The new face of US Warfare
Zeynab Ali October 30, 2003
#43 Posted by Urstruly on November 2, 2003 5:52:27 am
SR
Could anything be more disturbing than this:
In year 2000 the foreign investment in US was about 314 billion dollars. In year 2003 until last month this investment was 13 billion dollars. This raises a serious question. Have the riches stopped flowing to America for good?
Could anything be more disturbing than this:
In year 2000 the foreign investment in US was about 314 billion dollars. In year 2003 until last month this investment was 13 billion dollars. This raises a serious question. Have the riches stopped flowing to America for good?
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#42 Posted by Urstruly on November 2, 2003 4:42:21 am
ahmadzai
I think you are on some sort of funny cigarettes. That`s ok; we will talk when you will start feeling better.
I think you are on some sort of funny cigarettes. That`s ok; we will talk when you will start feeling better.
#41 Posted by SR on November 2, 2003 12:59:48 am
sorry... the second half of the response #40 is to arjun_m
[“… the GDP grew by 7.2%… There are ways to verify … people working for the government … don`t come and go with each administration…”]
[“… the GDP grew by 7.2%… There are ways to verify … people working for the government … don`t come and go with each administration…”]
#40 Posted by SR on November 2, 2003 12:54:41 am
stuka #27 [“…America …not bound to any ideology… Republican ideology has … temporary favor in an uncertain time. … the pendulum will swing back… “]
Et tu, stuka? I didn’t expect you to have bought into the so-called Republican vs Democrat circus. Do you really believe they are anything more than just two wings of the One Ruling Party?? They are like the Tories and Whiggs of the Victorian era. They are both dogs but with different fleas.
The RepublicRats, that is, both, Republicans and Democrats, like to promote the fiction that the US Republic is, god-forbid, a democracy of the people. In reality it is the best democracy that money can buy and it is a government of the corporations, for the corporations and by the corporations. Both wings of the RepublicRats party serve their corporate agendas by promoting the Welfare State and the Warfare State. Both welfare and warfare are pushed under the garb of being for the good of the people. In fact, both welfare and warfare serve only corporate interests and strengthen and expand the central governmental authority while at the same time having the direct negative effect of diminishing individual liberty.
The United States was found, and built, on the principles of liberty. That’s what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are all about. Individual liberty was held as the highest ideal and government was small and uninstrusive. Unfortunately these principles are no longer understood by the majority of people, who, in their transformation from being citizens to becoming consumers, have slowly gotten accustomed to sacrificing liberty for pseudo security – a very bad deal. I believe that we should question anyone and anything that infringe on liberty. It’s a matter of principle. Governments across the globe should never become immune to scrutiny and individuals should never lose the ability to question authority, especially authority that is unilaterally imposed, as are most government programs and, in fact, for most part, government itself. I am not just critical of the US government, but also critical of the entire political structure as it currently exists, including every government in the world. It would serve us well to remind ourselves what the Founding Fathers believed in, which is what I wish we would all believe in. If there was a place on this earth where we could live in a laissez faire society that abides by the two fundamental principles common to most law, and most religions as well, that what you say you will do (contract law) and you won’t infringe on the property of others (tort law), I would be there in a flash.
[“… the GDP grew by 7.2%… There are ways to verify … people working for the government … don`t come and go with each administration…”]
Are you implying that if Clinton (and not Baby Bush) was in the White House these biased critics on Chowk would not be skeptical? What’s the difference, they are both psychopathic lying criminals… Let’s not forget that it was Ruben and Greenspan who started this crime wave of creating financial bubbles by unlimited credit expansion to get Slick Willie re-elected in 1994. Baby Bush is simply too stupid to have originated this ponzy scheme. He just tackled Gore and took the ball that Clinton passed and is running with it, going for his own touch-down. In the ultimate analysis it matters little who occupies the White House.
Let’s talk about the economic miracle.
I looked out of my window and saw that pigs were flying after all and that the GDP was growing at a break-neck 7.2%… Who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? But, wait a minute… did we miss something?
First of all, for the benefit of those who may not be aware, let us clarify that ALL quarterly figures reported by Uncle Sam are annualized. Europe, on the other hand, reports quarterly rates not their annual extrapolations. So if ECB says that there was 1% growth in the last quarter that would mean the annual rate is 4%, but when Uncle Sam says last quarter was 4%, it simply means that the actual growth in the quarter was 1%. I have been horrified to observe that many well educated people do not understand this elementary concept.
Now let’s turn to the 1.8% GDP growth in Q3 that would, if it remains constant, translate to a 7.2% annual growth.
I have not been able to dissect the numbers as yet so I cannot give details, but a few elementary observations need to be made.
