World Affairs Monthly

March 2010

It is very strange how life is so predictable, in some ways.... WAM is about research, not propaganda.... That this is a real deviation from standard practice is pretty obvious.... The American elite puts out their propaganda, their precious propaganda.... And they are willing to pay a high cost to put this propaganda out, they are willing to pay almost any cost.... Yet there is a problem.... We must know what we are talking about if we want to be successful and strong.... Washington however cannot claim that.... So there is a serious problem indeed.... Please do subscribe....

WHO IS GOING TO PAY THE BILLS? (PART TWO):

A CONVERSATION WITH DAVID M. WALKER

“If we follow our current status quo path and we do not reform social insurance programs and we do not re-prioritize and constrain spending, if we tax at historical levels of 18.3% of GDP, and if we manage to borrow the rest, which I believe is unlikely but let's imagine we do manage, and if we only have a 2% increase in interest rates – the only thing the Federal government will be able to do at some point between 2030 and 2040 is pay the interest on the debt,” Dave Walker told me several days ago when I talked to him. He is the recent author of Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility (Random House, New York).

The United States is bankrupt, there is really no doubt about it. Most everyone is in denial, quite obviously.

“We are at a pivotal moment, we have to change course within several years, or it's going to be very bad,” added Walker, who is a former comptroller general of the United States and now the president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in New York City. Compound interest will destroy the United States. According to my theories, by 2020 things will be very bad in the United States, so bad that many people, ordinary people, will be thinking that the world is coming to an end. I believe that the United States suffers from five deficits, and I publish these below. Dave Walker and I discussed at length these five deficits. Click here or on the audio icon above to listen to the editor of World Affairs Monthly interview David M. Walker. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation can be found on the net at www.pgpf.org.

Will anything be done to correct the course? I do not think so. The United States has two important sources of power, financial power [the dollar] and military power [petroleum]. I published these words many months ago in WAM:

The financial power of the United States has taken a hit in 2008. I largely agree with Martin Wolf, and I publish his views below.

The next hit will be on America's military power, and that may not be too far off in the future; it could even be imminent.

The title: THE FINANCIAL [DOLLAR] AND MILITARY [PETROLEUM] POWER OF THE UNITED STATES (PART FIVE)

The URL: http://worldaffairsmonthly.com/showpdfbyid.php?id=1382&pdf=jan2010noteworthy3.pdf

The title: THE FINANCIAL [DOLLAR] AND MILITARY [PETROLEUM] POWER OF THE UNITED STATES (PART FOUR)

The URL: http://worldaffairsmonthly.com/printfriendlybyid.php?id=1367

The title: THE FINANCIAL [DOLLAR] AND MILITARY [PETROLEUM] POWER OF THE UNITED STATES (PART THREE)

The URL: http://worldaffairsmonthly.com/printfriendlybyid.php?id=1334

The title: THE FINANCIAL [DOLLAR] AND MILITARY [PETROLEUM] POWER OF THE UNITED STATES (PART TWO)

The URL: http://worldaffairsmonthly.com/showpdfbyid.php?id=1323&pdf=oct09newsworthy4.pdf

The title: THE FINANCIAL [DOLLAR] AND MILITARY [PETROLEUM] POWER OF THE UNITED STATES

The URL: http://worldaffairsmonthly.com/printfriendlybyid.php?id=1319

Who is going to pay the bills? The American elite [which is now really based in Israel, where they have their “Zionist second homes”] is not going to pay, the American middle classes will pay – via inflation.

The American elite can generally be described as either charlatan or sociopath and/or criminal. These are harsh and shocking words, but I know they are true. This is the realistic perspective. Nothing is going to change in the United States. We are bankrupt.

We do need to change course, this is obvious. I just do not see it happening. What we would need is much more competition and much less government. I published these words in WAM in 2008.

These two policies would correct the dire situation that the United States finds itself in. Instead, what we have is an elite which is firmly established in Washington, and which wants no change, no change whatsoever. But what they do very much want is for their large banks to use extreme leverage [debt] and take big bets in the financial markets – and if the bet goes bad they want the U.S. Treasury to refill their accounts. This is the real thesis of Walker's book, and I publish the important words below, which should have appeared in the first pages of the book and unfortunately they were near the end.

My own theories are by now well-known and well understood. I do think it is more or less hopeless. If you can't pay the bills, then the bills will not be paid, it is that simple. The United States government – Washington – is going to collapse, and anyone who does not think so is certainly delusional. Power is going to be moving away from Washington, and back to where it once was, the localities. World power is thus moving back to the Eastern Hemisphere, where it once was. Everything will be going back to the mean, it's a reversion to the mean. The United States has peaked – for the time being. I do not think anything will change or improve until 2025 or so.... continue

What is never examined and discussed in news publications of the affluent West? What subjects are never broached?

The answer is uncomfortable, as most people recognize. The western media distort the realities of the world, the intricacies of world affairs, and present an image of events which is palatable and acceptable, and which conforms to their image of the world.Their beliefs and perspectives must be defended, and it is precisely this act of self-defense, which is no doubt an agonizing and desperate one, that undermines education and creates distortion....continue

To read a sample of a feature article in World Affairs Monthly Click Here

The editor would like to share a few of his monographs with the readers of World Affairs Monthly. To read...
-- Infrastructure for 21st Century Publishing Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
-- Demographics of the New Mobile Computer Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
-- Asia at the Crossroads Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
....in Chinese Click Here
-- The Destruction of Israel and Zionism Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
-- "Intelligence Collection" in the New Era Click Here
....in Chinese Click Here
....in Russian Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
-- The Seven Inescapable Sources of World War III Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
-- The Logic of the Arab-Israeli Conflict Click Here
....in Arabic Click Here
-- Israel in Retreat and Disintegration Click Here
-- The Martyrdom of Modern Libya Click Here
-- The Revenge of the Arabs Click Here
-- The Reluctant Crusaders Click Here
-- The Power and Pain of Union Click Here
-- From the Dark Continent to the Forgotten Continent Click Here
-- Defending Great Wealth: Africa's Struggle Against
Neocolonialism Click Here
-- The Price of African Unity Click Here
Also visit IslamOnline.net for the editor's two Live Dialogues...
-- "The Escalation of Iraqi Crisis: Who Can Stop the War?" Click Here
-- "The Threat of WMD: Iraq or North Korea?" Click Here