Ukraine has been “informed” that it will be “attacked” by Russia on Feb 16
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"We do not encroach on others, but we will not give up our own. We have a wonderful army. Our guys have a unique combat experience and modern weapons.
This is an army many times stronger than eight years ago. We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack.
We will make it the Day of Unity. The relevant decree has already been signed. On this day, we will hoist national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons and show the world our unity.
We all want to live happily, and happiness loves the strong. We have never been able to give up and we are not going to learn that, ”
Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Ukrainians.
The US has lost a good deal of moral authority by its reckless invasion of Iraq for example. Now it asks Russia not to do the same thing.
Anybody can live well if they are happy using their credit card and never expecting to pay it back.
Interest on debt looks like ~450B / yr, like 2.1% of our GDP to maintain the debt. Would you say someone who spends 2% of their income to maintain debt as someone in danger of collapse?
I agree we have way too much debt and need to consolidate it and practice fiscal responsibility. But fortunately the debt is insanely far within manageable status. Were that money used wisely (it isn't) on investing in infrastructure and research, the yield would be much higher than the interest.
Then the interest payments are the same number as the over-bloated defense budget: 750 billion a year.
So, the old question: Guns? Or butter?
An aside:
In my lifetime, the highest interest rate was roughly 20%. That would cause monetary collapse in the US today with an interest load of 6 trillion bucks a year.
Tell that to the folks in Zimbabwe. :D
> Anybody can live well if they are happy using their credit card and never expecting to pay it back.
You realise that countries do not retire, yes? And they have a goal of ensuring that their inflation is set between specific, low-but-positive bounds? This is what countries do and have done for centuries - they pay off the interest until the principle is eaten away by inflation. When you are functionally immortal this is an effective strategy.
We live in a period of historically low bond yields and interest rates. If a country has to effectively pay near zero interest, it is in their interests to loan as much as possible. So long as the debt load year-on-year is insignificant compared to the GDP, it is money for jam. The bond terms do not change just because domestic interest rates increase.
This is why you rarely hear non-partisan economists complain about debt load in the US. It's not a huge problem, especially compared with the degradation of secular institutions.
It's not so much him playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, but that we're playing chess and he's playing Calvinball. The rest of us would really rather do something orderly, but since he's making up his own rules he wins and everyone else loses, no matter what -- and no matter what it costs.