Posted on 04/08/2020 4:55:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
You can always tell a libertarian but you can’t tell him much.
I think default is inevitable.
People act like it is “impossible” to default because its so drastic. Well, it’s “impossible” to pay $24T in debt.
The system of debt that the central banks have created is a bad system. Time to sweep it away.
Yeah, I am not good with it. I feel as though the government is buying us. What ever happened to bonds? Didn’t we fight WWII on war bonds?
1. Raise taxes.
2. Print money.
3. Default.
...
Or grow the economy.
Stossel likes to whine and play the ideological Libertarian every now and then.
Yes, the debt is too high, but the most important thing is to make sure the economy can make a quick recovery, and Trump did that. He had to make deal with the devils in the Democrat party, but there was no choice. One good thing is that interest rates are low.
The worst possible action would have been to play the austere ideological Libertarian or Conservative and let the economy sink into a deep depression.
Finance it at near 0% interest rates. And refinance more of the debt at near 0% interest rates.
Get back to growing the economy and pay it off over time.
No need to raise taxes in the short run, doing so would be counter productive.
To the extent the stimulus is loans that get paid back, you pay it off when the loan is collected.
Monetary policy can be reversed at the appropriate time.
What ever happened to bonds?
...
The government will be issuing bonds to cover the cost.
The national debt is a huge problem. We will eventually pay the price.
But the author forgot another option:
4: Rev up the Economy
The debt is very large, but if the economy revs up and we stop spending (annual “deficit” goes negative), we will eventually pay off the debt.
This approach allows us to absorb the pain over a long period of time.
But I don’t hold out hope that our politicians will do it. They can’t campaign on “tightening our belts.”
Finance it at near 0% interest rates. And refinance more of the debt at near 0% interest rates.
Get back to growing the economy and pay it off over time.
...
You’ve got it.
CLOWARD-PIVEN on Steroids!
Based on the information we had at the time, what other options were there?
The purpose of selling war bonds was to get people to give up their excess cash during the war, for the purpose of stifling black market activity for materials that were needed for the war effort.
Anyone who writes an article like this that only focuses on the threat of inflation is missing half the point. A detailed explanation of DEFLATION is warranted in an article like this ... to explain the real reason for the massive government intervention in our economy right now.
Growing the economy only works if you aren’t also growing the deficit with it.
Look at the last 3 years. We’ve evolved the greatest economy in world history and yet instead of taking advantage of it to chip away at our debt we spent, and spent, and spent.
It’s no longer Democrat vs. Republican in politics. It’s now Globalist vs. Nationalist, which explains why it’s so easy to envision GOP dopes like Romney or Kasich in a Biden cabinet ... and why Donald Trump is likely to get a lot of votes from Bernie Sanders supporters in November.
Federal debt is not demand debt. It's not a mortgage where you can find someone else to lend you money at a lower interest rate so you can pay off your current mortgage which has a higher rate. Federal debt - be it bills, notes, or bonds - is traded on the financial markets, and the only way for the government to retire it early is to buy it back. If you're buying back debt that has a higher interest rate than the current rates then you're going to pay a premium for it. If you want to buy back $1 trillion in debt that is paying 3% for example then it's going to cost you more than $1 trillion to do it. So if you're borrowing money at a lower rate but increasing the federal debt by 10% or 15% or 20% to do it then are you really better off?
Okay
Who buys a bond or T-Bill that pays 0% interest?
Even if inflation is 3% it is still eating your lunch.
Why would anyone invest in a bond that is guaranteed to lose money.
Some places in Europe have *negative* interest rates.
I love it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If Trump didn't do the stimulus...people would rail on him. Trump moves on stimulus and people start this nonsense.
Our government is waaaaaaaay past caring about the freakin debt. In fact, I've even heard back in the Obozo days, then a week or so ago in regards to minting a couple of Platinum coins and denominating them in the trillions...lol
Ho hum...life goes on.
That is not the rate on Treasury Bonds or Bills which is the way governments borrow money.
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