The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 12)

p>Perhaps the biggest long-range problem in this country is that we are living beyond our means. We have huge trade and budget deficits. We are financing our budget deficit by selling government bonds, mainly to China, which now owns $1 trillion of our debt, about 6 percent of our GDP. The only reason China and other countries take our money or buy our debt is because the dollar has served two functions since WWII, as our domestic currency and as a WORLD currency. The world demand for dollars soaks up a lot of the excess of money printed by the U.S. Treasury. But we're pushing our luck. The dollar has now declined and the Euro is becoming stronger and more commonly accepted. If the Euro were to begin REPLACING the dollar in international trade, the value of our currency would plummet. China and other countries might start unloading its U.S. debt. We would quickly find ourselves in the position of Argentina or Indonesia, begging for a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund. In this sense, we definitely are printing dollars in order to buy oil. Although the relation is not one-to-one, the only thing that allows us to shell out $160 billion each for oil is the willingness of the Saudi's and China to take our dollars and lend us money. br> -- William Tucker br> Nyack, New York /p>

William Tucker says, "Global warming is an obvious place to start. I know it's mostly hype, but the point is people believe there's a problem so it's time to address it."

p>Really? Who believes there's a problem? Al Gore and the MTV crowd? Maybe a couple of years ago some people believed there was a problem, but these days the average citizen rolls their eyes at the mention of global warming. The libs may have this country fooled on a few issues, but global warming isn't one of them. br> -- Jeff Bruns /p> p> MEATHEADS br> Re: Gregory Conko's Where's the Beef? :

topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Education, Trade, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Earmarks, Sports, Abortion, Global Warming, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, Israel, Conservatism, Energy, Oil