It is naïve to say that the government does not lie. This is a country in a state of war and this government under earlier administrations during wartime has long history of telling all kinds of lies and has justified them under the rubric of National Security. The difference is that now lies have become so sophisticated that they are not even called lies any more. They are called spin.
In the second quarter, for instance, more than half of the 3.3% GDP was directly related to defense and the Iraq war. That left about 1.7% (annualized: remember) non-war related “growth.” Dissecting those numbers we discover that a chunk of it was due to investment in computers, which soared by $38.4 billion. But, in reality, the vast majority of that computer investment never occurred. Given the bizarre way government statistics are compiled, nobody actually paid anything and nobody received anything. That`s because Washington measures computer investment by calculating how much it would have cost in 1996 to buy a computer of equivalent power to today`s machines. On the $38.4 billion in increased computer investment, therefore only about $6 billion was real spending. The other $32 billion was a statistical construct, which is just a fancy way of saying that it wasn`t real. Without that false comfort, we would have been looking at a second-quarter growth not of 3.3 percent, but something under 2 percent -- and most of that attributable to defense spending. Profits told the same story, down $31 billion from the first quarter. Now in the latest quarter with its miracle number of 7.2%, we see that 41,000 jobs were lost. And this job loss number, by the way is NOT annualized. The annualized number would be 164,000.
It is absolutely amazing how effective this smoke-and-mirrors campaign touting ``economic recovery`` has been so far. It is even more amazing how ignorant and gullible the public is when it comes to being (willingly?) fooled by the nexus of government propaganda and Wall Street marketing machine.
Here I have not mentioned (though elsewhere I did) the hedonic factor that the government statisticians employ to make $6 billion look like 38.4 billion. The army of statisticians employed by the government is constantly revising their methodology, ostensibly to keep up with a changing world.
Following is the latest schedule of release of Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts.
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn/2003benchmark/CR2003Schedule.htm
Go look it up yourself. There is also a Review of Comprehensive Revision of National Income and Product Accounts, Statistical Changes
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/ARTICLES/2003/09September/0903NIPAPreview.pdf
They even regularly change definitions.
An example of a definitional change is the recognition of computer software as capital investment (from being previously defined as business expense) in the 1999 comprehensive revision. In the 2003 comprehensive revision, the recognition of implicit services provided by property and casualty insurance and the allocation of a portion of the implicit services of commercial banks to borrowers represent other examples of definitional changes.
Lastly, I’d like to add that when you have actual (as opposed to statistically enhanced) growth of 7.2%, there is a palpable energy on the streets. I don’t get out much so maybe I have missed that vibrant throb of economic growth. But do you feel it?
…SR
Et tu, stuka? I didn’t expect you to have bought into the so-called Republican vs Democrat circus. Do you really believe they are anything more than just two wings of the One Ruling Party?? They are like the Tories and Whiggs of the Victorian era. They are both dogs but with different fleas.
The RepublicRats, that is, both, Republicans and Democrats, like to promote the fiction that the US Republic is, god-forbid, a democracy of the people. In reality it is the best democracy that money can buy and it is a government of the corporations, for the corporations and by the corporations. Both wings of the RepublicRats party serve their corporate agendas by promoting the Welfare State and the Warfare State. Both welfare and warfare are pushed under the garb of being for the good of the people. In fact, both welfare and warfare serve only corporate interests and strengthen and expand the central governmental authority while at the same time having the direct negative effect of diminishing individual liberty.
The United States was found, and built, on the principles of liberty. That’s what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are all about. Individual liberty was held as the highest ideal and government was small and uninstrusive. Unfortunately these principles are no longer understood by the majority of people, who, in their transformation from being citizens to becoming consumers, have slowly gotten accustomed to sacrificing liberty for pseudo security – a very bad deal. I believe that we should question anyone and anything that infringe on liberty. It’s a matter of principle. Governments across the globe should never become immune to scrutiny and individuals should never lose the ability to question authority, especially authority that is unilaterally imposed, as are most government programs and, in fact, for most part, government itself. I am not just critical of the US government, but also critical of the entire political structure as it currently exists, including every government in the world. It would serve us well to remind ourselves what the Founding Fathers believed in, which is what I wish we would all believe in. If there was a place on this earth where we could live in a laissez faire society that abides by the two fundamental principles common to most law, and most religions as well, that what you say you will do (contract law) and you won’t infringe on the property of others (tort law), I would be there in a flash.
