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Friday 12 November 2010

15 Reasons Why Obama’s Debt Commission Is An Exercise In Futility and U.S. Will Never Have A Balanced Budget Ever Again -

15 Reasons Why Obama’s Debt Commission Is An Exercise In Futility and U.S. Will Never Have A Balanced Budget Ever Again - 





In a surprise move, the co-chairs of Barack Obama’s national debt commission released their preliminary proposals to the media on Wednesday.  The proposals are actually quite modest – they recommend that nothing be implemented until 2012 because of the weak economy, and their plan would not balance the federal budget until 2037 – but almost as soon as it was released Democrats and Republicans both started screaming bloody murder about how they would not support it.  The truth is that virtually none of our politicians are willing to make the hard choices that would be necessary to get the national debt under control.  Today, the U.S. national debt is rapidly approaching 14 trillion dollars and it is growing at an exponential rate. It is the single largest debt in the history of the world, and it has increased in size for 53 years in a row.  It would be very difficult to understate the true horror of the debt that the U.S. federal government has accumulated.  So what is the solution?  As you will see below, there isn’t one.  In fact, it will be an absolute miracle if our leaders are able to even slow down the rate at which the debt is growing in the years ahead.
The deficit reduction plan put forward by Erskine Bowles, a former White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, and Alan Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming does not even have support from the rest of Barack Obama’s national debt commission.  There is no way that either most Democrats or most Republicans in Congress will ever accept it.  But at least the Bowles-Simpson plan is making headlines around the world and has brought the national debt back to the center of the political debate in this country.
In some ways, the Bowles-Simpson plan is a complete and total fantasy.  For example, it assumes that the U.S. economy is going to fully recover and will experience solid growth for many years to come.  That simply is not going to happen.  The prosperity of the last couple of decades has been fueled by the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world, and there is no way that is going to continue.  At some point the U.S. economy is going to fall apart like a house of cards.
But even if the U.S. economy could magically meet the projections contained in the Bowles-Simpson plan, it still contains a whole host of “poison pills” which make it completely and totally unacceptable to both political parties….
*The plan calls for deep cuts to U.S. military spending.  The Republicans will never go for that.
*The plan reduces Social Security benefits to most retirees in future decades.  The Democrats will never go for that.
*The plan raises the Social Security payroll tax cap to $190,000.  The Republicans will never go for that.
*The plan envisions a very slow rise in the retirement age from 67 to 68 by 2050 and finally to 69 by 2075.  The Democrats will never go for that.
*The plan includes a “less generous” annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits.  Considering the fact that Social Security benefits are already not going to see an increase this upcoming year, this proposal is likely to upset a large number of seniors.
*The plan calls for the federal tax on gasoline to approximately double by 2015.  The Republicans would never go for that, and if that was ever implemented it would have a very serious negative impact on the economy.
*The plan would eliminate the deductibility of mortgage interest payments.  Millions upon millions of homeowners would be absolutely furious.
*The plan would tax health benefits provided by employers.  That would make millions of people very angry.
*The plan also calls for huge cuts in farm subsidies.  There are a lot less farmers than there used to be, but that would still be extremely unpopular.
But the truth is that hard choices need to be made.  The national debt is spinning wildly out of control.  The U.S. government is essentially bankrupt.Unfortunately, the majority of the federal budget is made up of entitlement programs.  Entitlement programs are not subject to budget freezes or budget cuts – unless Congress changes the underlying laws.  But any change to major entitlement programs would potentially upset millions of voters.
Not that there are not other areas that could be cut.  Today, the average federal worker earns far more than the average private sector worker.  In fact, wages for federal workers have been escalating at a frightening pace.  In 2005, 7420 federal employees were making $150,000 or more per year.  Today, 82,034 federal employees are making $150,000 or more per year.  That is more than a tenfold increase in just five years.
15 Reasons Why Barack Obama’s Debt Commission Is An Exercise In Futility – The U.S. Government Will Never Have A Balanced Budget Ever Again The National Debt
But any major cuts to federal spending are going to really upset a lot of voters, and our politicians really, really like to get re-elected.  The kinds of cuts that are really needed will never get through the Democrats in Congress and the Republicans in Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama.  There are just way too many things that both major political parties consider to be “untouchable”.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government debt continues to explode.  The debt is already so big, interest on that debt is scheduled to escalate so dramatically, and we have made so many unsustainable promises regarding Social Security and Medicare that it is basically impossible to balance the federal budget at this point.  If serious attempts were actually made to balance the budget in 2011, it would likely create a financial panic, and suddenly sucking over a trillion dollars in federal spending out of the system would crash the economy.
