Jim,
I read your commentary today; I’ve never ever had a very good crystal ball, but any good analysis could see what’s coming long term… Sorry for being long winded… I’m up late working on a project and some of what I’ve been reading in the news has been troubling me…
It’s the [Chinese President Hu [Jintao] visit… With the Chinese economy growing at double-digits and their defense budget growing at double digits and they being the four largest economy in the world. I found an interesting piece in Defense Industry Daily.
It’s only a matter of time…
We gave them the technology and ability to launch missiles (to save the U.S. a few dollars in launching themselves)… God know what else we probably gave them… We continue to fund their double digit growth… Almost every corporation in America is making them the world’s economic leader… China is buying up American farm land… China is funding our T-Bills, etc… “The borrow is the servant of the lender”… Look at everything you buy in the store these days (where is it being manufactured)…
With the baby boomers going into retirement starting in 2012 the country will no longer have the surplus to fund corporate growth. As the trillion dollar debt continues to grow it will rear it’s ugly head…
With the U.S. not being the manufacturing based economy that saved us in WWII… We are left to being a paper tiger, intoxicated on oil without having that as an in-the-pocket resource… Oil which we are at the mercy of obtaining from very unstable sources…
The U.S. needs to encourage growth in other countries such as Brazil, Indian, Mexico, rather than fund this double digit growth… The U.S. also saw hard times in the 1970s… similar prediction were there, but with deterrence and containment and excellent leadership in high places we overcame those difficulties… We saw the iron curtain fall and with a little prayer we may see the bamboo curtain fall also. It would be great to see China become a leader of the free world… they’re already good capitalist and hard workers. Their people need to see the tremendous value of freedom…
Enuf said… My prayer is that we will die watching our grandchildren grow up in freedom under a good government and that our leaders will actively plan for our future success rather than burying their heads in the sand. – John Z.