[“… the GDP grew by 7.2%… There are ways to verify … people working for the government … don`t come and go with each administration…”]
Are you implying that if Clinton (and not Baby Bush) was in the White House these biased critics on Chowk would not be skeptical? What’s the difference, they are both psychopathic lying criminals… Let’s not forget that it was Ruben and Greenspan who started this crime wave of creating financial bubbles by unlimited credit expansion to get Slick Willie re-elected in 1994. Baby Bush is simply too stupid to have originated this ponzy scheme. He just tackled Gore and took the ball that Clinton passed and is running with it, going for his own touch-down. In the ultimate analysis it matters little who occupies the White House.
Let’s talk about the economic miracle.
I looked out of my window and saw that pigs were flying after all and that the GDP was growing at a break-neck 7.2%… Who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? But, wait a minute… did we miss something?
First of all, for the benefit of those who may not be aware, let us clarify that ALL quarterly figures reported by Uncle Sam are annualized. Europe, on the other hand, reports quarterly rates not their annual extrapolations. So if ECB says that there was 1% growth in the last quarter that would mean the annual rate is 4%, but when Uncle Sam says last quarter was 4%, it simply means that the actual growth in the quarter was 1%. I have been horrified to observe that many well educated people do not understand this elementary concept.
Now let’s turn to the 1.8% GDP growth in Q3 that would, if it remains constant, translate to a 7.2% annual growth.
I have not been able to dissect the numbers as yet so I cannot give details, but a few elementary observations need to be made.
It is naïve to say that the government does not lie. This is a country in a state of war and this government under earlier administrations during wartime has long history of telling all kinds of lies and has justified them under the rubric of National Security. The difference is that now lies have become so sophisticated that they are not even called lies any more. They are called spin.
In the second quarter, for instance, more than half of the 3.3% GDP was directly related to defense and the Iraq war. That left about 1.7% (annualized: remember) non-war related “growth.” Dissecting those numbers we discover that a chunk of it was due to investment in computers, which soared by $38.4 billion. But, in reality, the vast majority of that computer investment never occurred. Given the bizarre way government statistics are compiled, nobody actually paid anything and nobody received anything. That`s because Washington measures computer investment by calculating how much it would have cost in 1996 to buy a computer of equivalent power to today`s machines. On the $38.4 billion in increased computer investment, therefore only about $6 billion was real spending. The other $32 billion was a statistical construct, which is just a fancy way of saying that it wasn`t real. Without that false comfort, we would have been looking at a second-quarter growth not of 3.3 percent, but something under 2 percent -- and most of that attributable to defense spending. Profits told the same story, down $31 billion from the first quarter. Now in the latest quarter with its miracle number of 7.2%, we see that 41,000 jobs were lost. And this job loss number, by the way is NOT annualized. The annualized number would be 164,000.
It is absolutely amazing how effective this smoke-and-mirrors campaign touting ``economic recovery`` has been so far. It is even more amazing how ignorant and gullible the public is when it comes to being (willingly?) fooled by the nexus of government propaganda and Wall Street marketing machine.
Here I have not mentioned (though elsewhere I did) the hedonic factor that the government statisticians employ to make $6 billion look like 38.4 billion. The army of statisticians employed by the government is constantly revising their methodology, ostensibly to keep up with a changing world.
Following is the latest schedule of release of Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts.
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn/2003benchmark/CR2003Schedule.htm
Go look it up yourself. There is also a Review of Comprehensive Revision of National Income and Product Accounts, Statistical Changes
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/ARTICLES/2003/09September/0903NIPAPreview.pdf
They even regularly change definitions.
An example of a definitional change is the recognition of computer software as capital investment (from being previously defined as business expense) in the 1999 comprehensive revision. In the 2003 comprehensive revision, the recognition of implicit services provided by property and casualty insurance and the allocation of a portion of the implicit services of commercial banks to borrowers represent other examples of definitional changes.
Lastly, I’d like to add that when you have actual (as opposed to statistically enhanced) growth of 7.2%, there is a palpable energy on the streets. I don’t get out much so maybe I have missed that vibrant throb of economic growth. But do you feel it?
…SR
#39 Posted by arjun_m on November 1, 2003 3:44:10 pm
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#38 Posted by arjun_m on November 1, 2003 3:21:40 pm
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#37 Posted by Ahmadzai on November 1, 2003 12:05:00 pm
Urstruly:
``I wouldn`t mind if the economy stays lousy for almost one more year, otherwise there is greater chance that this anti-Muslim bigot and butcher will get elected for another term. Just imagine the extent of damage that he will do not only to Muslims but his own country. ``
Since you are living in the USA, would you like to tell me whether Democrats in power will continue to treat Pakistan as their strategic partners?
