The Americans received the biggest shock of the century when its Treasury Bills were downgraded to AA from AAA. How could this happen to the world’s number One superpower? They are now on a witchhunt on how they arrived at the present dire state. Obama is the natural strawman for the occasion. It is his fault. Soon they may even claim that if they only had a white president and things would not have gone this way.
Actually the US went on a self destruct mode the moment George Bush Jr took over the Presidency. For an executive president, not a ceremonial one that cannot speak as he likes, you really need someone with a little brain. That is not the only flaw of the American system.
Our local media has an article in the Sunday Times which, if one reads carefully, is saying that a one party system is the way to go. The problems leading to the US downgrade are a result of the bickering and indecisiveness of a two party system. Thank god we have a very decisive one party system that will just do it without the need to answer to another party in Parliament. The govt of a one party system can even afford to be deaf.
America was actually controlled by a small group of oligarchs or power brokers, mostly in the finance and arms industry. The former wanted a free and deregulated financial system to do as they pleased. The latter just know how to make wars. To them making wars is the only profitable business. While those in finance got their way to plunder the financial system, the latter twisted the hands of all politicians to wage wars after wars, for their own self serving interests. They enriched themselves by paying themselves crazy from the war industries, just like those in finance.
And America dips deeper and deeper into debt. And many silly American boys and girls would have to pay with their lives, not counting the number of ‘enemies’ killed in the wars. And many would go into debt, lost their fortunes, and inherit a country that is technically bankrupt.
The fall of the American Empire is not the multi party system or Obama, but a system that is corrupted by greed and the losing of a moral compass. In reality, all systems, no matter how good or how bad, will end up this way in their dying days. Corruption will be so rampant that it is no longer recognisable. Corruption comes in all forms and in all areas, the worst, other than amassing wealth till they look silly, is the corruption of power and the political system. When corruption is the norm, and being justified by all kinds of self serving logics, you know that the end is near.
One party system, multi party system, dictatorship, communism, monarchy, all will end with the same fate, with the same set of problems, all because of human greed. No system can survive the greed of man, no matter how good the system was when it was first formulated. All systems will end up with systemic rot, with the smell of human stench.
Countries that are still relying on the American model to operate their financial system need to think triply hard. As an example, they have allowed their stock market to function not on fundamentals but on how fast another machine can be to make a quick profit. The old school of investing on fundamentals is totally irrelevant against a bunch of crunching machines that trade on speed and algorithm of odds, with complete disregard to value and fundamentals. This is not stock trading anymore. It has ruined the American stock exchange and it will ruin the rest if they are so blind to embrace them without thinking of the harm that it can cause.
Multi-party system is better in the sense of check and balance and there are accountability and transparency. USA system is not a real democratic system that empowers the people since there are strong lobby from finance and arm manufacturing sectors. The USA political power concentrates on a small group of elites rather than the majority of common people. USA was and is still a cowboy country where individuals can own gun. USA became superpower mainly because of the 2 world wars that benefitted it but practically not affected it. USA unlike Europe needed to borrow money to rebuild after the 2 world wars but actually gained from loans to Europeans to fight the wars.
ReplyDeleteThe European system is a better multi-party system with maximum check and balance. Yet, there is no perfection and is evolving throughout the human civilization. The fact is accountability and transparency are the keys to good governance.
That's one of the reasons USA has to wage war every 5 to 7 years - to clear the obsolete weapons.
ReplyDeleteVery soon, they will be selling weapons to their own people at home to kill one another, if efforts to create more wars elsewhere fail.
ReplyDeleteSome countries are getting smarter, not falling into the US trap, like Kim of North Korea, unless of course some other dumb Asian countries think it is time for them to wear bigger shoes by strutting their stuff because they think the US is behind them. They are betting on a dead horse in time to come.
Hi market2garden, welcome to the blog.
ReplyDeleteThe American people have been sold out by the thieves living with the loot they took from them. And many innocent American families lost their sons and daughters to feed the greed of the robbers in the finance industry and the war mongers.
And just for the record, our MAS has recently released statements that are interested to go ahead with High Frequency Trading..they don't know what they're dealing with!
ReplyDeleteCome on, the World is being destroyed by the Financial Industry that started in the US. It is the creative marketing schemes of the Financial Houses that got all the political leaders everywhere greedy and govern in cahoot with them(financial industrialists).
ReplyDeleteIt all started when management decided that it is easy to raid the treasury as the minority shareholders cannot do anything about. So, in cahoot with the BOD and govt, they started to scratch each other's back and pay themselves crazy, and all legal, approved by the BOD. Simply clever.
ReplyDeleteMarx called this stage the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, when the workers seized control of organisations that don't belong to them and feasted on them, put their hands into the coffer and take as much as they like.