Monday, February 11, 2002

Proposed Bush Increase in Military Spending "There is a United States special forces dog-handler who meets journalists, diplomats and aid workers off the UN flight to Kabul. His job is to search luggage and ensure the security of US troops in Afghanistan. He is short, gingery and aggressive. His skills at persuasion are limited to shouting at the milling crowd: 'Stand back! Stand back! My dog will bite!'" "Last week that phrase had become the defining motto and operating credo for the military and foreign policy of the Bush administration." "The question the rest of the world is asking itself is: Who is the enemy America is arming itself so against? And why?"  "And the aim of this power?" "'The war on terrorism,' says Professor Paul Rogers, of Bradford University's Department of Peace Studies, 'is simply a euphemism for extending US control in the world, whether it is by projecting force through its carriers or building new military bases in central Asia.'" [more] 2:31:59 PM    comment  []

If Japan's economy goes down, will the rest of us fall along with it? The panic spreads ... [more] [via Business Daily News]                       "Japan represents the "largest economic crisis since the 1930s ... " "The world is heading for a once-in-a-century economic crisis ... " " ... with perhaps $11 trillion in savings ... [but] the total on- and off-balance-sheet claims on the household, corporate and government sectors in Japan are about $30 trillion ... six times Japan's $5 trillion GDP. (U.S. public and private debt is $19 trillion, two times GDP.)" " ... being made worse ... [by] deflation ... the most pronounced in the world. ... it can spread ... This would send a price shock into the U.S. and Europe at a time when [the U.S. and Europe] are flirting with deflation." " ... Japan faces a debt bomb at home ... a run on deposits [would cause] an economic contraction [to] sweep America and the globe. ... Japan is the world's main source of capital. ... Japanese banks have already begun to repatriate some of their money." "Paul Volcker ... says that he can't recall in his career a touchier global economic situation. 'The U.S. situation is fragile: The stock market feels good, the short-run outlook is reasonably good, but it is fragile in that it depends on consistent and big imports of foreign capital,' Volcker says. 'This is not going to last forever.'" "Japan has a sovereign credit risk rating of Aa3 with a negative outlook, the worst of any developed nation. ... 'There is no record of any government being able to repay debts equal to several times the annual output of its country in real money. Japan will be no exception.'" "A true solution would likely ... bankrupt more than a third of Japanese companies ... " "When asked if Japan faced the danger of a Russian-style collapse, Shoichiro Toyoda, the honorary chairman of Toyota Motor, says, 'It is already in the middle of one,' but he complains that the country's leaders don't recognize it." 12:44:39 PM    comment  []