Putin: U.S. "living like parasites" on economy

[NeutralCitizen]

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is on a rhetorical roll this summer when it comes to criticizing the United States on economic matters.

A month after calling U.S. monetary policy "hooliganism," Putin accused the U.S. of "living like parasites" off the global economy and said the "monopoly" of the dollar is threatening markets worldwide, Reuters reported.

Speaking to a pro-Kremlin youth group north of Moscow on Monday, Putin said Americans are "living beyond their means" and that irresponsible U.S. fiscal policies will have a negative impact on other countries - like Russia and China - who hold a large amount of U.S. bonds and treasuries

"If over there (in America) there is a systemic malfunction, this will affect everyone," Putin said.

Last month, Putin sharply criticized the U.S. for printing money to bolster the U.S. dollar.

"We, thankfully or not, cannot print a reserve currency. But what are they (the Americans) doing?" he said. "They simply spit nails, turn on the printing press and throw money to the world, in order to resolve their urgent problems."

Putin did compliment the U.S. for one thing - reaching a last-minute debt deal that slashes roughly $2.4 trillion from the U.S. deficit over the next ten years.

"Thank God that they had enough common sense and responsibility to make a balanced decision," he said.

According to Reuters, Putin's speech had the feel of an early campaign appearance leading up to parliamentary and presidential polls - and at least one young person in attendance was impressed enough to predict Putin's next job.

"Russia's next president will be small, bald and look like Putin," joked 17-year-old Ilya Mzokov.

 

[fd24]

America took so long to finally agree to the debt deal that one feels they have tarnished their image and reputation. The USA were once "the untouchables" when it came to the financial stage. Now they have to listen to criticism from people like Putin. You cant sent years of simply printing $$ and not eventually suffer the consequences.

 

[perplexed]

In spite of having so many gifted economists, visionaries/ statesman in US, all they manage is to promulgate some ineffective policies which are not only too little and too late but they always manage to overlook the real problem in the economy successively. The kind of rampant consumerism prevalent in US cannot be sustained no more.

 

[Zabaniyah]

US consumerism - expensive matter.

 

[Mosamania]

In spite of having so many gifted economists, visionaries/ statesman in US, all they manage is to promulgate some ineffective policies which are not only too little and too late but they always manage to overlook the real problem in the economy successively. The kind of rampant consumerism prevalent in US cannot be sustained no more.

they raised the debt ceiling meaning they may have solved the "Deficit" but they have not solved the bigger problem which is the "Debt" they will cut back on the deficit for as long as their are people who they will borrow money from. People now look as if the USA has solved the problem when in fact they agreed to "not solve it now" but next round the problem is going to be even bigger.

Sadfuly the only way to save the American economy (Along with the rest of the world's somehow) is for American people to suffer in higher tax and increased prices....America have always took the role of the world caretaker and police...and now it is biting them in the a$$ and it is biting them hard.

 

[Oldman1]

As if the U.S. is the only one experiencing fiscal problems. Didn't Russia default its debt a couple of years ago? Or for that matter Greece needs help? Putin shouldn't be a hypocrite but hes Putin.

 

[Oldman1]

US consumerism - expensive matter.

Go to China looks like America.

 

[M8R]

If you spend more then what you can earn then there is something terribly wrong - That's why Greece almost went under - But i think US is too big to fail...They can still do much more to increase revenue (Increase Taxes, Stop Tax Breaks for Corporations etc..)

 

[gubbi]

US consumerism - expensive matter.

You think? But it also drives other countries' economies, no?

 

[RAZA SAHI]

HERE IS AN ARTICLE WHICH MIGHT EXPLAIN A FEW POINTS

Debt deal: anger and deceit has led the US into a billionaires' coupThe debt deal will hurt the poorest Americans, convinced by Fox and the Tea Party to act against their own welfare


There are two ways of cutting a deficit: raising taxes or reducing spending. Raising taxes means taking money from the rich. Cutting spending means taking money from the poor. Not in all cases of course: some taxation is regressive; some state spending takes money from ordinary citizens and gives it to banks, arms companies, oil barons and farmers. But in most cases the state transfers wealth from rich to poor, while tax cuts shift it from poor to rich.

So the rich, in a nominal democracy, have a struggle on their hands. Somehow they must persuade the other 99% to vote against their own interests: to shrink the state, supporting spending cuts rather than tax rises. In the US they appear to be succeeding.

Partly as a result of the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2003 and 2005 (shamefully extended by Barack Obama), taxation of the wealthy, in Obama's words, "is at its lowest level in half a century". The consequence of such regressive policies is a level of inequality unknown in other developed nations. As the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz points out, in the past 10 years the income of the top 1% has risen by 18%, while that of blue-collar male workers has fallen by 12%.

The deal being thrashed out in Congress as this article goes to press seeks only to cut state spending. As the former Republican senator Alan Simpson says: "The little guy is going to be cremated." That means more economic decline, which means a bigger deficit. It's insane. But how did it happen?

The immediate reason is that Republican members of Congress supported by the Tea Party movement won't budge. But this explains nothing. The Tea Party movement mostly consists of people who have been harmed by tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor and middle. Why would they mobilise against their own welfare? You can understand what is happening in Washington only if you remember what everyone seems to have forgotten: how this movement began.