The following are 15 facts that reveal just how obscene the U.S. national debt has become, and why it is now basically impossible to balance the budget of the U.S. government at this point….
#1 On average, the U.S. government accumulates about 4 billion dollars more debteach day.
#2 In just the last 30 years the U.S. government has accumulated 12 trillion dollars more debt.
#3 According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.
#4 The U.S. government has to borrow 41 cents of every dollar that it currently spends.
#5 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the annual U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion.
#6 The Congressional Budget Office projects that the health care bill recently passed by Congress will add an additional trillion dollars to our debt over the next ten years.
#7 Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama’s 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.  Any attempt to reduce those payments will make a lot of people very angry.
#8 According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2010 the Social Security systemwill pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes.  That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.
#9 Back in 1950, each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by approximately 16 workers.  Today, each retiree’s Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers.  By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.
#10 According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019.  That is before a single penny is spent on anything else.
#11 Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare falls somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent of GDP each year.  By 2080, they are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.
#12 The present value of projected scheduled benefits exceeds earmarked revenues for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare by about 46 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.
#13 After analyzing Congressional Budget Office data, Boston University economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff concluded that the U.S. government is facing a “fiscal gap” of $202 trillion dollars.
#14 At our current pace, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.
#15 Sometimes we forget just how big a trillion dollars is.  If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.  The U.S. national debt increased by more than a trillion dollars last year, it will increase by more than a trillion dollars this year and it is being projected to increase by more than a trillion dollars the following year.
We are literally drowning in debt.  We have been living beyond our means for decades, and most Americans do not understand that eventually that is really, really going to start catching up with us.
Already, the United States is fading as an economic power.  According to the Conference Board, China will surpass the United States and will become the biggest economy in the world by the year 2012.
That is just two years away.
So how did we get into such a mess?  Well, it all goes back to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.  The Federal Reserve was created to enslave the United States government in an endlessly growing spiral of debt from which it would never be able to escape.
That is exactly what has happened.  Our money is actually debt-based.  That is why they are called “Federal Reserve notes”.  When the Federal Reserve creates more money for the U.S. government to borrow, it does not also create money for the interest to be paid on that debt.  Eventually the U.S. government is forced to borrow even more money just to keep up with the game.
Today, if you gathered up all of the physical currency from every bank, every business and every individual in the United States, you would not even put much of a dent in the national debt.  That is how bad things have gotten.
A lot of people got elected to Congress by promising to balance the federal budget and by promising to start reducing the U.S. national debt.  But those ships have sailed.  The U.S. government will always have a national debt under the Federal Reserve system, and things have gotten so bad financially for our government that it is now virtually impossible to even balance the budget for a single year.
In the 90s, the Clinton administration and the Republican Congress briefly balanced the federal budget by “borrowing” massive amounts of money from the Social Security surplus.  Using GAAP accounting, the budget was not even close to balanced at that point, but many point to that time as a moment when the U.S. government was at least somewhat fiscally responsible.
Well, the Social Security surplus is gone forever.  Now we have a Social Security deficit which is only going to explode in size in future years.
In addition, the financial condition of the U.S. government has deteriorated enormously over the past 10 years, and things only look worse the further you look into the future.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is falling to pieces all around us.  We are experiencing our longest bout of serious long-term unemployment since the Great Depression, 42 million Americans are on food stamps and the United States is being deindustrialized at a pace that is mind blowing.
As America continues to get poorer, the U.S. government is going to really struggle to raise revenue.  But interest payments and financial obligations are projected to escalate wildly.  At this point it is really hard to envision a scenario that does not lead to the eventual financial collapse of the U.S. government.


