Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Everyone wants to take the blue pill, no one wants to take the red pill because they're scared or they simply do not want to face the truth. The United States is in an absolutely terrible position regarding their debt. No one will be happy with any plan to cut into the debt. To erase this debt people are going to pay, and pay a lot. The problem is, is that no one wants to pay. Everyone wants to take the blue pill and continue to allow the debt to increase or they believe the debt crisis will solve itself. Majority of the US's population is currently high on the amount of blue pills they are currently taking, but what would the image be if we handed out unhealthy amounts of red pills instead?

If everyone was hopped up on red pills instead they would see that social security is a complete mess. People are living longer and the baby boom generation all want to retire. The nice thing to do is to allow the old people to retire because they have paid their dues, however since we all need money for our red pills we're going to tell them to continue to work and retire later. In the process we hope that it stalls the amount of spending on social security (hopefully some perish...we're all thinking it). Now we need to raise taxes and anger the entire population. Oh no! There goes our drug money, but everyone needs to make sacrifices and this will increase the amount of revenue that the US takes in. Next we tax corporate companies and prevent them from using loop holes to avoid taxes. There is a chance they outsource, however if China lets the yuan float then they could lower the amount of outsourced labor in China, but companies could outsource to countries like Vietnam instead. Next we notice that we're spending $700 billion on defense when the next closest country is not eclipsing $200 billion. We cut spending on defense and cause many people to lose their jobs, but it is a sacrifice that needs to be made for the future. Once everything starts to balance out eventually the blue pill will become reality, but that will probably never happen. 

I was imagining the fight between Neo vs Smiths while writing this which is why this blog post is most likely choppy. 

Would a universal currency work?

What if I told you there is going to be a universal currency called the Doan one day? Chances are you wouldnt believe me and rightfully so because no one would ever agree to a universal currency. Why wouldn't countries agre on a universal currency? The reason why I believe countries would not all agree to a universal currency is because with it there would be less competition between countries. Less competition is not the only bad factor in a universal currency but implementing one would be near impossible. If there was a universal currency poorer countries would be in danger because people would simply not be able to afford anything. Another factor is that a lone country could screw up the value of the Doan, which would cause a ripple effect to everyone in the world because everyone has the same currency. A universal currency most likely will never work, but our currency system now is not working either. Putting the faith of the value of currency in the hands of the people was never a smart idea which can be seen from contagion. People tend to panic when it comes to money and they act on impulse rather than reason. There should have been no reason for Thailand to affect all of those other countries but the reason why it did was because people panicked and quickly lost faith. There are many other issues with the system we have now such as how banking works and how easy it is for countries to conceal how much money they really have. I believe the current system we have is here to stay.

Glogster

http://www.glogster.com/doanish/us-china-relations/g-6lmfirbpq4lgpri90itesa0

Fun Definitions For All

Terms

GDP- gross domestic production. Amount of profit made by products being exported. 14.59 is US and 5.93 China, in trillions.

Import- Products bought from outside of the country and taken in. US 227 billion, 122.7 billion

Export- Products shipped out of a country to buyers. US 178 billion, 149.9 billion

Tariff- a tax placed on a good being traded so the economy of the importing country remains the same.

Trade Surplus- extra good left over after a country has exported goods.

Trade Deficit- when a country does not meet the demand of another country who would like to import their products.

Treasury Bond- marketable fixed interest US govt. debt security with a maturity of more than 10 years.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)- investment made in a company in a foreign country. CHINA 143 billion.

Budget Deficit- spending more money than you have. US 15.5 trillion, 1.9 trillion

Foreign Currency Reserve- deposits and bonds held by central banks and monetary authorities. US 148.5 billion, China 3181 billion

Currency Exchange- exchange rate of different currency from one system to another. Money can lose value or gain value based on country you are in so money is exchanged to make it easier.

Subsidy (subsidies)- government buys a product so it can be selled at a constant price.

Did Clinton Know What He Was Doing?

During this week for class I was questioning whether or not Clinton knew what he was doing with China. I wondered if he was some sort of mastermind with a very elaborate plan or he was just insanely lucky. It seemed that Clinton just purposely tried to piss off China. He would actually make demands from China unlike the other presidents. The other presidents would spoon feed China. The odd thing about Clinton is that he made demands from China when they needed America the least. The other presidents made did not make many demands from China but rather they gave China everything they wanted. China was in no position to make demands from America but America still gave in to their demands every time. It is possible that Clinton also had the luxury of mainly focusing on the economical side of the relationship which aided in his more upfront stance with China. I believe that Clinton had no real master plan but he was the only president that stood his ground against China. His stance and time of power was the reason for his short term success with China. I believe China knew they could not persuade Clinton S easily compared to the other presidents.