“LAND OF THE FREE” TAKES ANOTHER HIT …
By FITSNEWS || We knew the day was coming … and lo and behold, it’s here.
The United States of America is no longer home to the world’s largest economy. That distinction now belongs to China, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. The size of the Chinese economy this year is $17.6 trillion – compared to $17.4 trillion for the U.S. economy.
Yup … let that sink in for a minute. America has already lost its claim to fame as the “land of the free,” now it is no longer the world’s leading economy either.
Tough beat, Uncle Sam.
“In the spring, the International Comparison Programme calculated new exchanges rates for comparing output of different economies,” noted Chris Giles at FT. “At the time it suggested that China was the world’s largest economy because money went significantly further in China than previously thought. To get this inference, you had to do a bit of extrapolation from the 2011 base year.”
Well extrapolation is no longer necessary … China’s got us beat.
Ready for another sobering stat? Our federal government is currently $17.8 trillion in the hole. China, on the other hand, has net foreign assets of $1.7 trillion.
Anybody care to guess how this ends?
Over the last decade the United States has been moving at breakneck speed toward a command economic model in which central planners in Washington, D.C. regulate ever larger swaths of American commerce. Meanwhile our bureaucracies have exploded, our taxes have skyrocketed and government keeps incentivizing dependency and corporate cronyism – while pursuing costly foreign entanglements abroad.
All the while our incomes … and liberties … recede.
What a country, right?
33 comments
China could call in the US debt to them and almost payoff their own debt but some say a $17.8 trillion US debt is just fine.
That’s because as long as China can hold it over our heads we’ll continue to be their bitch.
They can call all they want, but we don’t have to answer. However, we could send them the tab (adjusted for inflation) for keeping the Japs from cutting their ass permanently in WWII. It might mean they would now owe us.
“They can call all they want, but we don’t have to answer. ”
I don’t agree with your other comments, but that one is spot on. All the US has to do is change the currency/default, and *poof*, the debt goes away instantly.
However, it seem that China is buying up lots of gold with dollars right now….
China’s land mass is unconquerable by anyone…sheer distance would have eventually slowed and eventually stopped the Japs…plus they were more interested in hammering Korea.
It would have not been possible, if not for American consumers and American investors in search of slave labor.
Let’s see who pops up and blames Bush first… who’s it going to be?
Not me, I blame those guys who said outsourcing American Jobs was a good thing and who pushed for most favored nation status for China, and free trade with China..
You mean like the Outsourcer in Chief, Bill Clinton?
Well, he certainly bears some of the blame at a minimum, along with Bill Clinton, and Obola. Them, and possible others, have been selling us out to and borrowing from the Chinese without our consent for decades, now.
I wish we could just turn all guilty parties over to the Chinese to use as slave labor in payment for the national debt to them.
I blame Bush, but it’s the first Bush. He was the one who told us we were living in a new world order. Then he went and negotiated NAFTA. People always forget that Clinton only signed NAFTA after it was plopped on his desk.
I love this. You prattle endlessly about how dangerous “crony capitalism, socialized medicine, government control of the economy” are. I guess that’s why China is doing so well, what with their libertarian government, free markets, and strong press and speech freedoms.
There’s a giant difference.
In America, it’s somewhat centralized and controlled by CORPORATIONS, corporations that couldn’t care less what happens to us.
In China, it’s somewhat centralized and controlled by GOVERNMENT, a government that despite its faults, cares about its people.
Also, to the guy who said usa can erase its debts by printing money.
Usa can’t keep printing money to erase their debts without penalties.
Numerous countries including your allies are moving away from the dollar as a result of your fiscal recklessness.
Sadly, this will not stop.
“cares about its people.”
lolz
“Government”-LoL
Yes, it could stop with one simple act of the working classes: Abolish the IRS.
The abolition of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and removing the US Treasury away from the Executive Branch into the Legislative Branch would suffice.
