Sell America to Pay Off its Debts

Eric Margolis

It is one of history's great ironies that Winston Churchill entered World War II vowing 'never to preside over the fall of the British Empire,' yet he ended up doing just that in 1945 when his nation emerged from the conflict bankrupt and demoralised. Six decades later, the United States has also gone bankrupt thanks to a national orgy of borrowing, the replacement of manufacturing by financial manipulation, two ruinous foreign wars, and a government whose stunning incompetence and ignorance was exceeded only by its reckless imperial arrogance.

The financial panic that has gripped the globe, and the ignominious collapse of once mighty Wall Street, proved the American colossus was a financial paper tiger. Washington's furious printing of untold billions of new dollars to prop up its sinking economy, finance this year's staggering $1 trillion deficit, and pay gargantuan foreign debts looks very likely to unleash a storm of dangerous inflation that will infect the world's financial system.

Recall the great economist John Maynard Keynes warned that the quickest way to destroy a nation was by wrecking its currency through inflation.

The world balance of power is already shifting. For example, Pakistan's new President, Asif Zardari, just went cap in hand to China, seeking $4-6 billion in emergency loans. Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy and may shortly default on its debt, risking social chaos.

But Pakistan's patron, the United States, which has been paying that nation's politicians and army $1.2 billion per annum to support the occupation of Afghanistan, has no cash to spare for Pakistan. So Pakistan is turning to China. The US-led occupation of Afghanistan is likely to be adversely affected by Washington's new pauper status.

Bankrupt people, companies, and nations have to sell assets to meet their debt obligations. China and Japan alone hold over $1.5 trillion of US government securities in the form of US Treasury notes and bonds (which are really IOU's). Their nervous central bankers now want real assets rather than more paper. So there is talk of America's Asian creditors demanding their IOU's be converted into shares in US corporations and property.

Sovereign wealth funds from the Arab oil states and Singapore may soon demand chunks of premier US corporations and property.

In the 19th century, European imperial powers used to force loans on China, Egypt, the Gulf, Iran, and Latin America. When the locals could not pay off these debts, parts of their territory were seized. Russia was forced to sell Alaska to the US for next to nothing when it could not repay its debts.

The British, French, Germans, Russians, Americans and Japanese carved up China's coast. These imperial foreclosures created the trading 'concessions' of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tsingtao, Tianjin, and Port Arthur.

Now, it's payback time for China. How ironic that the Chinese Communists have ended up with a so-far sound financial system while the Wall Street bandit capitalists have gone bust.

To help pay is monster debts, I suggest Washington consider selling Louisiana back to France.

Canada, whose banking system remains solid, ought to pick up Florida for a song. Switzerland would do well to spend some of its gold and buy Vermont and New Hampshire.

Mexico will want to buy Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Russia, of course, will buy back Alaska and Washington State. China will purchase California. San Francisco will become 'New Shanghai' and Los Angeles, 'New Beijing.'

Japan will buy up Washington State, Oregon, Montana, and Hawaii. Holland will repossess New York State, and Germany will buy Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

Pakistan's move into China's financial embrace is a harbinger of things to come. Unless the US quickly repairs its economy, its world power could slip away as quickly as post-war Britain's, leaving China, Japan, Russia, the EU, the Arab oil states, and India as the world's new super-powers.

This may not be so awful. All power, as Briton's Lord Acton famously said, corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

As the world's sole super-power, the US under the Bush administration became totally corrupted by imperial hubris, financial fraud, lust for resources, and greed.

A world with more balanced, diffused power may be preferable. But such profound historical change is always dangerous and unpredictable. Right now, China looks like top dog. Chairman Mao will be smiling.

Eric S. Margolis is a veteran American journalist and contributing foreign editor of The Toronto Sun

Sea-level has been close to its present level for the past 6000 years, before which it was lower and fluctuating, last achieving its present position about 120,000 years ago. About 15,000-16,000 years ago, sea-level was 130-140 m below its present position. For the past 500,000 years it has been lower than today about 90% of the time.

These major changes coincide with the latest Ice Age, the later half of the last 1.65 million years of geological time, represents the last 10,000 years when most of the icesheets have melted. Sea-level falls coincide with periods of glaciation whereas the rises occur during interglacials -- the warmer times between ice advances, like the present day.

The onset of the Ice Age began about 40 million years when surface waters in the southern oceans suddenly cooled and the deep ocean basins quickly filled with water ~10°C cooler than before that sank because of its increased density. By about 15 million years ago, the Antarctic Icecap had formed, accelerating production of cold waters.

