Posted on 06/30/2008 6:06:46 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The inflation question was asked at the Madison event earlier this year. Dave Walker said that entitlements are indexed to inflation so it wouldn’t do any good.
I know - that is the rock/hard place problem and why the FED lies about the true rate of inflation. BUT - The FED can NOT control anything but very short term interest rates. Medium and long term rates are set by the market and I think that is going to change and go much higher.
I have been looking into RTPIX, RRPIX, PST and TBT as a way to invest to what I think is going to happen...
This would be good advise to our government.
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
No it it up to 1976. That means this email has been around for 17 years. (1 billion seconds = 31.69 years)
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
And quite cranky at about 110 years old. (1 billion minutes = 1901 years).
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
Now it is closer to 3 hours. ($1 billion / $2.9 trillion * 365 days * 24 hours = 3.02 hours)
“I’m sure that people during the Roman Empire never thought that that Rome would fall,”
...and yet, where would we be today, if it hadn’t?
For many people, #s 2 & 4 are extremely hard to do at the same time and it never works out that way.
1B Zimbabwe $ = approx 1 US $
Good article, unfortunately written about five years too late.
Can we sell ‘debt credits’ to other governments like the ‘carbon credits’ proposals?
Oh, higher interest rates for sure, but of greater concern are the radically higher tax rates (since even at high interest rates, US debt will be treated much like CDO debt is today)
So, if, as one poster pointed out, that entitlements indexed for inflation are honored (they won't be....but that's another story) and nobody will loan us money, then where will the government get the money? “The Rich”.....”Big Oil”....”Greedy CEO’s and their company's” The productive will be put out of business (or forced into the black market).
For the GOP to redeem itself it’s going to take people coming forth with revolutionary ideals - not more of the same stuff we have been seeing for the past 20 years or so.
The article says that we are increasingly having to rely on China and oil exporters to bail us out. The national debt problem would never have gotten to where it is without our trade imbalance.
/facepalm
Borrowing puts our national security in peril. One of the few modifications to the Constitution that I would support is a balanced budget amendment.
The article says many things.
The question is: are they true?
The national debt problem would never have gotten to where it is without our trade imbalance
Really? So it is impossible for a country with a positive trade imbalance to borrow money?
Or, alternatively, it is impossible for a country with a negative trade imbalance to delever?
Here's a hint: our trade imbalance is currently $61 billion. Our total economy is $13.5 trillion.
In other words, our trade imbalance is 0.4% of our economy.
Meant to ping you to 34.
What did the founding fathers think about debt?
“I place economy among the first and most important of republic virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” -Thomas Jefferson to William Plumer, 1816
“Within our own borders we possess all the means of sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the same time, these advantages are so distributed among the different states of this continent as if nature had in view to proclaim to us be united among yourselves, and you will want nothing from the rest of the world.” Samuel Adams July 4, 1776, on Independence
“No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence.” - George Washington to James Madison 1789.
No comment? The article is total BS. The foreign investors cannot call in the debt. They are stuck, powerless, watching their investment deflate every day. Tough.
“The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing.” - Teddy Roosevelt
I just bought a twelve-pack of Foster's. I added to our trade deficit. I didn't do squat with regard to our budget deficit.
Ask Japan. They've had huge trade surpluses since forever. Here's the last 20 years or so. Their government debt is about 150% of GDP, according to this.
If our level of 66% means we're doomed, I guess Japan died about 5 years ago.
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