A Usenet persona calling itself Michael Daly wrote:

On 12-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:


After all, nations (including the
entirely of Europe) who owe the US commonly default on repayment of their
debts.

Name one country in Europe that has defaulted on a loan to the US since WWII.

All of them. (Nice try at setting a starting date, but it won't work.)


Or, maybe we'll call in
all those WWI and WWII debts that Europe owes us, with interest.

When did those countries sign up for a loan? It was a gift.

Nope. It was called "Lend-Lease."


You make this stuff up as you go along and you expect us to take
you seriously?

I don't expect you to be able to tie your own shoes.



Do you think that either Japan or China is willing to engage in nuclear war
with the US in order to try to collect those debts? I think not.

If they call in the loans and the US defaults, the economy goes down the
toilet.

Whose economy? Not ours.

Since you live on debt, you'll be broke

Don't be silly. Who gets shafted in a bankruptcy? Not the bankruptee, but
the creditors. Worst-case we just repudiate the debts (as so many others
have done to us) and tell China and Japan they can pound sand, then we go on
with what we were doing without their imports, which we can easily do if we
need to.

and since you import more than you
export, you have little useful collateral.

Which (if true, which it's not) makes it all the harder for China to
collect.

The fact that we import a lot does not mean that we *have* to import a lot.
The vast majority of those imports are luxury goods, not necessities or
staples. We can get along without them just fine.

The Euro is stronger than the
US dollar and is backed by more people.

And it's that way because the US created the economic engine that drives the
Euro by spending trillions of US dollars over decades to provide for the
defense of Europe against Soviet aggression. I'd say that moves the balance
point rather radically our way.


Start thinking more globally and
stop thinking so insularly.

First we protect our own interests, then we might think about yours.
--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser