Some economists think we already are becoming a 3rd World country:

[Cal33]

The US dollar has seen value decline. US politicians created economic drama. US defaulting
on debt will affect world. ... A prominent American economist says the US has already become
a Third World economy as the world superpower continues to offshore its gross domestic product.

“America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it. “More small businesses close, as
memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their
parents, who are drawing down their savings to live.”

“With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the
Federal Reserve prints more dollars, the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off
their holdings will rise,” wrote Roberts. ... The economist added that the US neocons who rule
in Washington and their Israeli ally are, however, determined that “Washington start yet more
wars to create Lebensraum for Israel.”

“The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force
the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The
likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on,”
noted Roberts in his article.

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/10/24/331063/us-already-third-world-economy/

Trillions wasted, the public of the world has been impoverished while the multinationals and
oligarchs become fabulously wealthy

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. in some rural areas it already is indeed.

[The Magistrate]

2. Iranian Government TV, Sir, Is Physically Incapable Of Getting It Right....

[OKNancy]

5. thank you

[merrily]

3. I can't agree with this guy, even though I think

we are indeed in danger of becoming a third world country.

But...declining country club memberships = becoming a third world country? Maybe, if you're Thurston Howell. Me, I thought it was things like food banks running out of food.

And I really don't like the smell of that Israel comment.

[OKNancy]

4. Well, this article was written 9 months ago and I think it is overblown

The US is not a third world country. Slowly but surely we are recovering from the recession.
Certainly the income inequality problem needs to be solved, but it's ridiculous to say we are third world.

Plus this part sound kooky to me: The economist added that the US neocons who rule in Washington and their Israeli ally are, however, determined that “Washington start yet more wars to create Lebensraum for Israel.”

[The Magistrate]

6. Yes, Ma'am, That Last Really Does Give The Game Away

Even when they set a premise which is to some degree right, they still get it wrong.

There are ways the our country is beginning to resemble a third world one. Most notable of these is the inequality of wealth and income, which is certainly of similar degree to that which marks third world countries under oligarchic and kleptocratic rule.

But this has nothing to do with fevered imaginings the dollar is soon to collapse and lose its role as a global reserve currency, and the rest of this....

[Cal33]

8. "fevered imaginings the dollar is soon to collapse and lose its role as a global reserve currency,"

I'd like to hear more discussions on this point, as I don't understand much about
economics. And I damned-sure hope the collapse of the dollar isn't going to happen.

[sendero]

17. It's only a "fevered imagination"..

.... for folks who are not paying attention. China, Russia, and several other countries are actively scheming to bypass the dollar in the purchase of many basic commodities. Many are already successful. The "worlds reserve" currency status does not remain intact for countries that insist on debasing their currencies by printing into oblivion. The Fed claims they are not doing so, but everyone knows they are lying.

When the US loses this privileged status the pain begins in earnest. It's only a few years down the road at best.

[Cal33]

18. All we need is to bring back those business regulations and the corporations will have to behave

like good boys again -- the problem will be over. I guess Democrats will have to win both
Houses of Congress in order to have that accomplished.

Corporations are really destroying America for the purpose of personal profit and power.
They are the worst traitors! Nothing could bother their conscience because they don't
have one. Sociopaths will never do anything for the general good of everyone -- but they
can be made to do so because they respect force and fear punishment. Too bad they
have never outgrown that primitive stage of emotional development, which has been
arrested at the stage of a 2-year-old. They're still at the stage of "the terrible twos."

[Cal33]

7. Cheney spoke up for war again in the Middle East just a few days ago. I think Cheney is a

prime example of a right-wing Neo-Con, as is Netanyahu.

[msongs]

9. we currently have government for, by, and of the corporation. no surprise here nt

[whatthehey]

10. So how come we can still sell all the T Bills we want at ultra low interest?

If the world thinks the US is in the toilet and a bad risk, why are they willing, nay eager, to give it their money for 30 yrs for a paltry 3.5%?

[Cal33]

11. Let's see how long it's going to last. I hope it will last for a long, long time.

[whatthehey]

12. It lasted all the way through the Great Recession; I think we're fine at least to the next crisis nt

[Cal33]

13. Don't the corporate execs. know that they are causing the crises, or do they deny it like they

deny global warming? Do they also deny that they are making more and more profits every
year through means both fair and foul, while the rest of the Americans are making less and less?

[whatthehey]

14. Dunno. Probably the latter

Inflation is a paper tiger so far - driving demand by releasing more cash into the C segment makes sense to me but I'm not called Walton, Dimon, or Yellen come to think of it.

[hack89]

15. Paul Craig Roberts was one of the main architects of Reaganomics. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

16. This is of course Presstv, the international propaganda outlet of the Iranian State

If that's a plus to you, so be it.

[TBF]

19. You don't need to be an

economist to see that.

It's sad.