Absolutely right!

"Nobody, no individual nor country, can indefinitely spend more than she or he earns. Two plus two always adds up to four, never five," he said.


(Uless of course yo do what Obama does- print trillions and you end up with the USA peso!)

if memory serves me the last democrat left a surplus budget what happened to it??/

of course they feel the reccession in venezuela, cuba and sweden. it is a GLOBAL RECCESSION. they feel it in the tourist areas of DR and trust me the US is feeling it too. you can blame the newly elected president if you like but this problem has been looming for years now. the only thing that has kept us afloat (since the dotcom boom) has been the housing boom. that is now bust. the US is hemoraging jobs by the millions and i must say it is doubtful if these jobs will return any time soon. the prospects have not been so bleak for our younger generation since the great depression. i read an article recently which said that only 30% of people 20-35 years old have enough income to support themselves. none but the wealthy can afford the cost of a higher education. the cost of every service(especially healthcare) has skyrocketed but the wages of our people has been stagnant. most of the measures taken in the last 25years has had the effect of promoting global capitalism at the expence of our own workers. distribution of wealth has not been to this level since the roaring 20's. our manufacturing jobs were exported for the sake of profit, deregulation and lasse-faire treatment of business and financing have contributed to the decline if not the end to our middleclass. we now lead the world in one thing only, the manufacturing of weapons that we flood the world with, making the future of our next generation even more bleak. i have had to lay off 4 from my workforce. i now work twice as hard for half the money. the help wanted pages of my local newspaper that last year was three pages full now has about 8 positions, all in healthcare and the service industry. i do not see any way the people who were formerly employed by me have any chance at a future.

Interestingly enough not only did no one comment on that simple comment but it did not nor was it intended to ruffle feathers. The majority of posts aren't even about Haiti.

Pure fiction. France and its problems led to the events of 1968 - much of France was living in the dark ages while Marshall money bought Americans big castles. Of course the US government had a problem what to do with labour released from the war effort - why not use it to manipulate Europe?
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=911
Of couse the US wanted social spending to stop the flow of communism.
"
In 1950 with a certain equilibrium apparently achieved, U.S. officials, still primarily concerned with long term political stability, felt able to push the Georges Bidault government toward greater consumerism and social spending (low-cost housing, schools and hospitals, higher wages). These measures were intended to weaken popular support for the French Communist Party. The French government still hesitated to divert resources away from productive investment for social spending, and it responded to American pressure by stalling, which only increased after the outbreak of the Korean War.
"
So we are being silly are we not?
S.

American Democrats learn what???? Based on their track record, tax and spend big gov. is all they know. Keep printing that money Obama, until the DR peso is equal to the USA dollar

There are many reasons whay the USA is a has been power. The jobs were not "exported" as such. In a global village the jobs went to people willing to work harder for less.

Why pay a highschool drop out in the USA $72 per hour to put 4 bolts on a car that will never last or run right?

We have a buy now pay later culture shift in the 1960's - I remember the first signs in stores - and that ME/NOW generation used credit to get a certian lifestyle their grandparents on famrs never dreamed of. Now the loansharks are calling in the chits. The USA is screwed in so many ways and the socialism of Obama and his buddies just makes the ship sink soooner.

Picture this: The USA Titianic hist the iceburg. The Captain resigns and an election is held. To loonies run -anyone who wants to be Captian now is crazy - and Obama wins. He looks at the gash on he right - and the cold debt swamping the ship and promptly and with great speeches steers the ship into another iceburg on the left.

So the ship will sink, but sooner than expected.

I really am curious. On a personal level, why the viceral hatred of the USA? What happened to you?

[QUOTE=cabaretewilliam]
[QUOTE=benforpeace]
[QUOTE=Blutarsky]
Cuba Moving in the Opposite Direction


As the US government takes steps like government controls of major industries and attempting to hijack 1/5th of the economy via health care reform, another country is moving in quite the opposite direction during this global recession.

Cuba’s workplace cafeterias are closing, President Raúl Castro keeps saying the well-off shouldn’t get the same subsidies as the poor, and now there are rumblings that one of the stalwart vestiges of the revolution — the ration booklet — has outlived its usefulness.

As the Cuban government struggles through a deep recession, its leaders have begun picking away at socialism in order to save it. But experts say the latest buzz by the Cuban government is simply another desperate fix to stem the slide of a failed economy that buckled long ago.


Since he took office early last year, Raúl Castro has been saying that the country’s severely battered economy needs fixing. In a widely quoted August speech, Castro said Cuba was spending more than it made.

"Nobody, no individual nor country, can indefinitely spend more than she or he earns. Two plus two always adds up to four, never five," he said. "Within the conditions of our imperfect socialism, due to our own shortcomings, two plus two often adds up to three."

In the 18 months since he took office, Castro restructured the nation’s agricultural system to give idle land to farmers, hoping they would revive a deeply troubled state-run agricultural industry plagued by inefficiency. He also allowed taxi drivers to have private licenses; many were working illegally anyway.

How do you get farmers to do more farming? Create an incentive to do so, like a profit motive, long reviled by liberals and one of the reasons they believe health insurance needs reform. Socialism costs more than the benefits to society.

Hugo Chavez was, no doubt, convinced that the oil profits he absconded with would pay for his socialist paradise, but that very socialism chases away the people he soaks off of. Combined with the global recession, food shortages continue in Venezuela’s "paradise".

