the last 30 years since REAGAN ERA.. OUR STANDARD OF LIVING WAS ON BORROWED FUNDS

[Debaser82]

You are correct about living on borrowed time but you shouldnt look at these numbers in nominal terms.

My grandfather payed 5 cents to take the bus. I pay 40 times more.

Was my grandfather better off? Not necessarily.

This is why people who think cash is the place to be will lose.

It is inevitable for money to lose value and I am not saying that it's good or bad I am just saying it is.

 

[toc]

Quote from LeeD:

Reforms were much slower, less radical and more evenly paced than after the Union collapse.

If by weak leadership you solely mean dismantling KGB, then I could probably agree with you.

This has nothing to do with patriotism.

Who do you think would be more patriotic to support in this scenario? Elected President? Unelected Government? The State Governours?

Country going to tatters, weak President a clauset faggot giving away chip after chip to further weaken the psychology of the people, chaos and crime on the rise, intellectuals reporting that 'country has become unmanageable' and what does the glorious Red Army do? They stand mute like dumb dorks from village who came to the city for the first time and nearly got run over by a gas powered car that they encountered for the first time in their lives. If KGB, other top leadership including the VP have declared President to be unfit then the 'Loser' Red Army will have to take orders from the new leadership.

Quote from LeeD:

The collaps of the Soviet Union was archestrated by the most distinguished Communist leaders. So, it's them who stopped believing in communism first... and they were "treated by the West" very well. Especially Gorbachev; in Germany he is treated as a national hero who dismantled the soviet counterweight to NATO and made united Germany possible. [/B]

Yeltsin was not a commie and he opposed Gorby all the way. Who is rooting for communism? The whole country wanted to get rid of it but not by breaking it away in more than a dozen pieces. When Yeltsin and others from Ukraine, Belarus and Khazakastan broke the USSR, then where was the 'Glorious Loser' Red Army then? What was the legal basis of walking out of the Union and leaving Gorby in a no man's land.

Depressed, Low esteemed and selfish mindset of Russians, especially males, is very dangerous for their country. Putin did provide some firm hand but he had lots of help from oil prices. So pray that oil keeps on the bull run and stays there. Russia has not developed any other industry to provide alternative support when oil prices come down on average basis.

 

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Furthermore, China did engineer its reforms by first providing a firm hand on the top and having its army support the transistion but in a lawful and organized manner.

Why could not Soviet U do the same? Too much vodka or too much misconceptions about the West arriving with container loads of dollars to buy more vodka.

 

[LeeD]

Quote from toc:

Yeltsin was not a commie and he opposed Gorby all the way.

He was a member of the communist party. In fact, he was a member of Politburo, the executive branch of the Soviet Union. It was the highest rank achievable for a party official short of the "first secretary" post taken by Gorby.

Only in 1987, when Yeltsin spoke out against Gorby and was promptly removed from his party posts such as first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee (pre-perestroika equivalent of mayor of Moscow) and from Politburo, he started severing his ties with the communist party. In fact, it is widely believed he never officially quit the communist party.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yeltsintimeline1.html

Quote from toc:

When Yeltsin and others from Ukraine, Belarus and Khazakastan broke the USSR, then where was the 'Glorious Loser' Red Army then?

What's your problem with "Red Army"? Did your ancestors suffer in the Russian civil war or during the invasion of Poland? Or are you a disgruntled red army serviceman?

 

[LeeD]

Quote from toc:

Furthermore, China did engineer its reforms by first providing a firm hand on the top and having its army support the transistion but in a lawful and organized manner.

Why could not Soviet U do the same? Too much vodka or too much misconceptions about the West arriving with container loads of dollars to buy more vodka.

Because China started reforms later, they had the example of the Soviet Union to learn from - so the Chinese communists tried to avoid the same mistakes (such as dismantling oppressive political police or allowing freedom of speech).

 

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Get you facts straight:

China started reforms in early 1980s and they had good organized game plan towards them. Stupid Russians did not learn anything from Chinese. They thought they will make Russia like USA in just two years. It took US 200+ years to become what it was in 1990s. Russians should have planned atleast 20 years.


Trust me, Red Army was never glorious until it came under a firm hand. In WWII, there were series of losses, surrenders, retreats until Stalin woke up from his dream and Zhukov put in tough orders and rest is history. That was the only glorious moment of the Red Army. Rest of its involvements, it showed jokeful performance. Soviet Army was mired with corruption, bad training, bad organization so much so that during the Armenia earthquake it found itself not able to do much. Worst it did not do anything when its own country was broken apart. I call that Traitor's performance under Vodka influence. There is a Russian saying: A fish rots from the head.

