David Walker, Comptroller General of the US
The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”. These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Walker said he had mentioned some of the issues before but now wanted to “turn up the volume”. Some of them were too sensitive for others in government to “have their name associated with”.
| I’ve thought the same thing for a number of years. Will anybody listen to this guy? |
| Found by Watcher. |
Sounds to me that Mr.Walker knows some things about money and therefore assumes he knows just as much about history because he read some where we are like the Roman Empire. Parallels from istory are chancy at best and the closets analogy to our times is farther back to when Athens was a dominant power thru trade not to mention that Roman was ruled by 300 famalies thru both the Republic and the Empire with no hint of a democracy at any times. Of course the modus operandi, to keep the italian theme, of this admnstration is to create fear to be able to justify there decision making, or lack there of…….
On another level…………What the F….k does a accountant know about history.
You guys don’t get it. The peak of the American Empire was in the 1950’s. Since then, downhill…
Our cars are too big, our houses are too big, our clothes are too big.
Our fame is our consumption – Greediest, Fattest, Laziest people on the planet.
Our area of creativity seems to be in developing and promoting Financial Shenanigans. Find a way to put Other Peoples Money in your own pocket.
In the health care area, the US is at best no better than many third world countries. While spending more than any other country on earth.
For every 1 college graduate in the US, there are 4 in China and 3.5 in India. It is just a matter of time before the US is just another backwater country.
One chinease diplomat when asked what his dreams for the next 20 years for China said: “I look forward to the day when my grandson has an american houseboy”
Hopsing, it will be sooner than you think.
PS – Unfunded liabilities is the catchphrase for our downfall. Think social security and medicare, to the tune of $6 Trillion and $30 Trillion. And that’s before Bush’s drug program piled on…
What happens to the baby boomers when their grandkids refuse to pay.. If I was the grandkid, I’d think seriously about moving to Canada, Austrailia or New Zealand. Why hang around the US and watch the old farts spend my money.
“There is no civility, only politics” – Senator Palpatine
#35 Brock
Your comments are almost bizarre:
1. American work weeks are longest among the industrialized world and American productivity is among the highest.
2. The US has been a leading recipient of Nobel prices for years, which is nothing but a clear demonstration of creativity. The PC & Mac and Internet were invented in the US, probably the most important inventions in the last 50 years. The US GDP is $13 Trillion, what % is a shenanigan, like sub-primes? Almost none
3. Considering that China and India are 3-4 times larger than us, why wouldn’t they have more graduates, unless they had a problem? Further, among the top 200 universities in the world, how many are in China & India versus the US. Quality not just quantity.
4. Your China comments sound like what everyone said about Japan Inc. in the 80s and it turned out to be incredible BS. The fact is that China has significant structural problems with its economy and in particular its banking system with an enormous number of bad loans to a bankrupt state economic sector, a system that may end up making the US sub-prime mess look like a picnic. Japan’s economy went upside down for more than 10 years and China’s is a much bigger mess.
5. The only reason that this Chinese ambassador would ever get an American houseboy is that he made so much money off his government position that he can afford one.
6. Unfunded liabilities: your only salient point. We give the Republicans Congress & the Presidency and rather than rationalizing the system, they get us into a stupid war, go crazy with earmarks and leverage up the federal government with tax cuts and spending increases. It appears that the only thing they can do is go to church and talk about God more than the Pope, as if He’ll help them. Now we’re stuck with asking the Dems to do it. Dems fixing Soc. Sec: We can only hope this will be like Nixon going to China.
#37. your #4 is a good point – I recall how Japan was going to eat the US’s lunch back in the 80s and everyone was falling all over themselves to study Japan, Inc.
then came Japan’s decade-long stagnation.
oops.
China has some REAL structural problems, and sooner or later they will come home to roost.
>>We also have a great modern day Caesar in George
>>Bush – strong, wise and our spiritual leader.
Tee hee! That comment is one of the strongest arguments I can think of to “just say no” to drugs. I can only assume that you’re on crack or suffering from alcohol poisoning; I certainly hope nobody in their right and sober mind would ever make a crackpot remark like this.
Fuck the Roman Empire; with all the Republican holy-roller Jesus-pimping hypocrites in Washington, it’s more likely we’re going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We’re all gonna die.
#31, doug,
best comment yet.
*
#37 Rob,
A good comment. Just some additional thoughts though,
1), American worker productivity is not the best in the world. Good, but not the best. It has been shown repeatedly that workers from other industrialized countries working far fewer hours accomplish as much or more with less stress. The demand to expect more for less is the drive behind this; when employees are well treated they perform better.
2), Winning the Nobel Prize is an accomplishment. The leading winner used to be Germany up until WWII. The combinations of free will, academic independence, and government financing has led to most modern disoveries.
The computer used inventions from other countries and is more of an evolution than a strict invention. Also, it is not the invention or discovery that counts the most, it is the uses that may be found for it. ie, the British invented RADAR, but an American company converted it to the microwave oven.
3), Very good point.
4), I agree to a point. China has only been in capitalist mode for 25 years. They may stumble some, but as yet they are too fragmented for one sector to bring down the whole economy. Contrast that to your #2, about sub-primes. The ripple effect could cause enough problems to seriously damage the entire financial industry. In turn, that would hurt the rest of the country.
5), LOL, agreed, with a big smile.
6), I don’t think it possible to agree more.