Laurence Jarvik links to a couple of reports that Russia should buy Alaska to solve America’s finacial difficulties.
I read the original Washington Post column by Steven Pealstein that proposed selling Alaska as a solution to America’s financial problems. (It also said that Alaska had a Soviet-style economy because of federal spending obtained by Senator Ted Stevens [R-AK])It seems like a funny joke at the time–but apparently in Russia,according to RIA-Novosti, people are now discussing the idea seriously.
I remember the days when people were suggesting that America buy Siberia, as a way to kickstart the ailing American economy. Back then, it was buy buy buy. Now it’s just sell ,sell, sell. Times must really be tough.
I’d rather sell them Hollywood. Any takers?
I’m wondering about this “ailing American economy” comment. If the US economy is ailing, then what is France and Germany? Desperate? The US economy is great if you are already rich … corporate profits, stock market, real estate, are all growing well enough. However, the middle class isn’t seeing any real wage growth.
At least, that’s my take from North of Boston.
WE SHOULD NEVER SELL ALASKA BACK TO RUSSIA! THAT’S ALMOST AS INSANE AS RUSSIA SELLING SIBERIA TO AMERICA. THE RUSSIANS WOULDN’T DO SUCH A CRAZY, INSANE THING LIKE THAT. I’ve often wondered what would/could happen if America tried to purchase all of Siberia from Russia. It won’t happen of course. That would be suicidal of the Russians to do such a thing. I suppose it would look very interesting on a map or globe in the geopolitical perspective but it’s safe to say that it won’t happen. CHEERS!
America would committing suicide to sell Alaska back to the Russians. Russia would be doing herself far worse by selling or ceeding any part of Siberia to China or any other nation. Russia needs strong nationalist leadership like the Pamyat heading up things in Moscow. America needs her own version of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. That’s it.
Everything has a price, but politically it would be difficult for any country to sell land today. I too remember the discussions of Russia selling Siberia. Many Russians asked me during the financial crisis (1998) and if I thought the United States would buy Siberia from them. Siberia may be difficult to manage and support an infrastructure, but the place is a virtual mall of natural resources in both energy and metals. It is just humorous to hear Russians talk about buying Alaska back now. It seems to be a nationalistic stance to reclaim territory and it is no more realistic than the United States purchasing Siberia nearly 10 years ago. Anyway, essentially, the United States is selling off its assets today when foreigners purchase US land, stocks, and bonds. Without that cash inflow to the US, the dollar would have crashed long ago because of the trade imbalance.
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