Category: US Debt
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Friday, July 22, 2011
Kamikaze War on U.S. Debt Ceiling / Politics / US Debt
New York: During World War 2, the Japanese deployed units of pilots who turned their planes into bombs, and sacrificed themselves in the name of their emperor in a holy war against US ships. They would aim for the deck of aircraft carriers and do as much damage as they could at a cost of their equipment and their lives.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
U.S. Debt Ceiling Myths / Politics / US Debt
The debt ceiling debate that has dominated the headlines over the past month has been thoroughly infused with a string of unfortunate misconceptions and a number of blatant deceptions. As a result, the entire process has been mostly hot air.
While a recitation of all the errors would be better attempted by a novelist rather than a weekly columnist, I'll offer my short list.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
The Great Default, The Feds and Their Mega-Debts / Politics / US Debt
To cheer your day – maybe your year – click through to this chart on tax revenues. The U.S. Government has hit a tax revenue ceiling. It is in the range of 16% of GDP.
The government is spending about 24% of GDP, which is down slightly from 2009, which was the all-time high since 1945.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011
U.S. Economic Policy Failures, Federal Debt Bomb End Game / Economics / US Debt
Long-time readers are familiar with the wisdom of Lacy Hunt. He is a regular feature of Outside the Box. He writes a quarterly piece for Hoisington Asset Management in Austin, and this is one of his better ones. Read it twice.
"While the massive budget deficits and the buildup of federal debt, if not addressed, may someday result in a substantial increase in interest rates, that day is not at hand. The U.S. economy is too fragile to sustain higher interest rates except for interim, transitory periods that have been recurring in recent years. As it stands, deflation is our largest concern ..."
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Monday, July 18, 2011
The Painful Consequences of a U.S. Debt Ceiling Increase / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Larry D. Spears writes: Failure to reach a compromise on a U.S. debt ceiling increase could result in an unmitigated economic disaster - one so unprecedented government and private analysts can't even accurately pinpoint all the potential consequences.
To avert this crisis, U.S. President Barack Obama wants a debt ceiling increase of $2 trillion, which analysts say would carry the country through the end of 2012. The president has moved the deadline for reaching an agreement up to July 22.
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Sunday, July 17, 2011
Financial Crimes on Wall Street and the Debt Crisis / Politics / US Debt
Crime on Wall Street, in banking and in corporate America pays. One just neither admits or denies and lets the corporate shareholders pay the fines. These are today’s untouchable, who steal billions and get away with it. Financial institutions are too big to fail, as are their key employees.
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Sunday, July 17, 2011
Economic Medicine and the U.S. Debt Ceiling Debate / Politics / US Debt
The blood pressure of the patient in the emergency room drops precipitously.
The ER docs have already given 15 pints of blood over the course of many hours. But the patient is still on the verge of dying.
Medical rules and regulations say that more than 15 pints of blood should never be given, as too much transfusion can cause other fatal problems.
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Saturday, July 16, 2011
Pushing U.S. Treasury Default Beyond August 2 / Interest-Rates / US Debt
If the federal debt ceiling were not raised by August 2, there still would be temporary means for the Treasury to keep paying all of its bills for a while. The Treasury could pull an FDR and revalue its gold holdings. Currently, the Treasury is valuing its gold holdings at $42.22 an ounce. By revaluing its gold holdings near the current open-market price, say at $1,575 an ounce, the value of Treasury gold holdings would rise by $400.8 billion. The Fed could write up the Treasury's deposit account by that much and the bills could be paid for a bit longer even without an increase in the debt ceiling.
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Saturday, July 16, 2011
Pimco's Gross: U.S. Lawmakers "Don't Get" Implications of Debt Ceiling Debate / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Bill Gross of Pimco spoke to Bloomberg Television's Tom Keene this afternoon about the economy, the debt debate in Washington and the European stress tests. Gross said that he doesn't expect QE3, but that he expects the Fed to reiterate language. He also said that lawmakers "don't get" the long-term implications of the debt debate and that they "need to approach it gradually" when it comes to cutting spending.
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Friday, July 15, 2011
Lower the U.S. Debt Ceiling / Politics / US Debt
Currently, the big show in Washington, DC, centers around raising the debt ceiling. Congress began setting this ceiling in 1917 so that the Treasury could independently issue debt. The debt ceiling is like the limit on your credit card, except the federal government sets the limit on itself. When President Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971, the national debt was $400 billion. The increase in the national debt last year alone was four times the entire debt in 1971.