Read more - http://blacklistednews.com/15-Reasons-Why-Barack-Obama%E2%80%99s-Debt-Commission-Is-An-Exercise-In-Futility-%E2%80%93-The-U.S.-Government-Will-Never-Have-A-Balanced-Budget-Ever-Again-/11437/0/13/13/Y/M.html

Gary Dell'Abate went on "Kimmel" last night -- and he beaned an audience member in the head with a baseball -

Gary Dell'Abate went on "Kimmel" last night -- and he beaned an audience member in the head with a baseball -

Gary Dell'Abate went on "Kimmel" last night -- and finally got a chance to try to make up for that famously terrible first pitch he threw at a Mets game last year ... instead, he beaned an audience member in the head.


Why Is Russia Building 5000 More Nuclear Bomb Shelters In Moscow By The End Of 2012? -

Why Is Russia Building 5000 More Nuclear Bomb Shelters In Moscow By The End Of 2012? -

41 Facts About The History Of Central Banks In The United States That Our Children Are No Longer Taught In School -

41 Facts About The History Of Central Banks In The United States That Our Children Are No Longer Taught In School - 


Today, most American students don’t even understand what a central bank is, much less that the battle over central banks is one of the most important themes in U.S. history.  The truth is that our nation was birthed in the midst of a conflict over taxation and the control of our money.  Central banking has played a key role in nearly all of the wars that America has fought.  Presidents that resisted the central bankers were shot, while others shamefully caved in to their demands.  Our current central bank is called the Federal Reserve and it is about as “federal” as Federal Express is.  The truth is that it is a privately-owned financial institution that is designed to ensnare the U.S. government in an endlessly expanding spiral of debt from which there is no escape.  The Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression and the Federal Reserve is at the core of our current economic crisis.  None of these things is taught to students in America’s schools today.
In 2010, young Americans are taught a sanitized version of American history that doesn’t even make any sense.  As with so many things, if you want to know what really happened just follow the money.
The following are 41 facts about the history of central banks in the United States that every American should know….
#1 As a result of the Seven Years War with France, King George III of England was deeply in debt to the central bankers of England.
#2 In an attempt to raise revenue, King George tried to heavily tax the colonies in America.
#3 In 1763, Benjamin Franklin was asked by the Bank of England why the colonies were so prosperous, and this was his response….
“That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.
In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one.”
#4 The Currency Act of 1764 ordered the American Colonists to stop printing their own money.  Colonial script (the money the colonists were using at the time) was to be exchanged at a two-to-one ratio for “notes” from the Bank of England.
#5 Later, in his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin explained the impact that this currency change had on the colonies….
“In one year, the conditions were so reversed that the era of prosperity ended, and a depression set in, to such an extent that the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployed.”
#6 In fact, Benjamin Franklin stated unequivocally in his autobiography that the power to issue currency was the primary reason for the Revolutionary War….
“The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the prime reason for the Revolutionary War.”
#7 Gouverneur Morris, one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, solemnly warned us in 1787 that we must not allow the bankers to enslave us….
“The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will… They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by (the power of) government, keep them in their proper spheres.”
#8 Unfortunately, those warning us about the dangers of a central bank did not prevail.  After an aborted attempt to establish a central bank in the 1780s, the First Bank of the United States was established in 1791.  Alexander Hamilton (who had close ties to the Rothschild banking family) cut a deal under which he would support the move of the nation’s capital to Washington D.C. in exchange for southern support for the establishment of a central bank.
#9 George Washington signed the bill creating the First Bank of the United States on April 25, 1791.  It was given a 20 year charter.
#10 In the first five years of the First Bank of the United States, the U.S. government borrowed 8.2 million dollars and prices rose by 72 percent.