Why hamper over something that happened 20 years ago. However, if you do not learn from history and mistakes then you make yourself vulnerable and that's a good warning to Vodka drunk dreamers.

 

[LeeD]

Quote from toc:

Get you facts straight:

China started reforms in early 1980s

So did the Soviet Union.

However, China started with giving local authorities more autonomy. The Soviet Union started with freedom of speech and legalising private enterprise sollowed soon. So, by all accounts the actual move to capitalism happened in the Soviet Union earlier.

 

[jem]

Quote from darwin666:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/878ca006-782c-11e0-b90e-00144feabdc0.html

to quote. relevant portion of this article

Printing the world’s reserve currency has given the US a free lunch of sorts. Around $500bn worth of dollar bills circulate outside the US. Strong demand for US assets has resulted in lower long-term rates. America also earns a higher return on its overseas investments than it pays to foreign holders of US assets. The trouble is that America has abused this “exorbitant privilege” – a phrase first coined in the early 1960s by Gaullist finance minister and future French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing.



SO BASICALLY to win short term municipal , county, state all the way to federal elections, OUR POLITICANs have without shame kept on borrowing in the last 30 years and dug us into this hole..

but there is also another angle to this.. WHY the Q$#@% did the rest of the world feed this drug addict 800 lb gorilla.. they kept manufacturing and shipping to us to consume and we kept consuming.....

gee.. i think the golden age of the USA was the last 3 decades of consumption.. now our future generations.. the Gen Y and gen. what the heck is the next one?.. will have to figure out how to clean up the mess..

the sweet spot is someone who is 65 and fully drawing pension( state or something 3-4K a month) plus Social secuity 2K a month.. for working the last 35 years.. they are actually sucking out the system b4 it collapses...


i have heard some state troopers workk 20 years in state. then move to local police. and get another 30 years or somethnig and then retire and draw both pensions.. not to forget SSN. ha ha.

prison guards fire fighter/teachers.. municipal workers.. doing OT and retiring with 60-80 K PA. for LIFE... ha ha..


as long as folks in China keep working and sending us their junk and gladly accept USD IOU dollars.. this will continue..

why 15 Trillion. .make the cap 100 trillion.. after a while what difference does a few zeroes make ?

Until recently our borrowing was done by bonds. We paid the interest. We could have just as easily printed more money. But we did not.

The fact that we were the world currency sucked for U.S. citizens. My opinion is that demand seems to have allowed the Fed to put our dollars out all over the world in electronic form. Low and behold our dollar has been collapsing.

Our dollar had no reason to go down in value, because our govt's spending was done by borrowing not printing.

So it must have been the Feds action which caused the inflation. Yes there was demand for our currency. It should have made our dollar very very strong. So we can assume the "Fed" missed its targets, and flooded the world with dollars.

In short it could be that the american people subsidized the private bankers who own the Feds massive profits with the massive loss of value of our dollar.

 

[shortie]

Quote from toc:

Get you facts straight:

China started reforms in early 1980s and they had good organized game plan towards them. Stupid Russians did not learn anything from Chinese. They thought they will make Russia like USA in just two years. It took US 200+ years to become what it was in 1990s. Russians should have planned atleast 20 years.


Trust me, Red Army was never glorious until it came under a firm hand. In WWII, there were series of losses, surrenders, retreats until Stalin woke up from his dream and Zhukov put in tough orders and rest is history. That was the only glorious moment of the Red Army. Rest of its involvements, it showed jokeful performance. Soviet Army was mired with corruption, bad training, bad organization so much so that during the Armenia earthquake it found itself not able to do much. Worst it did not do anything when its own country was broken apart. I call that Traitor's performance under Vodka influence. There is a Russian saying: A fish rots from the head.

Why hamper over something that happened 20 years ago. However, if you do not learn from history and mistakes then you make yourself vulnerable and that's a good warning to Vodka drunk dreamers.

Red Army simply reflected the state of Soviet Union: corrupt and inefficient. Why do you assign any significance to the Army?

 

[toc]

When political leadership fails to control the critical areas of the country then Army needs to step in set the shop in correct tune of things.

Corrupt politicians like Yeltsin broke off USSR in one stroke of pen and Glorious Red Army stood watching with thumbs up the rear! Proved to be useless Army in the end, after all the money and attention spent on it.