President Putin has been trying for how many years to get the doofers off the dime? One thing Stalin did was get results, so maybe Vladimir could profit from his example in this instance; hire a half dozen actors to play factory managers (of unnamed factories in unspecified regions, of course), and put on a show via dvd of the 'execution' of the lazy and the stupid. Show the dvd to unsatisfactory managers, with the mention that he would prefer it if this manager were to not provide yet another example, for encouragement of others, but it was entirely up to the manager - - he could drastically improve his performance, leave his post, or take his chances. No one is actually shot, of course, but I'd suspect that there are a number of moss back ministers and managers who remember when people were shot for poor work performance, failure to meet quotas, wearing the wrong color tie or mismatched socks, or just because Uncle Joe thought that a certain number of people should be shot on that particular day. My bet is that the Russian armaments industry and related manufactory would become spectacular performs and producers virtually overnight. Think about it.

I guess it's a part of government's course on innovative development. With events like this https://www.fa cebook.com/OpenInnov ations2012 , with all the cooperated work on stimulating entrepreneurship in the country - I think it's a strong will to reconstruct existing economy.

ed (unregistered) wrote in #13
kuplungm aster wrote in #12
@ed
T he US debt cannot be fixed peacefully.  Either a whole-out world war or whole-out civil war with a necessary consequence of scrapping out the entire system may bring some changes.  How much in dollar terms?  If we ask FEDS they'll just fire up their machines and print more of the funny paper they call - money!  We can slowly inflate our way out of our debt problem. Pay off the debt (most by the way is held by Americans - Social Security Trust Fund). From CNBC:=============== ==================== ===========
"U.S. debt holdings: $6.328 trillion

That ’s right, the biggest single holder of U.S. government debt is inside the United States and includes the Federal Reserve system and other intragovernmental holdings. Of this number, The Fed's system of banks owns approximately $1.65 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities (as of January 2012), while other U.S. intragovernmental holdings - which include large funds such as the Medicare Trust Fund and the Social Security Trust Fund - hold the rest". 
================ ==================== ===========So, the answer is simple. We pay off today's $1 debt with tomorrow's $0.50 dollar (+/-). It will take some time, but it can and will be done. Simple economics! And as long as there is no replacement for the dollar (there isn't - the world depends on the American economy) the dollar will remain the reserve currency.

Oh - if some nation demands immediate payment and we say no, what are they going to do when we have the world's strongest military? NOTHING! That's what's called "Real politik"!

total us debt is 200 trillion$+