Age of America Nears End

[tombogan03884]

FQ needs to study history instead of parroting the BS he was indoctrinated with by his communist instructors.
Since the Militaries of at least 2 countries give awards for the "Cold war" I don't think you could count Reagan's terms as "peacetime.
Path is only partially correct.
The economic aspects were put in place at Bretton Woods, (Where Soros just held another summit last month, and since it's less than 50 miles from here I would have been there had I known before, instead of after )
The philosophy behind it was formulated by the "Frankfurt School" group after WWI.
The fact that every one misses, including the US Govt. is that the "Cold War" is not a conflict between states. It is a conflict between ideologies, we were not fighting "the Soviet Union", their collapse means no more than the fall of communism in Jamiaca in the 70's or the overthrow of the communist regime in Greneda. Our foe is the "Communist International" (ComIntern)  which has no borders, and has forces in nearly every country on earth. Our "Cold war" is against the Jane Fonda's and other 60's communist radicals who moderated their rhetoric and now are in positions of influence throughout society.

[kmitch200]

Look, love Reagan or hate him (I'm in the midle for a lot of reasons), the fact remains that he ran up what was until then the largest peace time deficiet in US history. Likewise, the beginning of out sourcing began in the '80s. Doesn't make him a bad President, but you can't say the man is blameless either. The idea of tax cuts and increased spending financed by debt being business as usual truly metastized under Reagan. No one after him changed this mindset and that is just history Path.
FQ13

Couldn't it be argued that the policies of Reagan & Bush 1 were the impetus and foundation that gave Clinton the surplus?

Reagan did heavy borrowing but the result was defense spending the soviet union into nonexistence.
(A policy I think we can slow now, since our defense budget is more than the rest of the world combined. Take heed of Eisenhower's warning)

[Discworld717]

In fact, that will happen, once the US $ tanks over the next year or so. It will happen because there are those pulling the strings that want it to happen, and we will then see a unified world currency by 2014-15, if not sooner.

I think that this is why the Chinese have suggested a basket of currencies and commodities as a replacement for the dollar. That would allow them to keep their currency undervalued during a transition away from the dollar. If you are interested in China's economic policies I recommend reading mpettis.com

[fightingquaker13]

That suggestion has been around for a while. Speaking objectively (national interest aside), it isn't a bad thought. Gold is out as a standard for obvious reason's, but a "commodity basket' tagged to GDP would be a bridge between fiat currency and a gold standard. I would give "real" value to currencies and greatly reduce the abilityof the state to control the money supply.As a Libertarian, I like the idea. As an American, not so much. The thing is though, that the dollar has become a gold plated turd and folks are starting to notice the smell. Any fiat currency that replaces it will suffer the same fate. Some variant of a commodity based currency migt be a better alternative than just switching to say Euros or Yuan.
FQ13

[fullautovalmet76]

Here's a decent video (poor sound quality) that helps explain the money system and it you can watch it in 10 minutes chunks so even the Quaker can watch it.... 

http://www.youtube.com/user/InfoRogue#p/u/23/EaHwg7xhueQ

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