Yes, of course. But that may be too esoteric for the DC lunkheads to comprehend … and the electorate.
Of course congress can work it all out AFTER the IRS is abolished … though it may take Them a while … :>)
Maybe they could go to war and ruin their economy ?
“Hong Kong, China – It used to be a place where anyone who worked hard, excelled in school and possessed an entrepreneurial spirit could rise above their parents’ hardship to a better life. That was the Hong Kong dream.
Today, that dream has become a mirage – where meritocracy is seen to be supplanted by business and political connections, where good jobs and university places are keenly contested by the mainland Chinese. Young people in Hong Kong fear they are losing out as the playing field tilts increasingly towards China. …” – Aljazeera.com
It could be worse. Hong Kong could have gone communist … Oh, wait …
When you have a government killing business creating deals like Keystone XL, it’s no surprise we’ve dropped out of first place.
The only bubbles bigger than those here in the US are the ones in China….it’s going to get messy for everyone once they start to pop again….
Thing is, it’s only natural that a country with almost 4 times the population as ours would eventually have a bigger economy. It’s not the end of the world.
In fact, historically speaking, China was the dominate economy for most of written history in a sense.
China the dominate economy historically? Nah, not so much, not it measurable terms. Rome far outstripped China in wealth, territory and population as did the Ottoman Empire. If you really go back, even the Inca out strip China.
lol, really? And what’s your proof of this? It’s not like there were any balance sheets floating about.
I posit my assertion this way:
Rome was desperate to trade with China at the height of Rome’s power, and couldn’t force the deal militarily! lol
Han China made up a Roman empire boundary at one point.
Even further, the Silk Road trade nothing but a small percentage of Chinese production and look what happened:
“Chinese wealth grew as they delivered silk and other luxury goods to the Roman Empire, whose wealthy Roman women admired their beauty.[31] The Roman Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be decadent and immoral.”-Wiki
Blow it Bush boy !
What happened to Brings Jobs Home Act?
Not all is as it seems.This is but one of China’s many,’Ghost Cites’;their abandoned,Wonderland: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/chinas-abandoned-wonderland/100207/
and more-http://www.thetruthdenied.com/news/2013/04/26/ghost-cities-in-china-64-6-million-empty-homes-apartments-condos/
LOL. China uses central planning for its economy yet you say they are kicking our tails. Apparently it’s time for you to rethink your economic belief system.
And BTW, I’ll pay attention when China surpasses us on per capita GDP. They are currently at about 23% of the American per capita GDP.
“… economies all over the world are in trouble. Government leaders and economists galore talk about monetary policy as if it could rev up economies that are staggering under excessive taxation, suffocating regulation and massive government spending. (Remember, government doesn’t create resources. It gets them through taxation, borrowing or inflation, which is–Keynes got this right–another form of taxation.)
Most governments loathe the truth that the people on our [Forbes 400 Richest] lists are essential to prosperity and a higher standard of living. Government wants the benefits of what such people create, but it doesn’t want anyone to get rich from the creating. …”
Steve Forbes Editorial in print and online – 10/10/2014 issue
“All inflation ia caused by government, government prints the money and government can too easily print too much.”
A key shift for capitalism.
Will, really???? Did you look at the measures??? They used “purchasing power” of a country that controls prices and their currency. They also used the numbers provided by the government, which has been proved to false (i know BLS lies too) but when you look at power usage in China, it is sinking like a rock.
Also, remember the last time a country came this close was Japan. Do you remember what happened to Japan? Yeah, that ended well for them. It is kind of funny though bc at the top of Japanese economy, they bought pebble beach golf club. The Chinese just bought the Waldorf in NY. SHould be fun to watch considering that China needs 1 trillion in loans a quarter just to keep the people happy, and people aren’t makiing their payments now.
Thank you President Obummer. (How do you say that in Chinese?)
It’s Clemson’s fault.