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Friday, July 15, 2011
History of U.S. Debt Defaults / Interest-Rates / US Debt
John S. Chamberlain writes: On July 13th, the president of the United States angrily walked out of ongoing negotiations over the raising of the debt ceiling from its legislated maximum of $14.294 trillion dollars. This prompted a new round of speculation over whether the United States might default on its financial obligations. In these circumstances, it is useful to recall the previous instances in which this has occurred and the effects of those defaults. By studying the defaults of the past, we can gain insights into what future defaults might portend.
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Thursday, July 14, 2011
What Congress Doesn’t Want You to Know About the Debt Ceiling Debate / Politics / US Debt
Martin Hutchinson writes: At this point, there can't be anyone left who truly believes that the debt ceiling debate taking place in Washington is really about what's good for America.
The truth is it's about the 2012 election - and the party that wins the debt ceiling debate will be the party that comes out on top next year.
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Thursday, July 14, 2011
Moody's Puts U.S. AAA Credit Rating at Risk of Downgrade / Interest-Rates / US Debt
At long last the bond vigilantes have a spotlight on US debt. Please consider Japan Stock Futures Fall as Yen Rises as Moody’s Reviews U.S Credit Rating
Read full article... Read full article...Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S., rated Aaa since 1917, under review for a credit-rating downgrade for the first time since 1995 on concern the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes even though the risk remains low. The rating would likely be reduced to the Aa range and there is no assurance that Moody’s would return its top rating even if a default is quickly cured.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Debt Ceiling Reality Show Must Go On / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The Debt Ceiling Reality Show is winding down to its dramatic conclusion on August 2. I think Fox should capitalize on the drama by gathering the American Idol judges to vote on the best performance by a political hack. We can have Ryan Seacrest announce on August 1 at 11:55 pm that the winner is – THE WALL STREET MONIED INTERESTS.
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Thursday, July 14, 2011
United States on the Road to Perdition / Interest-Rates / US Debt
David Galland interviews Terry Coxon, The Casey Report : Terry Coxon worked side by side with best-selling author Harry Browne for years and is a rare expert in the arcane study of monetary systems. His remarks at this juncture in time, a time that might end up labeled in the history books as “Money Runs Wild,” are especially germane.
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011
U.S. Debt Ceiling Show Baloney / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The mainstream media are all a-twitter. Speaker of the House John Boehner has given up in the President's offer of a solution to the deficit crisis: a $4 trillion deficit reduction package. Oh, the horror! Oh, the pigheadedness of the Republicans!
Oh, the chicanery of the media. Maybe you have noticed the game that the media manipulators play: they announce a Big Government Deal in the headline, only to add later in the story these words: "over the next decade." This is the baloney factor.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Run on U.S. Government is Coming / Politics / US Debt
A run is a mass withdrawal of cash funds from a borrower. We are in the midst of a continuing worldwide credit crisis, punctuated by "runs" of varying prominence and publicity.
These runs are rational, not panics and not due to quirks of psychology. They occur when investors realize that their funds are endangered in an institution. They try to get them out before they lose them.
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Defaulting on the Fed's Bonds / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Ron Paul recently made (another) splash among economic pundits with his suggestion that the Treasury simply cancel the $1.6 trillion in its debt held by the Federal Reserve. Many of Paul's longstanding critics seized on the proposal as reckless and said it was further evidence that Paul doesn't understand financial markets. However, Paul received unexpected praise from the progressive economist Dean Baker.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
Mounting U.S. Public Debt Prompting Looting of Pensions, Social Security and Medicare / Politics / US Debt
Government debt will be in the vicinity of $1.5 trillion this year. Ever since May 16th short-term debt has been frozen at about $14.3 trillion. Up until May 16th the year-to-debt fiscal debt was $783.135 billion. That means if no August 2nd agreement is reach, $275 billion will be needed up to August 2nd, a total of about $700 billion will be needed by 9/30/11, the end of the fiscal year.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
On the Road to U.S. Government Debt Default, August 2nd Judgement Day / Interest-Rates / US Debt
A great default is behind us. The public is unaware of this. If you read this report, you will no longer be unaware of it.
The ease with which this default took place should serve as a warning: there will be additional, much larger defaults. Again, the public does not understand this. The main one will be Social Security. The program is now in the red: more money going out than comiomng in. But most people still cannot believe that the program really will go belly-up. That's why I produced a video on this.
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