Putin on US: It's a 'Parasite'

Vladimir Putin is using Soviet-era terminology to criticize the US over its huge debt load. The Russian prime minister, speaking to a pro-Kremlin youth rally yesterday, called the US a "parasite" and said Russia and other countries should seek a new reserve currency to replace the dollar, reports Reuters. "They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," he said. "They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar."

Soviet leaders routinely used the term "parasite" to describe those who didn't contribute to the Communist state, the Wall Street Journal notes. Putin said the deal to raise the debt ceiling came as a relief, "but it simply delayed a more systemic solution." Russia, which keeps about 50% of its reserves in dollar assets, has been in talks with China about making the yuan a more convertible currency. (More debt ceiling stories.)