The profit motive gives people an incentive to put their own time & money at risk to provide a service to those who need it. If not enough folks need it, it’s not subsidized by the government (or shouldn’t be); it folds. If it is useful to enough people, it prospers, and, rightfully, so does the owner who bore the risk. Wealth is created in this system, not simply "spread around", as Obama infamously said to Joe the Plumber.

Wealth was spread around in Venezuela, Cuba, and even Sweden, and now the piper must be paid. In the latter two, changes are being made in a more capitalist direction. Let’s hope Venezuelans learn that lesson.

[B]Heck, let’s hope American Democrats learn it.[/B]
[/QUOTE]
if memory serves me the last democrat left a surplus budget what happened to it??/
[/QUOTE]

American Democrats learn what???? Based on their track record, tax and spend big gov. is all they know. Keep printing that money Obama, until the DR peso is equal to the USA dollar
[/QUOTE]
Americans love subsidies:
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200502080732.asp
The production of fuel ethanol from corn in the United States is controversial for a few reasons. Production of ethanol from corn is 5 to 6 times less efficient than producing it from sugarcane. Ethanol production from corn is highly dependent upon subsidies and it consumes a food crop to produce fuel.[44] The subsidies paid to fuel blenders and ethanol refineries have often been cited as the reason for driving up the price of corn, and in farmers planting more corn and the conversion of considerable land to corn (maize) production which generally consumes more fertilizers and pesticides than many other land uses.[44] This is at odds with the subsidies actually paid directly to farmers that are designed to take corn land out of production and pay farmers to plant grass and idle the land, often in conjunction with soil conservation programs, in an attempt to boost corn prices. Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production and commercialization may allay some of these concerns. A theoretically much more efficient way of ethanol production has been suggested to use sugar beets which make about the same amount of ethanol as corn without using the corn food crop especially since sugar beets can grow in less tropical conditions than sugar cane.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel

Intervention and controls are probably necessary. If there is a glut then the farmer does not get his reward. Some operators will be able to force others out of business in a completely free market - then limit the production to force up the price.
For example in S. America landowners let land lie fallow then make huge proftis importing food. In countries like the DR Huge tracts are growing palm oil for export while the DR has to import feed for chicken etc. Intervention to support sensible entrepreneurship is the key.
For many years the UK had Potato Marketing Board to stabilize price and acreage under potatoes. Many economists thought it worked well. Huge land price explosion under Conservatives doubled prices and created monopolies in this area. And there are problems in Europe potato production.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=27521&cat_id=1
Of course from the farmers point of view he finds he doesn't get enought for his potatoes one year so he plants something else along with all the other farmers. Prices the go sky high and the following year all the farmers plant more potatoes........



Rising potato prices spark consumer complaint
By Constantine Markides

AT 45 to 55 cents per kilo, potatoes in Cyprus have roughly doubled in price compared to last August’s 25 cents per kilo price. Complaints among buyers have prompted the Agriculture Minister to hold a meeting tomorrow with agriculture officials and representatives of the potato farmers to examine the price increase.

A Cyprus Potato Marketing Board official told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that prices are always higher in late summer because potato production ends in June and farmers must compensate for refrigeration and other storage costs.

“There was also reduced production this year as well as increased exports of Cyprus potatoes because of the potato shortages in other countries,” he said, adding that floods in Europe followed by high temperatures led to reduced production.

The official said that last year was “catastrophic” for potato farmers due to over-production and that consumers may have “grown accustomed to eating at lower prices”, which would explain the public outcry at the price increase.

In an effort to secure a bailout package from the government for the losses they suffered in the export market for two consecutive years, the potato farmers staged a number of protests this past winter, including a march from the Larnaca Rizoelia roundabout to the Presidential, the blocking of the Dekelia highway with tractors, and a lie-in blockade of the Rizoelia-roundabout, which led to the mass arrest of 54 potato farmers.

Head of the potato farmer’s association Nicos Vasilas told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the 8 or 9 cents that potato producers were paid last year was less than their production cost.

“The prices we are selling at now – around 33 or 33 cents per kilo – are not unreasonably high considering our production costs and storage costs like refrigeration,” Vasilas said. “It’s just that last year we didn’t make even one cent. It was the most catastrophic year for potato producers.”

But Vasilas also claimed that the middlemen – those who sell the potatoes to the public – are profiteering and should be investigated by the government.

The potato farmers head said that sellers often gouge consumers by charging them exorbitant amounts over their purchase cost, not only with potatoes but also with other vegetables such as onions, which he said are sold in a certain supermarket for 79 cents when they are purchased for 17 to 20 cents.

Potato production begins in November and ends in late June. Most of the potatoes on the market today were harvested in May and early June.

Potato producers have faced some increased costs this year due to higher fuel costs as well as a reduction in water subsidies from the government, something that is set to be discussed in the meeting tomorrow.

Former UK Director of the Cyprus Potato Marketing Board Akis Joannides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the high prices reflect the international shortage of potatoes.

“It’s simply a matter of supply and demand: when availability is far less than demand then prices go sky high,” Joannides said. “All of Europe is facing a potato shortage right now. In England potatoes are very expensive. All of the Cyprus potatoes sold out right away.”

Joannides predicted that the price of potatoes would continue to increase next month because there will be no new potato production until November. This of course will translate to a good year for potato farmers.

“Last year they [the potato producers] lost their pants,” Joannides said. “But this year they should do very well.”


S.