About 65 million years ago, sea-level fell by as much as 50 m, probably associated with expansion of the icecap in Antarctica. This might have caused the Mediterranean Sea to dry up over ~1,000 years, producing vast salt deposits, preserved in the sediments of the sea floor.

About 5 million years ago there followed a brief warming trend and sea-level rose again leaving shallow marine sediments inland of modern coastlines around much of the world. Fossil floras and faunas show that climates were generally warmer than today -- Iceland had a temperate climate; southern England was subtropical.

Let us take a case of geological period when the climate was very close to the current climate.

Carboniferous period:

Life was at its full bloom at the age of Carboniferous period (360 MM years -300 MM years).Insects, plants, dinos and many species evolved at this time. It is associated with all the green forest correlatable to present coal deposits. Climate of this period matched today's climate.

Similarities with our Present World

Average global temperatures in the Early Carboniferous Period were hot- approximately 20° C (68° F). However, cooling during the Middle Carboniferous reduced average global temperatures to about 12° C (54° F). This is comparable to the average global temperature on Earth today!

Similarly, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Early Carboniferous Period were approximately 1500 ppm (parts per million), but by the Middle Carboniferous had declined to about 350 ppm -- comparable to average CO2 concentrations today!

Earth's atmosphere today contains about 380 ppm CO2 (0.038%). Compared to former geologic times, our present atmosphere, like the Late Carboniferous atmosphere, is CO2- impoverished! In the last 600 million years of Earth's history only the Carboniferous Period and our present age, the Quaternary Period, have witnessed CO2 levels less than 400 ppm.

Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time

There has historically been much more CO2 in our atmosphere than exists today. For example, during the Jurassic Period (200 mya), average CO2 concentrations were about 1800 ppm or about 4.7 times higher than today. The highest concentrations of CO2 during all of the Paleozoic Era occurred during the Cambrian Period, nearly 7000 ppm -- about 18 times higher than today.

The Carboniferous Period and the Ordovician Period were the only geological periods during the Paleozoic Era when global temperatures were as low as they are today. To the consternation of global warming proponents, the Late Ordovician Period was also an Ice Age while at the same time CO2 concentrations then were nearly 12 times higher than today-- 4400 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming.

I will be presenting what is written on the rocks and what is the opinion.

Our Future Written in Stone

Today the Earth warms up and cools down in cycles. Geologic history reveals similar cycles were operative during the Carboniferous Period. Warming episodes caused by the periodic favorable coincidence of solar maximums and the cyclic variations of Earth's orbit around the sun are responsible for our warm but temporary interglacial vacation from the Pleistocene Ice Age, a cold period in Earth's recent past which began about 2 million years ago and ended (at least temporarily) about 10,000 years ago. And just as our current world has warmed, and our atmosphere has increased in moisture and CO2 since the glaciers began retreating 18,000 years ago, so the Carboniferous Ice Age witnessed brief periods of warming and CO2-enrichment.

Following the Carboniferous Period, earth witnessed predominantly desert-like conditions, accompanied by one or more major periods of species extinctions. CO2 levels began to rise during this time because there was less erosion of the land and therefore reduced opportunity for chemical reaction of CO2 with freshly exposed minerals. Also, there was significantly less plant life growing in the proper swamplands to sequester CO2 through photosynthesis and rapid burial.

It wasn't until Pangea began breaking up in the that climates became moist once again. Carbon dioxide existed then at average concentrations of about 1200 ppm, but have since declined. Today, at 380 ppm our atmosphere is CO2-impoverished, although environmentalists, certain political groups, and the news media would have us believe otherwise.

What will our climate be like in the future? That is the question scientists are asking and seeking answers to right now. The causes of "global warming" and climate change are today being popularly described in terms of human activities. However, climate change is something that happens constantly on its own. If humans are in fact altering Earth's climate with our cars, electrical powerplants, and factories these changes must be larger than the natural climate variability in order to be measurable. So far the signal of a discernible human contribution to global climate change has not emerged from this natural variability or background noise.

Understanding Earth's geologic and climate past is important for understanding why our present Earth is the way it is, and what Earth may look like in the future. The geologic information locked up in the rocks and coal seams of the Carboniferous Period are like a history book waiting to be opened. What we know so far, is merely an introduction. It falls on the next generation of geologists, climatologists, biologists, and curious others to continue the exploration and discovery of Earth's dynamic history-- a fascinating and surprising tale, written in stone.

