Category: US Debt
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Tuesday, March 23, 2010
U.S. Debt Crisis, Battle for the Budget / Economics / US Debt
Bud Conrad, Editor, The Casey Report writes: Recently the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published its scoring of President Obama's budget for the next 10 years. It shows a budget deficit of $9.8 trillion. That is just shy of $4 trillion worse than the CBO’s baseline budget, a budget that includes only the laws as currently enacted, with no estimates of any new programs lawmakers may add that worsen future projections.
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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
U.S. Implodocare, Death by Debt / Politics / US Debt
The wild-eyed, in-and-out "Health Care" burger BO and his henchmen and women cooked up at yesterday's spending and tax orgy on the Hill front-loads the freebies for the least productive parts of society and back-loads the trillions in new taxes, regulations, radical changes, and costly cuts for the more productive Americans.
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Monday, March 22, 2010
Bernanke Running Amuck, Trashing History And Threatening America's Future / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Fed Chairman Bernanke is running amuck, and for the first time since the birth of the U.S. dollar, our government is egregiously abusing its power to print money.
Specifically, from September 10, 2008 to March 10 of this year, he has increased the nation’s monetary base from $850 billion to $2.1 trillion — an irresponsible, irrational and insane increase of 2.5 times in just 18 months.
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Monday, March 22, 2010
Predator States Consuming Our Capital / Economics / US Debt
It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ones. ~ Alfred North Whitehead
A sure-fire sign of a business enterprise in decline is when it begins using its invested capital to pay operating expenses. Such signs of ill-health are not confined to the world of commerce and industry, but can exhibit themselves in the life of any system. We are witnessing the practice in the collapse of Western Civilization, as we scurry to meet short-term demands by sacrificing the foundations upon which our culture has long been grounded.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
Marc Faber Discusses U.S. Debt Default and Hyper Inflation / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Marc Faber sets out how he expects the U.S. will handle the growing debt mountain by first monetizing the debt, then defaulting on interest payments to foreigners as the U.S. inflates the debt away through high inflation or even hyper inflation.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
IMF Economic Fear Mongering Comes to America / Politics / US Debt
In addition to mandatory private health insurance premiums, we may soon be hit with a “mandatory savings” tax and other belt-tightening measures urged by the President’s new budget task force. These radical austerity measures are not only unnecessary, however, but will actually make matters worse. The push for “fiscal responsibility” is based on bad economics.
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Sunday, February 28, 2010
Bernanke Says U.S. Heading for Greece Style Debt Crisis / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Bernanke is now joining Rosenberg, Ferguson and Faber, Edwards, Grice and many others in warning that the debt crisis rearing its head in Greece may spread to America, causing U.S. interest rates to climb.
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Thursday, February 25, 2010
As Greece Goes, So Goes the U.S.? / Economics / US Debt
Greece hasn't gotten so much press since 146 B.C. when the Romans took over. Of late, Greece sneezes and investors think the U.S. is going to catch the swine flu. Of course, it is not just Greece. Greece is part of the EU and the EMU. So, it is thought that as goes Greece, so goes Europe. And then, the next step is that as goes Europe, so goes the U.S. But is Europe really where the action is with regard to U.S. economic growth?
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
I Am Worried about the Government Debt My Descendants Will Inherit / Politics / US Debt
This is a common concern I hear from seniors and even some enlightened baby boomers. (Yes, Virginia, there actually are some enlightened baby boomers!) Is this a legitimate concern? You betcha. The chart below shows actual per-capita gross federal debt through 2009 and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) projected per-capita federal debt thereafter through 2020. In 2009, each of us was responsible for $38, 651 dollars of gross federal debt. By 2020, CBO projects each of us will be on the hook for $62, 808 of gross federal debt.
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Monday, February 22, 2010
U.S. Government Debt Crisis is Financial Armageddon / Interest-Rates / US Debt
If you thought Wall Street’s debt crisis was traumatic, wait till you the see the consequences of Washington’s debt crisis!
Never before in history has a world power like the U.S. been so utterly buried in debt! And never before has that debt been financed so massively by foreign investors!
