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I know my kid is not carrying weapons or explosives. I don't need some Goverment Groper to feel them up to tell me that.

You know that about your kid. Do you know that about my kid? Or are you just assuming that nobody would be evil enough to use their kid as a suicide bomber? (Because if so, that's a bad assumption to make)

There is practically a zero chance that any child (or adult, for that matter) is a terrorist, and they all know whether they're terrorists, so Government Gropers just piss off the 99.9999999% who aren't.

The point is, if you leave a hole open, sooner or later people will exploit that hole.

'Laissez-faire' tactics always win in the end.

Please lookup "the Great Depression" and the "Irish Potato Famine" for superb examples of this.

When China pegs their currency to maintain full industrial utilization they shoot themselves in the foot in a million other ways.

I have to agree that this is what I used to think. However, several things changed my mind. China's escape from the mortgage crisis shows actual thinking effective policy much better than luck. This combines with their recent massive investments in Europe and Africa means that their economy is becoming less US dependent. I believe that they are getting very close to the stage where they will be able to sufficiently compensate for the collapse of the US economy with domestic consumption and non US exports that they survive politically (which is the Chinese government's main aim). The other thing is that the US has effectively ruled out currency devaluation and the Chinese have shown that they are willing to help. I think this will mean that the US dollar's value collapse will be gradual and over many years. The US will bleed dry long before it realises that it needs to restructure and invest to survive and at that point it will be too late.

An interesting statistic to note; China actually exports more to the EU than to the USA!

They will learn. they will be the most hurt by the coming collapse. Which would you rather be 'the issuer of 15 trillion of bad paper , or the holder?

Depends how much money and resources each has left at the end. I think that if the US did a serious devaluation in the next few years then probably they might come out the winners. Beyond that time, China will have spent too much time preparing for this.

China will never be 'invulnerable to outside competition', nor will anybody. The only path to that is North Korea's.

That's not what I was trying to say. Their solar power industry will be immune to competition from other solar power companies. This is similar to other chip busineses

It's nice to know that when corporate interests are threatened, the US Government is more than willing to come to the rescue and do their bidding. Of course, when Goldman Sachs lies, cheats, and defrauds the American people, the US government looks the other way.

Taxpayers Earn +23% on Goldman Sachs TARP Repayment

And you're still thinking 20th century warfare. Who said anything about guns? The grade-school bully used intimidation mostly.

Not that I'm comparing China to grade-school bullies. China is much better at this all this than a grade-schooler.

I'm not saying we haven't also done so for decades. And I'm not trying to keep score of who is right or wrong, and how often. Just pointing out that the world is not all that kind to us, and hasn't been for a long time, whether we deserve it or not. If you think pursuing a policy of behaving better and being kinder to the rest of the world is in our best interest, say so and support those who agree with you. I'm saying that along with a policy of behaving better, we need to also pursue a policy of self-preservation, while trying to avoid doing so in a way that hampers our future prospects. And how to do that, in detail, is beyond me. So be thankful I'm not in power.

SMP Bank has filed all the proper papers and provides the appearance of a bank. But, given that two of the bank council members are kleptocrats, whether or not SMP Bank is a bank is not the question. Are they any more trustworthy than Paypal?

That's a bullshit link. The worst environmentally polluted and damaged place on earth is the Aral Sea. It is worse than that entire list by orders of magnitude.

Read this report (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, and pt 4) and marvel at how enormous this destruction is. Nothing the West has ever done will ever compare to this destruction (except global warming).

That's a bullshit link. The worst environmentally polluted and damaged place on earth is the Aral Sea. It is worse than that entire list by orders of magnitude.

Read this report (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, and pt 4) and marvel at how enormous this destruction is. Nothing the West has ever done will ever compare to this destruction (except global warming).

That's a bullshit link. The worst environmentally polluted and damaged place on earth is the Aral Sea. It is worse than that entire list by orders of magnitude.

Read this report (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, and pt 4) and marvel at how enormous this destruction is. Nothing the West has ever done will ever compare to this destruction (except global warming).

That's a bullshit link. The worst environmentally polluted and damaged place on earth is the Aral Sea. It is worse than that entire list by orders of magnitude.

Read this report (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, and pt 4) and marvel at how enormous this destruction is. Nothing the West has ever done will ever compare to this destruction (except global warming).