Paulson’s Bailout Money = Asia’s Extortion Money

September 30, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

$700 billion is a lot of money. Where is it all going to come from, and what will be the price? By Robert Morley

Big numbers get thrown around like they are nothing these days—a $140 billion tax refund here, an $85 billion bailout there. America must be one rich country. But America is not rich. It’s broke!

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion bailout plan may have been killed by the House of Representatives, but you can be sure that some form of similarly-sized gigantic rescue will most likely make it through eventually. The U.S. government, however, was already expecting to borrow over $430 billion to cover its normal operating expenditures. Judging by the size of the problem, America could easily be looking at a budget deficit of well over $1 trillion if it tries to prop up the banking sector. As a percent of gross domestic product, America hasn’t spent that much money since World War ii.

Such an outlay would put the United States well within banana republic territory. And as America’s leaders and banking experts claim, the other alternative—doing nothing—would be the financial equivalent of bombing us back to the Stone Age.

So which foreign investors are going to loan the U.S. government hundreds of billions so it can purchase above-market-price mortgages and other noxious “investmentsâ€