#11 The opponents of central banking were not pleased.  In 1798, Thomas Jefferson said the following….
“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution – taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.”
#12 In 1811, the charter of the First Bank of the United States was not renewed.
#13 One year later, the War of 1812 erupted.  The British and the Americans were at war once again.
#14 In 1814, the British captured and burned Washington D.C., but the Americans subsequently experienced key victories at New York and at New Orleans.
#15 The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 16th, 1815 and was ratified by the British on February 18th, 1815.
#16 In 1816, another central bank was created.  The Second Bank of the United States was established and was given a 20 year charter.
#17 Andrew Jackson, who became president in 1828, was determined to end the power of the central bankers over the United States.
#18 In fact, in 1832, Andrew Jackson’s re-election slogan was “JACKSON and NO BANK!”
#19 On July 10th, 1832 President Jackson said the following about the danger of a central bank….
“It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners… is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? … Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence… would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy.”
#20 In 1835, President Jackson completely paid off the U.S. national debt.  He is the only U.S. president that has ever been able to accomplish this.
#21 President Jackson vetoed the attempt to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836.
#22 Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot Andrew Jackson, but he survived.  It is alleged that Lawrence said that “wealthy people in Europe” had put him up to it.
#23 The Civil War was another opportunity for the central bankers of Europe to get their hooks into America.  In fact, it is claimed that Abraham Lincoln actually contacted Rothschild banking interests in Europe in an attempt to finance the war effort.  Reportedly, the Rothschilds were demanding very high interest rates and Lincoln balked at paying them.
#24 Instead, Lincoln pushed through the Legal Tender Act of 1862. Under that act, the U.S. government issued $449,338,902 of debt-free money.
#25 This debt-free money was known as “Greenbacks” because of the green ink that was used.
#26 The central bankers of Europe were not pleased.  The following quote appeared in the London Times in 1865….
“If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.”
#27 Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th, 1865.
#28 After the Civil War, all money in the United States was created by bankers buying U.S. government bonds in exchange for bank notes.
#29 James A. Garfield became president in 1881, and he was a staunch opponent of the banking powers.  In 1881 he said the following….
“Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce…and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.”
#30 President Garfield was shot about two weeks later by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2nd, 1881.  He died from medical complications on September 19th, 1881.
#31 In 1906, the U.S. stock market was setting all kinds of records.  However, in March 1907 the U.S. stock market absolutely crashed.  It is alleged that elite New York bankers were responsible.
#32 In addition, in 1907 J.P. Morgan circulated rumors that a major New York bank had gone bankrupt.  This caused a massive run on the banks.  In turn, the banks started recalling all of their loans.  The panic of 1907 resulted in a congressional investigation that ended up concluding that a central bank was “necessary” so that these kinds of panics would never happen again.
#33 It took a few years, but the international bankers finally got their central bank in 1913.
#34 Congress voted on the Federal Reserve Act on December 22nd, 1913 between the hours of 1:30 AM and 4:30 AM.
#35 A significant portion of Congress was either sleeping at the time or was already at home with their families celebrating the holidays.
#36 The president that signed the law that created the Federal Reserve, Woodrow Wilson, later sounded like he very much regretted the decision when he wrote the following….
“A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men … [W]e have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world–no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.”
#37 Between 1921 and 1929 the Federal Reserve increased the U.S. money supply by 62 percent.  This was the time known as “The Roaring 20s”.
#38 In addition, highly leveraged “margin loans” became very common during this time period.
#39 In October 1929, the New York bankers started calling in these margin loans on a massive scale.  This created the initial crash that launched the Great Depression.
#40 Rather than expand the money supply in response to this crisis, the Federal Reserve really tightened it up.
#41 In fact, it was reported the the U.S. money supply contracted by eight billion dollars between 1929 and 1933.  That was an extraordinary amount of money in those days.  Over one-third of all U.S. banks went bankrupt.  The New York bankers were able to buy up other banks and all kinds of other assets for pennies on the dollar.
But are American students being taught any of this today?
Of course not.
In fact, it is a rare student that can even adequately explain what a central bank is.
We have lost so much of what is important about our history.
And you know what they say – those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
It is absolutely critical that we educate as many Americans as possible about what is really going on in our financial system and about why we need to make some truly fundamental changes.
So what is your opinion about central banks?  Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below….

Seven of the nation's 10 richest counties are in the Washington D.C. area -

Seven of the nation's 10 richest counties are in the Washington D.C. area - 



The D.C. area makes plenty of Top 10 lists, and this one shows its residents make the big bucks.
According to a new report from Newsweek, seven of the nation's 10 richest counties are in this region.
Virginia's Loudoun County takes home the top spot, with its median household income exceeding $114,000 per year. Seventeen percent of Loudoun households make more than $200,000, while only 16 percent earn less than the national average household income of $50,000.
The survey, based on 2009 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, names Loudoun neighbor Fairfax County the No. 2 breadwinner in the country. The county was the first in America to hit six figures with its median household income, and more than half its homes make more than that number now.
"Fairfax County has traditionally been home away from home for many diplomats and officials who want to live in a rural community close to Washington, D.C.," Newsweek explains.
Maryland makes its entry onto the list with Howard County at No. 3. Thirty percent of its employed population earns six figures.
The rundown on the rest of this area's well-to-do counties goes like this: Arlington County at No. 5, Montgomery County and its median household income of $94,420 at No. 6 and Maryland's Calvert and Charles counties at Nos. 9 and 10.
The other counties on the list sit close to New York City in either New Jersey or New York state.
Speaking of states, this area takes home the "richest" title in that category, too: Maryland's median household income of $69,272 just edges out second-place state New Jersey.
The full list is below:

    1. Loudoun County, Va.

    2. Fairfax County, Va.

    3. Howard County, Md.

    4. Morris County, N.J.

    5. Arlington County, Va.

    6. Montgomery County, Md.

    7. Nassau County, N.Y.

    8. Somerset County, N.J.

    9. Calvert County, Md.

    10. Charles County, Md.
For the full survey and information from Newsweek, click here.

Locally acquired case of Dengue Fever turns up in Miami - is the first in more than 50 years -