Recently I heard a news item in CNN about the weather report which mentioned that average temperature recorded during 2008 is lowest in many years. This and experience of outcome of "Y2K Disaster" theories provoked me change the gear and go back to text books. I also tried to read materials which do not exactly agree with view of GW proponents. I have jotted down the points and at many places removed the complex explanation to simpler language. Of course, I have done lot of cut and paste from multiple resources.

If any one is interested, I suggest reading the article on the link http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html. It is quite elaborate. One can get deeper with the links inside the article and if anyone wants to go further deep, please refer to any classical Geology reference book.

Earth came to current stage from the molten rock stage. Last confirmed repeatable test of age of earth is around 4500 MM years. (MM stands for million). Life is confirmed to have started appearing around 600 MM year. This is called the Cambrian period. Anything before this is called Precambrian.

After earth started cooling down, as per the geological evidences the Ice age occurred much before the life appeared on the earth. Since then it is cycles of cooling to Ice age and warming up to rise sea level in the geological history of the earth. Earth's climate and the biosphere have been in constant flux, dominated by ice ages and glaciers for the past several million years. We are currently enjoying a temporary reprieve from the deep freeze.

Why the cycle of Ice age and Warming happens on the earth? Why the sea level changes? If the sea level changes are so disastrous, how the life has survived on the earth? Philosophically, why nature destroys its own creation? Am I so powerful to change natural course of action?

Let us see the reasons for temperature changes through geological ages.

Astronomical causes:

11 year and 206 year cycles of Solar variability

21,000 years cycle of earth's combined effect of tilt and elliptical orbit around the Sun.

41,000 year cycle of +- 1.5 degree wobble in earth's orbit

100,000 year cycle of variation in shape of earth's elliptical orbit

Atmospheric Causes

Heat retention: Due to atmospheric gases, mostly gaseous water vapor (not droplets), also carbon dioxide, methane, and a few other miscellaneous gases-- the "greenhouse effect"

Solar reflectivity: Due to white clouds, volcanic dust, polar ice caps

Tectonic Causes

Landmass distribution: Shifting continents (continental drift) causing changes in circulatory patterns of ocean currents. It seems that whenever there is a large land mass at one of the Earth's poles, either the north pole or south pole, there are ice ages.

Undersea ridge activity: "Sea floor spreading" (associated with continental drift) causing variations in ocean displacement.

I will present the sea level changes in the geological history and what is written in stone for our future in the next installment.

-William Butler Yeats

· When a loser makes a mistake, he says, "It wasn't my fault."

· A winner works harder than a loser and has more time;

· A loser is always "too busy" to do what is necessary.

· A winner goes through a problem;

· A loser goes around it, and never gets past it.

· A winner makes commitments;

· A loser makes promises

· A winners says, "I'm good, but not as good as I ought to be";

· A loser says, "I'm not as bad as a lot of other people."

· A winner listens;

· A loser just waits until it's his turn to talk.

· A winner respects those who are superior to him and tries to learn something from them.

· A loser resents those who are superior to him and tries to find chinks in their armor.

· A winner feels responsible for more than his job;

· A loser says, "I only work here."

· A winner says, "There ought to be a better way to do it."

· A loser says, "That's the way it's always been done here."

You stay up for 16 hours

He stays up for days on end.


You take a warm shower to help you wake up.

He goes days or weeks without running water.



You complain of a ' headache ' , and call in sick.

He gets shot at as others are hit, and keeps moving forward.


You put on your anti war/don ' t support the troops shirt, and go meet up with your friends.

He still fights for your right to wear that shirt.



You make sure you ' re cell phone is in your pocket.

He clutches the cross hanging on his chain next to his dog tags.


You talk trash about your ' buddies ' that aren ' t with you.

He knows he may not see some of his buddies again.


You walk down the beach, staring at all the pretty girls.

He patrols the streets, searching for insurgents and terrorists.


You complain about how hot it is.

He wears his heavy gear, not daring to take off his helmet to wipe his brow.

You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong.

He doesn ' t get to eat today.

Your maid makes your bed and washes your clothes.

He wears the same things for weeks, but makes sure his weapons are clean.


You go to the mall and get your hair redone.

He doesn ' t have time to brush his teeth today.



You ' re angry because your class ran 5 minutes over.

He ' s told he will be held over an extra 2 months.


You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight.

He waits for the mail to see if there is a letter from home.

You hug and kiss your girlfriend, like you do everyday.

