Posted on 03/22/2015 8:14:15 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76
You read that right: $210 trillion.
A trillion here, a trillion there: pretty soon, were talking big money.
Professor Lawrence Kotlikoff of Boston University testified before the Senate Budget Committee. As usual, his testimony is shocking
The U.S. has a $210 trillion fiscal gap and may well be in worse fiscal shape than any developed country, including Greece, Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff told members of the Senate Budget Committee in written and oral testimony on Feb. 25.
The first point I want to get across is that our nation is broke, Kotlikoff testified. Our nations broke, and its not broke in 75 years or 50 years or 25 years or 10 years. Its broke today.
Indeed, it may well be in worse fiscal shape than any developed country, including Greece, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at teapartyeconomist.com ...
The word “broke” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Is that Y2K Gary North?
Yep, I believe it is.
There are about a quadrillion dollars worth of credit derivatives out there. If the economy goes TU we’re only on the hook for about $100 trillion or so. This is not including our debt plus unfunded liabilities with that price tag of $210 trillion.
Link not working for me.
Seems mighty racist.
All it takes is one event that causes somebody to call in their debtors to bring the whole thing down. WWI was started by a single assassination.
Try this link:
http://teapartyeconomist.com/2015/03/12/washingtons-210-trillion-deficit/
Gary North is reporting what the prominent Prof. Kotlikoff told Congress. Kotlikoff is a recognized expert on the federal budget.
Economists.
They’ve known what they were doing all along.
The economics were never difficult. People got their PhD’s for coming up with brilliant ways of lying about it.
These people then went on to create Common Core.
We have been doing alright ignoring it for the last fifty years.
If I place a $5 bet on a game between two $1 billion dollar sports teams, is my bet somehow worth $2 billion?
The problem, as I understand it, is that people have borrowed money on these assumed values. A whole lot of debt that has nothing underneath it.
Old joke. It's May Day in Moscow, and Stalin is reviewing the Soviet military. In the parade there are thousands of troops, hundreds of tanks, and dozens of mobile missile launchers. But marching ahead of them all are a dozen men in civilian suits, carrying briefcases.
Stalin is confused. "Who are those men?", he asks a nearby general. "Comrade Stalin," the general replies, "those are economists. They are the most dangerous men of them all."
Well so much for picking up pennies on the sidewalk
War is always the way big money puts its house in order. And the only ones to suffer are The People.
Keep your eye on the year 2025. That’s when it’s scheduled to hit the fan.
Are you will to bet on another fifty or fifteen or ten or even five? Kotlikoff said most Americans, if they knew the truth, would try to kick the can down the road. But for how long? The piper must be paid at some point. Baby boomer retirements accelerating. Half the working age are not working. Interest rates have no where to go but up. In just six years, Obama added $7.5 trillion to federal debt (now $18.2 tril) and CBO projects $22 tril at term end.
Supporting the Ponzi scheme is status of US dollar as global currency. That may end sooner than later. BRICS and others working on a dethroning.
Someone said, the end will come like a thief in the night. Canary in coal mine: watch the bond traders for signs of the Great Unraveling coming to everyone’s neighborhood theater.
Ya think?
I read on the internet that it is going south this coming fall.
The Shimita (sp?), blood moons, et all.
Like I have a clue? Sure I could wish in one hand, and spit in the other, right?
All I know is that we have painted ourselves into a corner, and there is no way out.
When we will realize that, I have no clue. What I do know is that it won’t be pleasant, and many will die, when the “house of cards” collapses from the years of spending beyond our means, and our elected pols lying about it, so they could retain the perks of office.
That’s not how credit derivatives work. Think of it as insurance for the loss of an investment.
People have borrowed money on derivatives contracts?
Who would lend based on that?
You have any backup for that claim?
Here's a better sports analogy, if I understand derivatives correctly (and perhaps nobody does). Suppose it's the New England Patriots vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars.
You issue notes, at $5 apiece, promising to pay each bearer $1 million dollars if Jacksonville wins by 35 points or more. Now suppose 1000 people take you up on that. Those folks might have bet on the Patriots, but want to hedge their bets a bit.
So now there is $1 billion dollars of derivatives on the line (the note's value is "derived" from some other value, in this case the game's final score). You better hope that Jacksonville doesn't win by 35 points or more. Because if they do, your company is going to collapse spectacularly.
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.