Category: US Debt
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Friday, May 28, 2010
Californian Cities L.A., Antioch Going Bankrupt / Politics / US Debt
Bankruptcy talk is heating up in California with the city of Antioch on the front burner. Please consider Bankruptcy talk spreads among California municipal officials.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
E.U. Bailout Just Delays Inevitable Sovereign Debt Default / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Replacing most of Europe's colorful notes and various coins less than a decade ago, the euro is on the brink of extinction, according to Trader Tracks' Roger Wiegand, sharing news and views of Euroland's critical condition with Gold Report readers in this exclusive interview. Roger says the euro at $1.20 is the "line in the sand where big trouble will start. . .and that's dangerously close." On the other side of the world, he sees China doing well now, but doesn't pin his hopes on China as the engine for global economic growth as so many others do. In fact, he says things there are "fraying a bit on the edges." So, is there a white horse waiting in the wings to lead the world back to economic good health? Read on. . .
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Sunday, May 23, 2010
Sovereign Debt Crisis, America, PIIGS “R” Us too? / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The title of this essay may be a play on words but the facts are nothing of the sort. Indeed, the facts suggest that the financial position of the U.S. government may not be all that much better than the financial position of the governments of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece or Spain, the so-called PIIGS. In fact, given the agenda the Obama administration has set for America, one so far distinguished by ever larger government spending programs being financed by ever larger amounts of debt, the U.S. government may be well on its way to becoming PIIGS “R” Us.
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Saturday, May 15, 2010
California Debt Default is More Likely than Iceland or Iraq / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Federal Reserve isn't the only one who owns credit default swaps betting that California will default.
As Ed Harrison points out, credit default traders have now ranked California in the list of top 10 governments most likely to default, with a 20% default probability:
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Friday, May 14, 2010
Strategic Mortgage Defaults the Next Debt Time Bomb To Explode / Interest-Rates / US Debt
We spoke of this issue several months ago and stated that we were possibly in the midst of a new trend. We no longer need to ponder about this anymore; we are, in fact witnessing a new trend.
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Wednesday, May 12, 2010
U.S. Budget Deficit and Debt Landmines Dead Ahead! / Economics / US Debt
By Chris Wood, Jake Weber, and Vedran Vuk, The Casey Report write: Hearing President Obama’s economic peptalks, you might be under the impression that the U.S. needs to keep spending for just a little while longer to stimulate the economy – but then will swear off big deficits.
Reinforcing the point, to address concerns stirred by a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast that the U.S. government will accumulate total deficits in excess of $6 trillion over the next decade, in February President Obama issued an executive order to create a bipartisan fiscal commission. The commission’s task is to deliver recommendations to the president by December 1 for limiting future deficits to 3% of GDP. (The FY 2009 deficit approached 10% of GDP. The FY 2010 deficit will probably go even higher.)
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010
The Subprime Rhyme with U.S. Debt Debacle / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The similarities between the subprime mortgage crisis and that of the coming collapse of the U.S. bond market are uncanny. In fact, Mark Twain may have had the U.S. debt market and the previous debt-fueled real estate crisis in mind when he said that “History does not repeat itself—but it does rhyme.”
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Monday, May 03, 2010
The Unfolding Debt Danger: Greece Today…America Tomorrow? / Economics / US Debt
I have been analyzing economics and financial markets for over a quarter century and my analysis always stopped at “financial”. In other words, I do not follow trough usually past the financial theme. After all, as a certified financial planner (CFP), you usually think in terms of dollars and cents, interest rates and all sorts of financially-oriented concepts. I have always been concerned about the financial and economic impact of many different kinds of policies and events but in recent years I started thinking “outside of my own box.”
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Saturday, May 01, 2010
Debt, A Simple, but Painful Economic Lesson / Economics / US Debt
Two years ago, Jim Grant, ofGrant’s Interest Rate Observer, mentioned a book he had just read by physicist Mark Buchanan titled, “Ubiquity: The Science of History…or Why the World is Simpler Than We Think.” I purchased a copy of the book for my own library and have referenced it in several of my writings. The theme, “the world is simpler than we think”, seems to defy the very modern world we live in. Just look at the picture below. Is this a group of college students learning how scientists have solved a complex physics problem, or a group of citizens trying to understand how the billions in TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds were created and used?
