Pakistani penury

Ye gods, the global financial crisis, which has already compelled Europeans to build firewalls against further US economic shocks, is now prompting the Pakistani government to warn that it is approaching bankruptcy.

Ratings agency Standard and Poor's, has given Pakistan's sovereign debt a grade of "CCC +", a few notches above default. It said Pakistan may be unable to cover $US3 billion in debt payments.

Obviously, the US government will be in no position to bail out Pakistan with loans or direct aid. So where will Pakistan go for help? Pakistan will have to come to some form of arrangement with Saudi Arabia already about its oil imports, so why not extend the conversation in other economic directions?

Meanwhile, how aggressively will the Pakistani military pursue Al Qaeda and the Taliban? Meh, not so much, maybe, since military operations cost money.

Where's the nominal President of the United States today? Glad-handing the US Olympic team. As I said at the beginning of this post, ye gods.

Comments

[aikibrewer]

How fitting that at both the beginning and the end of his "career" of "service" to our country, Bush is AWOL.

[Jason]

"Obviously, the US government will be in no position to bail out Pakistan with loans or direct aid."

Why not? We've given them $10 billion in military assistance in the last 8 years. What's a few more billion? Certainly it's within the realm of Paulson's bail-out, er, rescue operation, and the administration could argue that it's national security-related and even take it frome defense. Hey - it's just money added to the deficit.

[runescape gold]

Excellent post,thanks for sharing!

[beats by dre it]

This is all very new to me and this article really opened my eyes. Thanks for sharing with us your wisdom.