The Crisis of the First WorldOpens Door to the Third World

We are not rejoicing in the misfortune of America, and not even that of Bush, who after having arrogantly and repeatedly confirmed the robust health of the economy, we watched shamefully appeal to the American people to push Congress to pass the proposed bailout plan, without which the recession would become an unthinkable disaster. And I give consolation to the creditors from China to Japan to Saudi Arabia who purchased “The Tramway”, I mean, the bonds of the American Government.

This is a very harsh lesson primarily for Americans who left everything in the clumsy hands of an American administration known in its history for deceiving the American public to the point of the economy’s ruin. It appears that the rule of this administration must end with a huge disaster if not another military endeavor. A financial crisis like the current one, is an expectation which has been announced for the past two years by the World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz, a two time recipient of the Noble Prize. This American international economist again warned a few days ago that this financial crisis will continue for at least the next 18 months and might lead to an even worse disaster similar to one America experienced during the 1930s. No one can imagine how much at risk the financial institutions can become or for how long they will be at risk for a multitude of reasons.

Kornelli Barnett’s book “The Collapse of British Influence,” which was in wide circulation during the seventies, describes that at the beginning of World War II, Britain did not have the gold and foreign currencies to cover the expenses of the war for more than a few months and thus appealed to America, requesting funding. From there, Britain continued to lose its influence.

With this in mind, let’s move to the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq of the 21st century which were indirectly funded by China, Japan, and others who are the main buyers of financial bonds that the Bush administration used to continue funding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is excluding the internal funding for government spending for salaries and so forth. In other words, the Bush administration adopted this “Let the foreigners pay” practice not only for financing wars but also for domestic spending. At least partially the deficit in the federal budget is currently estimated to be $410 billion. Meanwhile, the American experts confirmed that this figure is dramatically less than the truth. Sharing this view is the economist and two time recipient of the Nobel Prize, adding that the Iraq War is the first US war that was financed by foreigners since the Revolutionary War! While the Bush administration claims that it has spent $500 billion on wars, experts estimate the Iraq War alone cost at least $3 trillion.

“Nothing is inevitable here,” commented the gallant Republican Presidential candidate Mr. McCain, who previously said in this context that he is ready to continue the war for a hundred years! With which resources does his majesty mean? Does he expect that the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Saudis will continue to finance the U.S. economy, which survived in recent years on much more than its own financial resources in recent years? And what was the result? An almost collapsed financial system, a huge deficit in the budget and the trade balance, and the decline of the dollar against the strong currencies. So what is going to happen to the greatest world power with this method if a day comes when it can not find buyers for new bonds for financing?

Another thing disrupting the US economy has been the confidence factor with regards to the credibility of the US president–which has been completely dispelled. Until very recently he has been repeatedly reiterating that the everything is great, saying there are no intractable problems and that simply too many homes had been built and that, beyond that, the economy is rosy! If this is the level of analysis provided by the government on the nature of the economic problems, then it is not surprising that the world has lost confidence in Washington and the people there. And this is the opinion of the expert economist and two time recipient of the Nobel Prize.

An important thing remains. I hope that you read carefully before our rational government here in Egypt takes on the this U.S. economic free world view about the International Monetary Fund, when it warned about the storm in Washington over what it called the “heinous” or infamous methods of the IMF. As described, the IMF engaged these “nefarious methods” to push countries into debt and then deprive them from for their economies and of their qualifications of sovereignty.

Let’s end with the words of the respected American intellectual Noam Chomsky who recently wrote that America thinks that it “owns” the world while in fact America is a “city” of the world, “The two English words are very close, only distinguished by changing one letter: “owns”, “owes.”