2011-01-11 11:32:26 PM
Before the Steyn came the Burnham, who explained in 1964 that "liberalism permits Western civilization to be reconciled to dissolution; and this function its formulas will enable it to serve right through to the very end."
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2011-01-12 1:29:19 AM
"What the report didn’t mention is who’s paying for it."
Well, Ron Paul did mention it a lot a few years back but neoconservatives politicians, pudits & media machine painted him as a fool and pushed harder on policing the world, nation-building and pre-emptive wars. Americans went to vote and they now have to cope with the reality of their choices.
In short, the United-States deserve what is happening to them.
Posted by: Marc | 2011-01-12 1:40:36 AM
Before the Steyn came the Burnham, who explained in 1964 that "liberalism permits Western civilization to be reconciled to dissolution; and this function its formulas will enable it to serve right through to the very end."
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2011-01-12 1:29:19 AM
And Kipling was saying much the same thing about liberalism long before even Burnham. It's been a long slide people.
Posted by: Publius | 2011-01-12 7:57:43 AM
In short, the United-States deserve what is happening to them.
Posted by: Marc | 2011-01-12 1:40:36 AM
How true, and the same can be said of Canada, particularly when they have to actually pay for their own defense.
Posted by: John Chittick | 2011-01-12 10:42:45 AM
The Chinese DF-21 Anti Ship Missile is said to be giving the Yanks pause, it is condidered a threat to the USA Super Carrier battle groups that operate over there.
The Chinese missile can be guided by satellite, submarine and drone.
And those USA Super Carriers are by golly expensive, dang it!
Posted by: jeff franklin | 2011-01-12 3:45:57 PM
But the Chinese are being crafty about holding US debt. Yes, they hold a massive portion of the debt, but they are, for the most part, willing to finance it. However, China maintains a substantial hedge in precious metals: many believe this reserve to be the world's largest outside of Russia, who is the world's largest hold of these metals. As the US and Europe tread every closer to insolvency, the value of their precious metals hedge will rise ever higher. In many ways, the more US debt the Chinese hold, the wealthier the will become in precious metals. Years ago, a Chinese fellow told me that there are differences between what the Japanese did and what the Chinese are doing now. The Japanese held substantial amounts of US debt, but chose their own burgeoning real estate market as a hedge against it. That strategy failed when the Japanese real estate bubble popped. China's mindset of more traditional, but more conservative. Relying on the historically proven strength of precious metals as a hedge against crises, the Chinese are proving to be more savvy in their handling of US debt.
Posted by: AB Patriot | 2011-01-12 6:25:18 PM
I can't be too worried. China's economy is a toxic mess. It's probably the world's biggest bubble. I'm actually far more worried about it popping.
Posted by: Cytotoxic | 2011-01-12 11:40:20 PM
If China should somehow surpass the US in military prominence , that would shift the role of ' world`s policeman ' to them . Let them do the heavy lifting for a century or so in the secure knowledge that they would not want to be destroying our economy since theirs` is dependent on our prosperity. They would also likely be promoting peace and fair trade ,world - wide ,just as the US is fast abandoning that role to become a police state. It will happen ; the only question is when .
Posted by: daveh | 2011-01-16 4:49:35 PM
"would shift the role of ' world`s policeman ' to them "
Posted by: daveh | 2011-01-16 4:49:35 PM
Only if they have something to gain. Unlike the western powers the Chinese do not have a overwhelming urge to bring democracy to the combatents and still have a deep mistrust of the west. They know full well that the US is in decline and they have the time and patience to sit back and wait for the west to hit bottom while they build their armed forces to a technical standard that matches or exceeds the western powers. We have all our eggs in THEIR basket, and they know it.
Posted by: peterj | 2011-01-16 7:27:27 PM
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