75 Years of Israel and the War - part 2

I stopped watching this before it even started. First they killed the movies, now the sports. I'll stick to the forum and 1-min clips on X.

Iran announced retaliatory action, what this time, 500 drones?

Is Iran really starting a full out war against Israel?

Finally somebody is gonna take attention away from our little war with Ukraine.

...now that you mention it....has Putin somehow his fingers innit? :)

I don't know, and I can't say.

I only know that some 20+ Russian military transport aircraft have landed in Iran over the past few days.

I also know that a group of Russian military specialists, were picked up by a Yemeni boat in the middle of the Red Sea, from the board of a Russian destroyer.

It's anybody's guess what our boys are teaching the Yemenis.

We will have to wait and see.

How to perform cannon fodder attacks?

Harris will have the U.S.A. in war with
Israel vs. Iran
Twain vs China
Ukraine vs Russia
Then we will see just how loyal our allies really are.
Britain right now has all six of their attack subs sitting in dry dock for easy targets.
Stupid stuff like this is going to get us all killed.

Putin, Xi and little rocket man are foaming at the mouth hoping Harris wins. The are pushing their propaganda through tictok and google.

Its been 16 days and still no questions taken by Harris or interview to defend here dismal leftard record... They wont let "word salad" speak unscripted.

It's really hard to see how Putin and Kim Jong Un - at least - would not prefer Trump.

Trump was pretty hard on China, so that makes more sense. At the same time, when Biden came he didn't cancel any of Trump's China tariffs, but instead added some new ones. I think the Chinese are smart enough to understand that no US administration will allow things to go back to the pre-Covid status quo.

Why do you think Putin would prefer Trump?

Trump almost dissolved NATO.

Trump hates Zelensky for in a roundabout way leading to his impeachment.

Trump is connected by numerous former business ties to Russia.

Trump's half-Slavic oldest son, is a Russophile who believes Ukraine should lose. He was also the driving force behind the appointment of JD Vance as VP. JD Vance is an opponent of ANY further aid to Ukraine.

Trump said he respects Putin. Whenever he's in Putin's presence, he begins acting very subdued, which is unusual for Trump.

Trump's circle is full of people that think Putin is the second coming of Christ.

Everything they want to do in the US, is what Putin has been doing in Russia. They invite Orban to their big conferences, only because they cannot invite Putin.

Almost dissolved or pressured it to become stronger by member states investing more in their own defense?


Subdued or positioning himself to get things out of Putin that Putin wouldn't normally give to a western leader?


But Trump is on record saying that he will arm Ukraine to the teeth if Putin refuses to negotiate a satisfactory peace.


Putin wants to make America great again and see America drill baby drill?

Christ, just like Putin and I, hates NATO.


...so that the US can get out of NATO and tell Euros to FO.

Why would we want to tell Euros to FO?

So that no Americans will ever die in Europe.

So you think if US leaves NATO and Russia or China or Iran or North Korea or whoever goes to war with Euro that US wouldn't see it in its national interest to get involved?

We have about $4 trillion invested directly in Europe and about &1 of every $5 of US exported goods and services go to Europe.

I don't want American A to die for the investments made by American B. Funny how "investors" never do the dying. They send somebody else to protect their investments.

These selfish azholes don't even pay to protect their investments. That's left up to the US taxpayers with 401k as investments.

What about Euro investments in China? Should the US protect those, too?


Bottom line: Europe has a net trade surplus of 150 billion dollars. This makes Europe our enemy because trade deficits are not sustainable and damaging to the loser country - the US.
That's Econ 101, not just my opinion.

I don't want them to die, either. But, if American B's investment isn't protected, American A might not die, but he and Americans C through X may be unemployed or earn less, since B's investment, which directly or indirectly employed or enhanced those other American's lives, may no longer exist.

While I agree we have to be less militaristically adventurous, alliances like NATO, if managed correctly, will keep American B from dying because of deterring bad actors from doing bad things to things we find of value.

No, that's indeed your opinion. Trade surplus and deficits aren't in themselves indicators of winning or losing. Say we export $100 of oil to country A to power their widget factory. In turn, Country A imports $50 of widgets. We need $200 of widgets. Did we win because we have a trade surplus of $50?

Yes.

Surplus means employment. Deficit means unemployment. Surplus is sustainable. Deficits are not sustainable.

China has become a world-class power because it has trade surplus every single year. Quoting:

China Posts Largest Trade Surplus in Near 2 Years China's trade surplus surged to USD 99.05 billion in June 2024 from USD 69.80 billion in the same period a year earlier, surpassing market expectations of USD 85 billion. It was the largest trade surplus since July 2022, as exports jumped while imports fell.

Luckily, China didn't take your courses in Econ.

Name one country that wants a trade deficit. I can name countries that want a trade surplus.

Do you want the list?

@Novichok

Your list is a game.

Germany and Japan have run surpluses for quite awhile. Both economies have not seen much economic growth. Contrast that with the US and UK who run the highest trade deficits, their econ growth is around the same or better.

To go back to the widget-oil scenario. If the $50 worth of widgets keeps the oil exporting country's gdp flat (which probably means zero job gains), but the $200 will spur 5% growth (which probably means more employment), wouldn't you say that we are better off with the $100 trade deficit, than the $50 surplus?

My point in all this is that surpluses and deficits aren't what's important, what matters is the effect of trade. A deficit doesn't automatically mean negative and surplus doesn't automatically mean positive -they may actually have the converse effect.

Name one country that wants a trade deficit. I can name countries that want a trade surplus.

Do you want the list?

No analogies.

Your list is meaningless, because it's simply your opinion. But go ahead and give to me.

Don't be a pvssy, answer my analogy. 😁

:):) You say this to Novi??? AmaSSing!

@pawian

Hell yeah I do, he's not a coward-he's a manly man. He can take it.

I think you need to know how much of a role trade plays within a country's economy - before you say that this deficit is good, bad, or neutral.

Some countries are very trade dependent, others are not. America is one of the less trade dependent large economies out there.

Many countries have managed to continue growing their economies and prosper, all while running huge trade deficits for decades. The poster child for this is Turkey.

So how does Turkey manage to grow and develop while importing more than it exports? I'll try to give a brief list of reasons.

1) Foreign Direct Investment
2) External borrowing
3) Remittances
4) Tourism revenues
5) Currency depreciation

With different relative weight, these factors can offset a negative trade balance.

Tourism and remittances are probably a more preferable way to attract fx into the economy than external borrowing, but the result on paper is the same.

Another aspect of American trade deficits is that your deficits are all counted in dollars.

Every other country also counts its deficit in dollars. The problem - they do not print dollars. So they actually have to spread their legs and do things to attract dollars with which to support these deficits.

America, meanwhile, pays for its deficits with candy wrappers that it makes itself. Everybody else gladly accepts these candy wrappers.

@Bobko

This is exactly right. It's much more complex than just plus and minus.

The bottom line is the effect trade has on an economy. Problem with that is that it is hard to nail that down to an exact quantifiable measure, which is due to the relative weight you mentioned.


It has to be somebody's candy wrappers-may as well be the most magnanimous country in the history of the mankind. 😀

If the entire economy was one machining shop, this would make sense.

The shop sells finished metal goods to Europe. It imports from Europe the machinery necessary to produce these final goods. If the value of the machinery is higher than the value of the goods the shop sells - then sure enough, one day it will close.

But the economy does not consist of a single shop. Many, many of the shops within the economy, spend their entire existence without transacting with a single European or Asian entity.