"DR. DOOM" PREDICTS THE OBVIOUSOr does he? Economist...
"DR. DOOM" PREDICTS THE OBVIOUS
Or does he? Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for his gloomy predictions in the run-up to the financial meltdown four years ago, has predicted that going to war with Iran would be very bad financially, not only for the U.S., who will cause the war, but for everyone else, too.
"No way!" humanity replies sarcastically, then rolls its eyes.
Going out on a limb, Mr. Roubini says that having a conflict in a major oil producing region would lead to a disruption in—get this—the flow of oil. This, in turn, would lead to a global recession. Mr. Roubini really comes out of left field when he says that the United States, which is already deeply in debt, would go still further into debt by having yet another war.
The United States has no money. We all know this. What we really don't know is actually how much money we don't have. We owe more money than there IS money. If you took all the money, from everyone, even rich people and corporations (which is blasphemous), and put it in a big pile, there still wouldn't be enough to pay off the debt. Such a visual goes a long way in helping you understand the level of pure fantasy our economy operates on.
Republicans will tell you we need to reduce spending by cutting things like education and help for the poor, because, you know, that's the REAL problem behind all this debt. (Nyuk, nyuk). Make rich people pay a fair tax rate? Come ON! End corporate welfare? Are you HIGH? The debt is caused by people who don't have enough money to begin with, so we need to take whatever they do have away. Food stamps? There's a perfectly good dumpster in the alley. Health care? Think of your financial inability to fight your cancer as an extremely late late-term abortion. Taking everything away from those who don't have much makes it possible to avoid doing something psychotic like making people such as Mitt Romney pay a tax rate as high as a school teacher's.
Whenever I listen to Republican hallucinations, it's no surprise to me why they won't win a national election. Well, not without the help of the Supreme Court anyway. (By the way, this month the Supreme Court is brought to you by Monsanto. "Monstanto—providing Frankenfood to a clueless public since 1982"). It also becomes clear why Republicans are trying to rig local election laws to make it more difficult for the poor and minority to vote. As Jesus, the Republican mascot, always says, "If you can't win playing by the rules, cheat." (Matthew 19:24).
Republicans have actually convinced themselves that their coddling of corporations and the super-rich, plus nearly a dozen years of war, are not the cause of the national debt, which it is. Amazing what you can do with magical thinking, huh?
What a penetrating gaze this Nouriel Roubini has, able to peer into the future like Nostradamus and predict that the coming war with Iran will be expensive. Very observant, Mr. Roubini. You must've been squinting.
But all kidding aside, it seems to me that war with Iran or someone else is inevitable, and soon. The Iraq War ended several long months ago and we're due for another Support Our Troops magnetic ribbon fest. How about supporting them by not having them fighting and dying on a more or less constant basis? How about being reluctant to kill our fellow man just a tiny little bit?
What Mr. Roubini failed to see as he peered into his crystal ball was that billionista corporations like Lockheed Martin depend on selling a manufactured product that kills people, and they need a war to have a market. Building complex, expensive devices that slaughter humans is big business in America. It's a very large, very important section of our economy. It all comes down to supply and demand, and suppliers need to do something to create demand, otherwise there's no reason for them to exist. The industry that builds the machines of war needs a war to sell their machines and they have a lot of money—a lot of money to pump into political campaigns, a lot of money to lobby with, a lot of money to get rid of pesky, unprofitable peacetime.
War is good business, Mr. Roubini. Sorry, but you lose.
Michael Kindt :: share on Facebook
