America Not Going to Have to Break UK's Thumbs
Expect Britain to quit being so nice to us all the time -- 'cause they're finally paid up.
Back in 1945, we lent Great Britain 4.5 billion dollars at a killer 2% rate. Though it wasn't entirely out of the goodness of our hearts -- once FDR was outta the picture, the lend-lease "give shit to England for free" program dried up and we expected our largesse to be repaid.
As you might know, England has had some cash flow problems since the war ended, so they've missed a couple payments here and there. But on Friday, they'll send us the last check and we'll call off the collections agents who call the Queen every night.
The US made a $3 billion profit, but we decided a couple years ago that it's way more lucrative to lend money at higher rates to third-world countries.
Britain to pay final World War Two loan instalment [Reuters]