Friday, January 30, 2009

The world says "how the hell are you going to pay for that?!"

Isn't it funny that the only people concerned about actually funding our pork-laden "stimulus" packages are those outside our borders. This, coming from recent statements from Obama declaring that "this is only the beginning" and further stating the current bill is only a down payment on the eventual downfall of this country.

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As the U.S. Congress looks for ways to expand President Barack Obama's $819 billion economic stimulus package, the rest of the world has an urgent message to convey: Tell us how you are going to pay for it without drowning the world in debt.

Few observers here at the World Economic Forum debate the need to restart America, the world's largest economy, with a package that could hit $1 trillion over two years. But the long-term danger of increased borrowing by the U.S. government, and its potential to drive up inflation and interest rates around the world, seems to be getting more attention in Switzerland than in Washington.

"The U.S. needs to show some proof they have a plan to get out of the fiscal problem," said Ernesto Zedillo, the former Mexican president who helped steer his country through a financial crisis of its own in 1994. "We, as developing countries, need to know we won't be crowded out of the capital markets, which is already happening."

Unlike other countries in a financial jam, Zedillo added, Washington has the option of simply printing more money, since the dollar is a reserve currency for the rest of the world. But over the long run that could force long-term interest rates higher and drive down the value of the dollar, undermining the unique benefits that come with the U.S. currency's special status.

Until now, most of the fears about surging government debt have focused on borrowing by European countries like Spain, Greece and especially Britain, which is in the midst of its own huge bank bailout. That recently pushed the pound to a 23-year low against the dollar, and prompted some Londoners to wonder whether their city was turning into "Reykjavik-on-Thames" - an allusion to Iceland's financial meltdown.

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