Just watch who you call a bum; Buster!
This collar don't say Bad to the Bone! fer nuttin!
Posted on 11/24/2012 5:33:22 PM PST by upchuck
[Note: This editorial published on Nov 10, 2012]
We are now rushing down a course that is going to create incredible economic hardships for millions of Americans. The increase in the amount of debt that has been added to our economy is astronomical. And there is no end in sight. We now have over $16 trillion of debt, and with Obama’s policies it will be almost impossible to reverse that course.
Debt is the problem. Big debt is a big problem. There are only four ways to tackle it: increase taxes to bring in more dollars, reduce spending to save dollars, reduce entitlements to save dollars, and/or increase job growth which will result in more overall tax dollars coming in to the government.
Increasing taxes in the immediate future is going to be highly counterproductive in that it is going to put a damper on job creation by removing money from the private sector, which in the long run is the only sure way out of this mess.
Reducing entitlements will most certainly have to take place, but is going to be very difficult due to all the lobbying pressures and the fact that Obama has no intention of doing so. Obamacare will make the situation much worse.
Reducing other spending offers some avenues to help fix the problem, but the impact of such reductions will be smaller and will, again, take time to become effective.
Increasing jobs so as to increase revenues is really the only way out. But this would take quite a number of years to accomplish even with someone who knew what he was doing at the helm. Obama is not that person. He doesn’t know how.
At the very least, after another four years the debt load this country will be carrying will be well over $20 trillion dollars. This is close to an impossible load to bear. Our tax base right now, in a good year, is only $2.5 trillion, and in a bad year is around $2 trillion. That means we have a debt to income ration of 8 to 1 or 10 to 1.
In addition, we are spending about $3.5 trillion per year, which means we are borrowing about 40% of everything we are spending. It’s pretty hard to pay off any debt when you are doing that. And how long can that be sustained?
The crux of this problem is that we are unable to deal with the huge debt without facing massive inflation. The big debt has led us right into the ugly face of inflation, the major problem we face.
Generally speaking the amount of money in an economy should be enough so that products and goods and services can be paid for with the existing supply. If the amount of product goes up, it stands to logic that there should be more dollars printed and put in circulation to go with the demand for those products. However, if a great deal more money is printed than would fill that demand, then inflation will follow. For example, if we say that $100 is equal to 1/10th of an ounce of gold, and you print more dollars and don’t add any more gold to the pile, then each dollar will buy less and less gold as the dollar becomes inflated.
In the past four years, we have done just that. Since 2008, our monetary supply has increased over 300%. This is a great more money than was needed to keep up with any increase in the supply of goods, which certainly did not increase by anywhere near 300%. Unfortunately, a great deal of this money was just wasted. What we got instead was just a lot of debt.
In addition, it needs to be noted that 36% of the debt owed by the U.S. has a maturity of less than one year. That makes it subject to frequent refinancing, which will have a severe impact as interest rates go up. The higher rates will make it necessary to print more money to pay just the interest, which in turn will add to the inflationary pressures.
We are all living just now in a ‘dollar bubble’ which is equal in specter to the ‘housing bubble’ and ‘stock market bubble’ we have recently experienced. We are living in a ‘bubble economy,’ no matter how it feels. It is always hard to see the ‘bubble’ when you are inside it. But it would be prudent to plan for it even if it is hard to see and difficult to believe.
It’s going to happen. Massive, high inflation is coming. There is no stopping it now. The “dollar bubble” is going to pop.
William McKinley?
So, should I buy real estate now? Prices are low, rates are low, and I believe housing takes a ride on the inflation trainJust my humble opinion, but real estate as an investment is a bad idea if this article is correct. Sure, real estate prices will rise because of inflation, but I don't think it will keep up with inflation.
Also, there's the problem that taxes on real estate is a major source of revenue for the government. As they become more desperate, tax rates will skyrocket. We're likely to see artificially high tax assessment values as well as dramatically higher tax rates on real estate. These will make it impossible to actually sell the real estate when you need to liquidate. That's assuming that the government doesn't simply nationalize your real estate to provide housing for the parasite class.
I would work on having a paid-off property I could use as retreat and farm. Beyond that, I would be looking elsewhere to "hide" my assets, preferably something the U.S. government couldn't reach.
Of course, if we are nearing the end of the "great recession", and if things are going to get better over the next decade or two, then real estate would be a wonderful long-term investment.
Not if they are wethers.
Just watch who you call a bum; Buster!
This collar don't say Bad to the Bone! fer nuttin!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/
Nope...
WHEN is lunch!!!
Works for me!!
Corporate and business taxes are merely a cost of doing business that is passed on to the consumer of the product.
What a scam!
Concur.
Until the public intuition returns to “if you don’t work, you don’t eat” and it becomes obvious government has strangles the ability to work for one another, we continue to spiral downwards, out of control.
Got BLING?
The Message (MSG)
10-13 Don’t you remember the rule we had when we lived with you? “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” And now we’re getting reports that a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings are taking advantage of you. This must not be tolerated. We command them to get to work immediately—no excuses, no arguments—and earn their own keep. Friends, don’t slack off in doing your duty.
Imagine what Obama could get for his Paramilitary Security kitty by nationalizing and selling off the Grand Coulee and Hoover Dams. How about Fort Ord? Coronado and Seal Beach? Tolling the entire Interstate system?
Yum, yum, tasty dumplings for discriminating Chinese buyers!
Ain’t about debt. Debt is the distraction in this article. To service that debt requires the existence and enforcement of Constitutional Freedoms. Every discussion of the debt in the public sphere is shaped by those desiring the preservation of the status quo...ie Flyover Country as debt slaves.
The amount of the debt is merely a measure of that which we have permitted be taken away from us.
“Our existing military can certainly acquire tribute...”
Pricing oil in dollars is how we have exacted tribute from the rest of the world since WW II.
The Mid-East “blow-up” under Obama has so far taken out those mid-east leaders who started thinking otherwise.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/World_News_3/article_7886.shtml
No, the market was already broken when W. asked for the job. Greengargoyle (Andrea Mitchell's bedtime toy) jacked up the Fed funds rate repeatedly in 1999 going into 2000, and the bull market finally broke about a month into 2000, the NASDAQ and Dow Industrials peaking a couple of months apart and then starting a long, nasty slide into intermediate lows in 2002.
Then Gargoyle jacked open the Fed window as soon as Dubya's tanks crossed the berm in Iraq, and the market rally-rally-rallied all the way to summer 2004, and then, after a couple of pauses, to recovery highs in 2007.
Greenspan effectively put the Iraq War on the national cuff, and the cash found its way into the markets.
You know the rest, but basically the Fed was jacking with interest rates, investors and the bond and stock markets the whole time, and the Wall Street bigs were harvesting the investors and traders who didn't have inside skinny on the Fed.
s But the secular bear market began in the first month of 2000, and it's still going.
The financial-dictionary name for that policy is "repression". It has been the policy of the United States Government, with few interludes, since 1946. Regulation Q held public passbook savings rates to 5.25% all through the 40's, 50's, and 60's. It was still in effect in 1976. Inflationary bursts in 1946, right after Korea, and during the Vietnam War (1968-9) and again beginning in 1974 and lasting until about 1983, depreciated the value of savings, effectively transferring large chunks of people's balances to the Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Google "repression" and you'll find the term defined properly.
They were black Friday pushy zombies. You know, Obama voters.
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