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Saturday, February 20, 2010
Miami's Municipal Woes (Again): Exiting Before the Tide Goes Out / Politics / US Debt
Miami's tradition of unruly official behavior is finally bringing painful consequences. After years of reckless financial management and a bribery scandal that produced federal charges against three top city officials, South Florida's largest city stands on the edge of bankruptcy."-Time, December 16, 1996, "Gloom Over Miami"
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Sunday, February 14, 2010
Niall Ferguson: A Greek Debt Crisis is Coming to America / Interest-Rates / US Debt
Oh that Niall! Always stirring up trouble... Today might be the most entertaining set of posts I've ever put together - what a smorgasbord. Today we have an editorial in the Financial Times raising many of the same issues we speak out weekly in these virtual pages. Don't forget your own homeland Mr. Ferguson; it's a mini US but without the reserve currency - this "grand experiment" of fighting debt with more debt should show up on your shores before ours. The only thing that separates our 2 nations from the Greeks on a fiscal basis, is the printing press. [Feb 5, 2010: Sovereign Risk Chart - Where Would the US Fit in, on Europe's Scale?]
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
Refuse to Pay Odious Government Debt Incurred to Finance Illegal Wars / Politics / US Debt
It Is the Personal Debt of Those Who Ordered It
There is an established legal principle that people should not have to repay their government's debt to the extent that it is incurred to launch aggressive wars or to oppress the people.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Solution to the Washington Debt Crisis Threat / Politics / US Debt
Frédéric Bastiat must have been looking toward the future of the United States today when he said, "When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it."
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
California Debt Crisis, Muni Bonds At Real Risk of Default / Interest-Rates / US Debt
California’s finances are a mess. Credit default swap rates put California among the top ten most likely to default among major governments worldwide.
If you are a California resident and think California can solve it’s own budget problems, or if you think the US government will bail them out, then you might want to own California municipal bonds for the best fit tax shelter and the higher nominal yield. However, if you doubt either of those, you may be better off owning a national or non-California muni fund, and accept a less tax efficient holding with a somewhat lower nominal yield, but with superior credit quality.
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Sunday, February 07, 2010
U.S. Federal Deficit is the Biggest Threat to Investor Wealth! EVER! / Stock-Markets / US Debt
While our federal deficit explodes and U.S. stocks sink, I’ve been actively meeting our readers on my personal blog to share ideas on how to build the optimal growth portfolio in trying times like these.
We’ve examined all five of the major asset classes — stocks, bonds, currencies, precious metals and commodities — to sort out which ones we believe will sink and which will surge going forward.
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Friday, February 05, 2010
No Easy Way Out From America's Debt Crisis / Economics / US Debt
I just got back from my first lengthy vacation in years — to New York, London, and Paris. I enjoyed many fine meals and fun nights out with friends. I got to see everything from the Rosetta Stone and St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower.
The only real downside? The lousy January weather!
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
U.S. on the Brink of Bankruptcy? / Economics / US Debt
Martin Hutchinson writes: U.S. President Barack Obama's budget for 2011, presented on Monday, shows a deficit of $1.3 trillion for the fiscal year that ends that September. That shortfall is actually $287 billion more than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had projected less than a week earlier, when it had released a budget forecast of its own for that same fiscal year.
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Global Insolvency, How will the U.S. Service its Debt? / Economics / US Debt
The recent election in Massachusetts of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate was a seminal event. It ended the Democratic administration’s ability to ram through legislation. It changed the game. The locomotive hit the bunter.
China saw the error of its ways in overstimulating its economy and halted bank lending. The Senate majority refusing to seat the new Senator Brown passed a tremendous increase in short-term government debt. Goldman Sachs and others thumbed their noses at the rest of America and distributed giant bonuses as the country wallowed in depression and 22.5% unemployment. Finally we have Paul Volcker proclaiming the end of too big to fail and stopping banks from trading their own accounts.
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
U.S. Deepening Debt Crisis, Be Afraid of Bernanke Reappointment / Economics / US Debt
If the economy deteriorates in the L-shaped “hockey-stick” rut that many economists forecast, what political price will President Obama and the Democrats pay for having returned the financial keys to the Bush Republican appointees who gave away the store in the first place? Reappointing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may end up injuring not only the economy but also the Democratic Party for years to come. Recognizing this, Republicans made populist points by opposing his reappointment during the Senate confirmation hearings last Thursday, January 27 – the day after Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address.
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