I hope they will not be misguided by a few extremists in Pakistan who carry OBL pictures and burn American flags. Being an extreme minority, they can never expect to come to power in Pakistan. They will always remain sidelined and in their frustration resolve to unethical acts. Its unlike India, where the terrorists have been elected to power and are being supported by all Indians. These terrorists kill innocent Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs then go into hibernation, then return after long sleep and revert to their abhorable ways of killing the innocents.
However, in Pakistan, mostly the people want Pakistan to be an Islamic state without Mullas and an active overseeing by military. This automatically ensures that extremists will remain a minority here and cut off from all entries into the Government. But the damage is done by the western media by portrayal of the extremists unduly and unnecessarily.
``I wouldn`t mind if the economy stays lousy for almost one more year, otherwise there is greater chance that this anti-Muslim bigot and butcher will get elected for another term. Just imagine the extent of damage that he will do not only to Muslims but his own country. ``
Since you are living in the USA, would you like to tell me whether Democrats in power will continue to treat Pakistan as their strategic partners?
I hope they will not be misguided by a few extremists in Pakistan who carry OBL pictures and burn American flags. Being an extreme minority, they can never expect to come to power in Pakistan. They will always remain sidelined and in their frustration resolve to unethical acts. Its unlike India, where the terrorists have been elected to power and are being supported by all Indians. These terrorists kill innocent Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs then go into hibernation, then return after long sleep and revert to their abhorable ways of killing the innocents.
However, in Pakistan, mostly the people want Pakistan to be an Islamic state without Mullas and an active overseeing by military. This automatically ensures that extremists will remain a minority here and cut off from all entries into the Government. But the damage is done by the western media by portrayal of the extremists unduly and unnecessarily.
#36 Posted by arjun_m on November 1, 2003 9:40:32 am
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#35 Posted by rozaiba on November 1, 2003 9:40:31 am
Well, what do you know? Am just reading a couple of Franken`s books. They are a delight to go over. Plenty of examples of scripts from shows where right-wing self-righteous farces like Hannity and O`Rielly abuse their roles by insisting on projecting only the conservative view as being correct.
Attended a recent lecture by the former President of CNN (and SONY Pictures) who suggests that Murdoch`s strongly placed to dominate global media.
With Fox, he`s got Roger Ailes, who was with Bush Sr. gvt., and who now ensures that conservative views recieve due coverge.
Attended a recent lecture by the former President of CNN (and SONY Pictures) who suggests that Murdoch`s strongly placed to dominate global media.
With Fox, he`s got Roger Ailes, who was with Bush Sr. gvt., and who now ensures that conservative views recieve due coverge.
#34 Posted by nasah on November 1, 2003 7:16:36 am
Zeynab -- great piece -- don`t worry -- the days of this fascist evangelical administration ARE numbered...this anomaly will disappear as a bad dream in November 2004 ..... we MUST VOTE not sit at home... on the day of the reckoning...
#33 Posted by Fosa on October 31, 2003 6:21:58 pm
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#32 Posted by arjun_m on October 31, 2003 3:21:04 pm
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#31 Posted by arjun_m on October 31, 2003 3:21:03 pm
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#30 Posted by Urstruly on October 31, 2003 12:27:39 pm
arjunm #26
That`s where you are wrong. Any human being living far or near is my neighbor. We want Americans to see humans being in this light then there wont be any clash of civilizations; there will be only one civilization on this planet - the human civilization.
That`s where you are wrong. Any human being living far or near is my neighbor. We want Americans to see humans being in this light then there wont be any clash of civilizations; there will be only one civilization on this planet - the human civilization.
#29 Posted by arjun_m on October 31, 2003 11:33:20 am
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#28 Posted by stuka on October 31, 2003 11:22:39 am
Arjun, SR, Temporal:
Read your posts subsequent to typing mine. I think we are all on the same page. McCarthy analogy is a good one. In fact, the war on Iraq has cooled passions on the Korean and Iranian front. The big issue is internal rather then external. You do have to keep the effect of Sept 11 in mind. No doubt many more have died elsewhere, but it is still the largest civil-terror attack on a country thereby opening a new paradigm in the reaction of the state.
UrsTruly:
I would not be surprised at 7.3% rate for the past qtr. Look at today`s edition of USA today. Tthere have been other instances of individual quarters having that kind of one time performance.
Read your posts subsequent to typing mine. I think we are all on the same page. McCarthy analogy is a good one. In fact, the war on Iraq has cooled passions on the Korean and Iranian front. The big issue is internal rather then external. You do have to keep the effect of Sept 11 in mind. No doubt many more have died elsewhere, but it is still the largest civil-terror attack on a country thereby opening a new paradigm in the reaction of the state.
UrsTruly:
I would not be surprised at 7.3% rate for the past qtr. Look at today`s edition of USA today. Tthere have been other instances of individual quarters having that kind of one time performance.
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