He holds his letter close and smells his love ' s perfume.



You roll your eyes as a baby cries.

He gets a letter with pictures of his new child, and wonders if they ' ll ever meet.



You criticize your government, and say that war never solves anything.

He sees the innocent tortured and killed by their own people and remembers why he is fighting.



You hear the jokes about the war, and make fun of men like him.

He hears the gunfire, bombs and screams of the wounded.



You see only what the media wants you to see.

He sees the broken bodies lying around him.



You are asked to go to the store by your parents. You don ' t.

He does exactly what he is told even if it puts his life in danger.



You stay at home and watch TV.

He takes whatever time he is given to call, write home, sleep, and eat.



You crawl into your soft bed, with down pillows, and get comfortable.

He tries to sleep but gets woken by mortars and helicopters all night long.

Wikipedia states "...Nine of these avatars, or 'incarnations' are described as having occurred in the past, with one still to happen at the end of Kali Yuga."

Dashavataram is a very important part of Indian Hindu mythology and Special Purpose Vehicle to convey the Message" God protects the Good from the Evil".

Avatars are:

1.Lord Matsya.

2.Lord Kurma.

3.Lord Varaha.

4.Lord Narasimha.

5.Lord Vamana.

6.Lord Parasurama.

7.Lord Rama.

8.Lord BalaRama.

9.Lord Krishna.

Tenth Avatar is a little controversial or consensus is not there. Some say it is yet to come or some believe it is already there. Some say it is Lord Kalki (yet to appear) and some say it is Buddha.

The Dashavatar also conveys indirectly this world has cyclic phenomenon of getting to Evil state with passing time from being Good state.

Let us believe in Vishnu Avatars. Then question is why only ten avatars. Why not more? One can say afterall it is a matter of Faith. I am writing this what it would be when one sees it outside the limits of Faith and assume all the Scriptures are questionable.

I tried to extend the Concept of Vishnu Avatar to the recorded historical event. Over the historical period, Great persons have arrived and rescued the society from violence and brought in peace. Is it not possible Vishnu appeared more than ten times? Why restrict the avatars to ten times only.

yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya

glaanirbhavati bhaarata.

Abhyutthaanam.h adharmasya

tadaatmaanM sRRijaamyaham.h..

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter IV, Verse 7.

As mythology says, it is appearance of Vishnu in different forms again and again made the world livable. Most of us and our ancestors too believed (may be for centuries now) that time has come for next Avatar to destroy the Evil.

Let me take a few such events when society was brought to order from unrestricted violence and ruin.

1. Buddha : One of the greatest spiritual person in recorded history. It was a time when Hinduism had turned violent and all the human values were reached nadir. This period also saw the rise of tyranny of the upper castes and exploitation of the people belonging to the lower castes. Brahmins (priests) and Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors) did not allow the people belonging to lower castes or the Shudras and untouchables to have their say in the society. This period also saw a rift developing between the Brahmins on one hand and the Kshatriyas on the other. The rising popularity and aspirations of the Brahmin priests began to collide with the authority of the Kshatriyas, who formed the ruling class of each kingdom or republic. The Kshatriyas were alarmed by the rising power of the Brahmins, but they could not do much as they required the services of the Brahmins in all religious rituals and state occasions. Buddha appeared and rest is history.

2. Jesus Christ: Roman empire had reached new heights in oppression of downtrodden population. Jesus appeared and rest is history.

Is it not Buddha and Jesus are two avtars of Vishnu? Only difference is in modus operandi. All the Nine avatars used violent method to end the Evil. But Buddha and Jesus brought in changes by non-violent methods. But they achieved the same effect of earlier nine avatars of Vishnu with non-violence.

When we think Vishnu to be Universal, why He has to restrict his activities to India alone. He can appear anywhere. So Vishnu appeared in the Avatar of Buddha and Jesus. To me both of them are part of Vishnu Avatar. Therefore, Vishnuavatars, the present count is more than 10.

I am sure every Reader of this blog has his own list of worthy human beings who brought the changes and peace to make world livable. Stretching a bit, I may include Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther ... List goes on. Further, as Advaita and also one of our Ilandmate Jolly says Divinity resides in all of us. Of course, any one who has realization of this great strength and also performed the benevolent duty of protecting the "Good" can be counted a form Vishnu Avataars.

At the end, I am not trying hurt anyone's sentiments. It is my own hypothesis. All are invited to dispute, deny, accept, reject, ignore or place new thoughts etc..