On Sunday the Observer claimed that "the Tea Party rose out of anger over the scale of federal spending, and in particular in bailing out the banks". This is what its members claim. It's nonsense.

The movement started with Rick Santelli's call on CNBC for a tea party of city traders to dump securities in Lake Michigan, in protest at Obama's plan to "subsidise the losers". In other words, it was a demand for a financiers' mobilisation against the bailout of their victims: people losing their homes. On the same day, a group called Americans for Prosperity (AFP) set up a Tea Party Facebook page and started organising Tea Party events. The movement, whose programme is still lavishly supported by AFP, took off from there.

So who or what is Americans for Prosperity? It was founded and is funded by Charles and David Koch. They run what they call "the biggest company you've never heard of", and between them they are worth $43bn. Koch Industries is a massive oil, gas, minerals, timber and chemicals company. In the past 15 years the brothers have poured at least $85m into lobby groups arguing for lower taxes for the rich and weaker regulations for industry. The groups and politicians the Kochs fund also lobby to destroy collective bargaining, to stop laws reducing carbon emissions, to stymie healthcare reform and to hobble attempts to control the banks. During the 2010 election cycle, AFP spent $45m supporting its favoured candidates.

But the Kochs' greatest political triumph is the creation of the Tea Party movement. Taki Oldham's film (Astro)Turf Wars shows Tea Party organisers reporting back to David Koch at their 2009 Defending the Dream summit, explaining the events and protests they've started with AFP help. "Five years ago," he tells them, "my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start Americans for Prosperity. It's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organisation."

AFP mobilised the anger of people who found their conditions of life declining, and channelled it into a campaign to make them worse. Tea Party campaigners take to the streets to demand less tax for billionaires and worse health, education and social insurance for themselves.

Are they stupid? No. They have been misled by another instrument of corporate power: the media. The movement has been relentlessly promoted by Fox News, which belongs to a more familiar billionaire. Like the Kochs, Rupert Murdoch aims to misrepresent the democratic choices we face, in order to persuade us to vote against our own interests and in favour of his.

What's taking place in Congress right now is a kind of political coup. A handful of billionaires have shoved a spanner into the legislative process. Through the candidates they have bought and the movement that supports them, they are now breaking and reshaping the system to serve their interests. We knew this once, but now we've forgotten. What hope do we have of resisting a force we won't even see?

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Just 22 % assets are owned by US government , rest is all in hand of other world nations 8 % is owned by china rest is divided between other nations of world who own 1-2% of US debt

 

[53fd]

People need to look outside this Republican-Democrat tussle.

Raising the taxes on big corporations will only result in big corporations raising taxes on the goods they sell, making everyday commodities for Americans expensive.

What is the problem being faced right now? 'Who' is the problem being faced by the problem right now? Is it the US, or the American people?

The Democrats think that just as Roosevelt expanded the US economy by using Keynesian economics (more government spending leading to more growth in industries), the solution to the US's current problem is the same. That's not true. First of all, more government spending has lead to big corporations expanding themselves overseas, making the rich richer, outsourcing labor & manufacturing, & not helping the US economy expand, or helping American with employment (making the poor poorer).

So, is the problem the US economy, or the problems faced by the people? It is the US economy. The unusually high debts, with a likelihood of increasing interest rates as a result of a potential lower credit rating in the future. The problems Americans face today, from high unemployment rates is only a symptom to that.

As I have already shown, increased government spending or high taxes on big corporations will not solve the problem of the US economy or the American people. The US economy can only be solved by one thing: government cuts in domestic entitlement programs. Also cuts on other bodies such as the EPA, FDA etc. Americans will have to learn the hard way, without Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, student loans, easy credit on cars/houses, food stamps etc. Government cuts in domestic programs will result in loss of jobs for Americans, & cuts in entitlement programs will make their lives harder; but it will revive the US economy, pay off its debts, & help secure its future; which will be better for the Americans in the long run. The American people have to learn to live within their means.

 

[Zabaniyah]

As if the U.S. is the only one experiencing fiscal problems. Didn't Russia default its debt a couple of years ago? Or for that matter Greece needs help? Putin shouldn't be a hypocrite but hes Putin.

Go to China looks like America.

Yeah, they don't have a $14 trillion debt and counting.
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

Isn't that what your politicians are embroiled over? And if I am not mistaken, the economy is the number one factor in the minds of US voters.

My suggestion is to take a decision in which there isn't so much uncertainty.

Russia's debt level is actually not that high, and no reason to worry about the state of the global economy.
Oil-Rich Russia Calm Ahead of U.S. Debt Deadline - Emerging Europe Real Time - WSJ

Sure, China is a fast developing economy. And that similarly goes for emerging economies.

You think? But it also drives other countries' economies, no?

Gone are the days when money in America grew on trees. I hope you understand what I was implying.

 

[Maritimer]

Hope that Russia and China persuade G-20 and other countries to give up the US dollar as international currency and instead explore a new global monetary system. This would ensure that the global economy is not deeply affected by reckless spending by one country.

 

[somebozo]

In pure economic terms he is absolutely right..and might tell an evil trick to shoo away america..cold war economic war changed sides