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Friday, April 23, 2010
U.S. Government Deficit Spending Debt, We’re All Comrades Now / Interest-Rates / US Debt
David Galland, Managing Editor, The Casey Report writes : To ascertain what move the government is most likely to take next, we must first assess the probabilities.
In order to do that, we start by restating the central question, “How does the U.S. government spend, spend, spend (a minimum of $10 trillion in red ink over the next decade) and yet maintain today’s historically low interest rates?”
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Friday, April 23, 2010
U.S. Debt and Bankruptcy / Economics / US Debt
There has never been as much attention paid to the situation of a looming American bankruptcy since the National Debt Clock made its debut many moons ago. It is hard these days to pick up a newspaper or look at a TV program without hearing someone mention our massive debt. And they’d be correct in saying we’re in big trouble. Numerous articles have asked the question ‘Is America Bankrupt?’ While bankruptcy on a family or individual scale is a fairly simple construct to grasp, such is not the case when it comes to a nation or group of nations, as is the case in Europe. This week’s essay is dedicated to making a rather complex question a little easier to understand, and more importantly – to arrive at a more definitive answer.
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Sunday, April 11, 2010
Gold Market Flashing Debt Crisis Warning / Interest-Rates / US Debt
When you’ve been trading gold for 32 years like I have, you develop a sixth sense for the precious yellow metal.
You can hear it speak to you. You can feel its heartbeat. You can interpret its signals.
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Tuesday, April 06, 2010
U.S. Debt Crisis Startling Facts / Economics / US Debt
This report contains 11 staggering facts that every American needs to know — and that every investor won’t be able to succeed without …
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Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Protect Your Wealth From Exploding Debt as States Implode / Interest-Rates / US Debt
The world is breathing a sigh of relief now that the financial crisis in Greece is “over.” Yeah, right. Greece’s financial misdeeds — the country has racked up a lot of debts it can’t pay — will probably come back to haunt Europe, and soon.
But we in America shouldn’t be too smug, because U.S. states have their own money problems, many of them worse than anything facing Greece — and the problems at home are starting to erupt!
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Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Government Stimulus Trillions In Borrowings, Just Say NO! / Economics / US Debt
Let me start out by asking a few questions. How many of you were pro-bailout? How many pro-healthcare? How many think borrowing trillions of dollars to “stimulate” will really have any long term effect what-so-ever on the economy? How many realize that borrowing and spending really isn’t the cure for a problem caused by too much debt and too much consumption?
Now let me ask another question. Aren’t our politicians supposed to represent the will of the people?
Monday, April 05, 2010
EXTEND & PRETEND: U.S. High Yield Debt Hitting the Maturity Wall! / Interest-Rates / US Debt
How long can the government continue to extend & pretend? How long can public policy endlessly ‘kick-the-can’ down the road without addressing the underlying causes? Such a critical point is often academically referred to as a ‘Tipping Point’ or what newsletter writer John Mauldin refers to as a ‘Finger of Instability’. I am more pragmatic and as an investor, who is forced to call the timing, I refer to it as the Maturity Wall.
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Friday, April 02, 2010
Increasing Debt Increases Economic Growth Say the Keynesians / Economics / US Debt
You may not have watched my video seminar, "Retirement Armageddon." It's here.
Let me explain why you should.
In fiscal 2010, the Federal debt will increase by an estimated $1.5 trillion, give or take $100 billion.
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Thursday, April 01, 2010
U.S. Debt–to-GDP Situation, When Will the Dominos Align / Economics / US Debt
In February 19, 2010 Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger included the following chart in his column. Federal spending has grown seven times the real median household income over the last 40 years. At some point, the government will be unable to pay for all the new programs, stimulus, healthcare, rapid expansion in number of government employees, etc. The market will drive up the cost of debt to levels that lead to default. Many say it cannot happen to the U.S.
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
U.S. Debt Reaches Tipping Point / Economics / US Debt
Even the most statist economists can understand that a country’s debt has reached its saturation point once the change in Gross Domestic Product is less than the change in the federal debt. However, now the metrics of the American economy look even worse than the picture painted above. For each new dollar in federal debt, with productivity as measured by an increase or decrease in the GDP, 45 cents of wealth is destroyed.
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
The US is at a Precipice / Economics / US Debt
Tim Gatto writes: We are at a precipice. This is the end of one era and the beginning of another. The “real” world that so many people believe in, here in America is not the world you see on your TV sets, that is the world that the government and the media want you to believe in. We are so accustomed to believing in our own American ideology that we can’t understand the ramifications of what we have done.
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