Tuesday, February 28, 2006

How long will US economy survive?

DOLLAR GETS DOWN
How long will the US survive as an economic superpower? Writes Prashant Bhushan in Tehelka weekly. "It has been living on borrowed money for someime.

Its external debt is more than 50% of its GDP as Saudi oil money and China's trade surplus piles up in American banks. The US dollar is kept afload today mainly by the oil trade in US dollars. 


The US economy will tank if either China withdraws its money from the American banks or Saudi Arabia stops depositing its oil money in US bonds, or even if the oil trade goes off the dollar.

Thus even if we assume that we can get something in short run, how long will it last?". Bhushan, a public interest lawyer, has writen quite an interesting piece 'The eveil behemoth cometh' on Bush's visit to India and the euphria in the country. He questions that how reliable ally US can be to India.

Urdu papers on Bush's visit

Rashtriya Sahara Urdu daily has been printing a full anti-Bush page for the last several days. Read the headlines: Islam-dushmani ke field marshall: Bush, Ekkiswin sadi ka aadam khor bhedia, Duniya ka napasandeeda tareen insaan Bush amongst others.

Giving vent to their anger and reading what people want to read makes them feel lighter. That's why quite a strong anti-Bush sentiment in all Urdu papers. [A few years later the US Economy did collapse. When this post was published, people thought it was mere anti-Americanism and wishful thinking. So now?]