Locally acquired case of Dengue Fever turns up in Miami - is the first in more than 50 years - 


The first locally acquired case of dengue fever in Miami-Dade County in more than 50 years was confirmed Thursday by health officials. They warned people to take precautions against the mosquitoes that carry it.
``This is a big deal,'' said Lillian Rivera, administrator of the Miami-Dade Health Department.
``We have not had a locally acquired case of dengue fever since the 1950s,'' said Dr. Fermin Leguen, the department's chief epidemiologist.
The victim, described only as a man who had not traveled outside Miami-Dade County for more than two weeks, was briefly hospitalized but has fully recovered, Rivera said. His case was confirmed by laboratory tests.
Health officials said they don't know where the man acquired the disease. It was a different strain from the one that has caused 57 locally acquired cases in Key West and one in Broward County.
In an unusual Veterans Day press conference, Miami-Dade health officials also reminded the public that the Florida-wide alert issued in July about Eastern Equine Encephalitis has not been lifted, with four non-fatal human cases reported then in Hillsborough, Wakulla and Leon counties.
Leguen also repeated the warning to local doctors and hospitals to be on the lookout for cholera cases that might be spread by people returning from Haiti, where a cholera epidemic has killed more than 600 people.
And Rivera said efforts by Miami-Dade County and Miami Beach are increasing to handle an outbreak of hookworm spreading on the Atlantic Ocean beach between 40th and 60th streets. Six human cases have been reported. The disease is spread primarily by the feces of dogs and cats.
Asked if her department feels it's under siege, Rivera said, ``It's just part of living. We're ready 24/7 to deal with all that Mother Nature has thrown at us.''

G-20 Refuses to Back U.S. push to get China to let its currency rise, keeping alive the specter of a global trade war -

G-20 Refuses to Back U.S. push to get China to let its currency rise, keeping alive the specter of a global trade war - 


Leaders of 20 majoreconomies on Friday refused to endorse a U.S. push to get China to let its currency rise, keeping alive a dispute that has raised the specter of a global trade war.
At the end of their two-day summit, the leaders of the Group of 20 rich and developing economies -- including President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao -- issued a watered-down statement that only said they agreed to refrain from "competitive devaluation" of currencies.
Such a statement is of little consequence since countries usually only devalue their currenciesin extreme situations like a severe financial crisis.
The real dispute is over Washington's allegations that Beijing resorts to "competitive undervaluation" -- artificially keeping its currency, the yuan, weak to gain a trade advantage. But the U.S. position itself has been undermined by its own recent policy of printing money to boost a sluggish economy, which is weakening the dollar.
The joint statement avoided the words "competitive undervaluation," which was a reference to China's currency policy that had been inserted into a draft of the statement by officials during pre-summit negotiations.
The dispute over whether China and the United States are manipulating their currencies is threatening to resurrect destructive protectionist policies like those that worsened the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The biggest fear is that trade barriers will send the global economy back into recession. A law the United States passed in 1930 that raised tariffs on imports is widely thought to have deepened the Great Depression by stifling trade.
The G-20 leaders pledged to move toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and enhance exchange rate flexibility. Although directed against China, the statement leaves significant room for interpretation since the language is vague and does not impose any timeframe for enforcing a market-determined exchange rate.
The U.S. says a higher-valued yuan would make Chinese exports costlier abroad and make U.S. imports cheaper for the Chinese to buy. It would shrink the U.S. trade deficit with China, which is on track this year to match its 2008 record of $268 billion, and encourage Chinese companies to sell more to their own consumers rather than rely so much on the U.S. and others to buy low-priced Chinese goods.
Other countries are irate over the Federal Reserve's plans to pump $600 billion into the sluggish American economy. They see that move as a reckless and selfish scheme to flood markets with dollars, driving down the value of the U.S. currency and giving American exporters an advantage.
Some critics warn that U.S. interest rates kept too low for too long could inflate new bubbles in the prices of commodities, stocks and other assets. Developing countries like Thailand and Indonesia fear that falling yields on U.S. government bonds will send money flooding their way in search of higher returns. Such emerging markets could be left vulnerable to a crash if investorslater decide to pull out and move their money elsewhere.
Friday's statement is unlikely to immediately resolve the most vexing problem facing the G-20 members: how to fix a global economy that's long been nourished by huge U.S. trade deficits with China, Germany and Japan.
Exports to the United States powered those countries' economies for years. But they've also produced enormous trade gaps for the U.S. because Americans consume far more in foreign goods and services than they sell abroad.