Columns: Letters at 3AM - The Austin Chronicle: ""
Fact: At present, the dollar is, in effect, backed by China – an increasingly reluctant China. Every dollar we print is a prayer that China won't turn us away. "The value of outstanding American Treasury bills now reaches $10.6 trillion. ... Worry centers on the possibility that foreigners could come to doubt the American wherewithal to pay back such an extraordinary sum" (The New York Times, Dec. 28, 2008, p.WK1). How will a country that's lost its manufacturing base pay back $10.6 trillion and counting? It is not possible. When the world faces that fact is when our troubles really start. What's happened so far is mere rehearsal.(Via The Austin Chronicle.)
