Posted on 11/19/2012 1:36:14 PM PST by libertarian neocon
I just started reading After America by Mark Steyn which I highly recommend to anyone. It is probably the most humorous book on the economic apocalypse you'll ever read. Anyway, Mark Steyn refers to a paper called "Financing US Debt: Is There Enough Money in the World - and At What Cost?" by US Treasury official (and former Chief Economist of the Office of Management & Budget) John Kitchen and Menzie Chinn of the Robert M. La Follete School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin. Using estimates from the CBO, they calculate how much US Treasury debt foreign governments will have to buy over the coming years to keep funding our government at current interest rates. The results are simply not pretty. It is becoming increasingly evident that the US debt is just so enormous that we will eventually not have enough people around to actually buy our debt from us. Check out this key chart:
“You can ALWAYS print more”
Tell that to Weimar Germany.
If I borrow money that I can't re-pay and I borrow more (that I can't re-pay) to cover what I can't re-pay .. I eventually run out of money to borrow and get to the point of facing the leg-breakers.
(Sorry .. it's the best I can do)
And THEY say, "Give us our money or we break your legs"
Obviously I can't give any money so ... what? ... I get my legs broken?
And they leave me there to heal, but come back after re-hab and again say, "Give us our money or ... "
what? ... you'll kill me ?
OK .. they kill me ... my family has long ago fled THIS Joe MSZPKXFT (probably spelled wrongly), so there's no where to go.
OK .. I'm dead, the money's not paid and .. what now?
My house?
Worth aboth $300 on the open market ... piece of shit in the wrong part of town.
So, besides someone controlling my estate (America), what can happen?
See ... all this seems so futile.
Your summation was excellent. Right on spot!
Y'know... I really do hate to point this out, but it was 'W' who signed the first TARP bill.
I always side with the conservatives, but I'm not sure the GOP has any moral high ground on this particular issue.
So long as you have a central bank and legal tender you will fund your government through it. That’s a law of human nature. That was always the point of the Federal Reserve; well, that and bailing out Big Business when malinvestment leads to recession. It’s not that so far we’ve been borrowing and soon we’ll have to rely on inflation. Oh, no. Inflation’s done most of the work all along. Borrowing, and to a certain extent taxation itself, are PR to prevent the general public from freaking out and collapsing the monetary system.
Excellent post, and a lot of FReepers are out of date on this.
Bush was selling debt to China.
Baraq and Geithner just create it electronically.
“If I borrow money that I can’t re-pay and I borrow more (that I can’t re-pay) to cover what I can’t re-pay ...”
Not to worry. In the 21st Century you don’t need to do this in person. that’s what your CongressCritter is for...on your behalf..and that of your grandkids...
It’d help to imagine yourself as a counterfeiter. A really good one whose product is indistinguishable from the real thing. So good, in fact, that your debtors will continue to accept your funny money until the real thing becomes so obviously overabundant as to be worthless.
Whoops, you are the debtors. I meant your lenders.
Bush was creating it electronically, too. We’ve been creating it electronically or with paper since 1913.
Depends on what you mean by money.
From 1796 to 1912, the “money question” (what is it, who decides, and how are interest rates set) was one of the top three political issues in every election.
We have become so inured to the novel form of “money” that we use now that it seems normal, when it decidedly is not.
OK .. I lose the game ... what was the purpose?
They’ll just keep printing more. Heck they don’t even have to print it these days
“...what was the purpose?”
To “prove” to the world capitalism “doesn’t work” and that for the “sake of the women, children, blacks and the poor” it must be banned. And only Marxism/Communism, which is “fair” will be allowed.
Any other questions?
.000000001 % of the population?
I guess I'm leading up to ... without getting banned from FreeRepublic to stating ... I'm pretty sure I won't allow anyone to do that to me.
Read into that what you will.
No one wants to say words that we swore we'd say IF the election went the wrong way.
Helloooo ...
McFlyyyyy ....
Isn’t it scary that people who think like little children can vote?
Kid: “Daddy, can I get a new bike?”
Daddy: “I don’t have the money right now.”
Kid: “Write a check.”
It is not his intention to "deal with that crisis", he is fully aware of what he is doing as he heads for the precipice with his foot flat out on the gas. It is his intention to destroy our economy. I base that assumption on his performance to date, there is no other explanation.
Regards,
GtG
Digi-dollars, absolutely correct, The audit of the Federal Reserve books showed it leant out $16 trillion over a 3 year period to foreign and domestic banks. This amount, greater than the entire accumulated national debt at the time.
No money was printed, they wired electronic ones and zeros. The greatest financial fraud in history occurred and no one noticed.
“It is not his intention to “deal with that crisis”, he is fully aware of what he is doing as he heads for the precipice with his foot flat out on the gas.”
I agree. Unlike some, I will not ever consider him to be my President.
in case you were wondering exactly who they are...and what their plans for you and I really are...
I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people.
And they were dead serious.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.