U.S. debt to foreign countries

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   JeniferDposted 14 years ago

   The U.S. is currently trillions in debt to foreign countries like China and Russia.  What if those debts were called in?  How would the U.S. repay those debts?

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   ledefensetechposted 14 years ago

   Those debts won't get paid back.  The US will do what Latin American countries have done throughout the 20the century.  They'll just repudiate the debt and tell the owners of the debt: tough luck.
   
   The criminals in Washington hope that the threat of this is enough to keep China and Russia from calling their debt and/or interfering with "US interests" abroad.  I'm not so sure that will work.

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      JeniferDposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I dunno, the Chinese are getting mighty arrogant these days because they are the new economic super power.  Last I heard, their trade minister was strong-arming technology firms into giving up trade secrets in order to access China's trade market.
      
      I'm really not too keen on seeing Chinese warships on their way to U.S. soil to reposess a few coastal states as payment for the debt the U.S. owes them.  ;-)

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         Csanadposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         By  calling in and US not being able to pay , China would loose hundreds of billions of dollars, I don't think any sensible Chinese politician would want that.

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   Arthur Fontesposted 14 years ago

   A good article from the wall street journal:
   
   
   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB2000142 … 80940.html

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      ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Like usual, nothing but crap from Washington.  Our economic problems are due to too much money in the economy, not what the Chinese are doing.  I'm glad the WSJ got it right.

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   ledefensetechposted 14 years ago

   You don't have to worry about that, the Chinese navy is a joke.  They can't even use it to compel Taiwan to do anything much less use it to support amphibious landings against the US.  The very idea that anyone might try that is so ludicrous that I can't even entertain the thought.
   
   To give you an example, the US has 11 Carrier Strike Groups.  That is a carrier and all it's supporting warships.  The British Navy has a Carrier Task Force, which isn't even in the same league as a CSG.  The French, Italians and Spanish each have a Carrier Battle Group which is analogous to the British Task Force. 
   
   India has a light carrier battle group, which wouldn't last five minutes against a CSG.  The Russians have a single carrier which, while more heavily armed than a US carrier, doesn't have near the support the USN CSG has. 
   
   China has no current carriers but it would seem that they have one nuclear powered bought from Russia and two conventionally powered under construction.  It would seem that they are also taking a page out of Germany's playbook and investing in submarines.  With the technological head start the US had and decades of experience against the Russians, Germans and Japanese, it will be some time before the PRAN can threaten the US.  Besides it's not like they can use their navy to starve us out like the British did to the Germans in WW II, we export food, we don't import it.  Aside from Special Ops, subs can't really support amphibious landings. 
   
   Plus there aren't enough soldiers in the Chinese army to garrison the US.  Which is what it would take, or do you think we'd just hand over the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska?
   
   No the Chinese will most likely use diplomacy or gingerly use their economic levers to get what they want.

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      JeniferDposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You make some excellent points.  However, it would be funny to see how far the Chinese would go to get their way.

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         china manposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         They just sold a very large chunk of your debt to Japan apparently, I have been trying to find comment on this in Chinese media without success so far.

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      china manposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The Chinese navy is becoming a bit more than a joke, it is increasing in size and ability about at the same rate as the economy.  Also, as ex-navy man myself, they are gaining experience and getting practice by getting involved in the trouble spots around the world, patrolling against piracy etc.
      
      The air force is the same, there were reports of no determinate age of a foreign power over-flying Chinese coastal regions and China stopping it by downing one of the fighter planes.  I don't know anything about this officially, just what I heard and that could have just been a story. But they were overflying China - and they did stop.
      
      The strategic issue is that the Chinese forces appear to only consider fighting here, carriers are for fighting away from home; my friends who are in the army only talk about defence.  It would be my opinion that they do not even look outside their own territory, their idea of their own territory, when considering armed force.  I think California is safe for now.

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   ledefensetechposted 14 years ago

   I'm not sure how they would, but it sure wouldn't be a military option.  I just don't see how they can compel Washington to not repudiate the debt if pressed too hard.  About the only thing they can do is refuse to buy any more debt, which is what I think will happen soon.  Then the government will be forced to print money and it'll be like the Confederacy near the end of the War Between the States.

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   JeniferDposted 14 years ago

   Yeah, too bad we didn't learn from the last civil war.  :-D

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      ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      It was about much more than just slavery, that's for sure.

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