Posted on 05/06/2016 5:38:20 AM PDT by reaganaut1
One day after assuring Americans he is not running for president “to make things unstable for the country,” the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, said in a television interview Thursday that he might seek to reduce the national debt by persuading creditors to accept something less than full payment.
Asked whether the United States needed to pay its debts in full, or whether he could negotiate a partial repayment, Mr. Trump told the cable network CNBC, “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.”
He added, “And if the economy was good, it was good. So, therefore, you can’t lose.”
Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent. The United States government is able to borrow money at very low interest rates because Treasury securities are regarded as a safe investment, and any cracks in investor confidence have a long history of costing American taxpayers a lot of money.
Experts also described Mr. Trump’s vaguely sketched proposal as fanciful, saying there was no reason to think America’s creditors would accept anything less than 100 cents on the dollar, regardless of Mr. Trump’s deal-making prowess.
“No one on the other side would pick up the phone if the secretary of the U.S. Treasury tried to make that call,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP. “Why should they? They have a contract” requiring payment in full.
Mr. Trump told CNBC that he was concerned about the impact of higher interest rates on the cost of servicing the federal debt. “We’re paying a very low interest rate,” he said. “What happens if that interest rate goes two, three, four points up? We don’t have a country. I mean, if you look at the numbers, they’re staggering.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When the creditors are bond holders and the Social Security fund, what is the mechanism for getting the creditors to take less?
The point of this is the press asks questions and gives a Hobson’s choice for responses. Which ever choice DJT (on anyone they wish to demean) makes, they print it as his idea when in fact he is given a stupid choice to begin with. Did the interviewer note that about half the debt is owed to the US Trust funds? IOW, the government is already doing exactly what they suggest DJT wants to do, simply by cutting or stringing out Social Security and other benefits already. Bet they did not cover that one.
Basically Trump is taking about a bankruptcy proceeding
The Federal Reserve can certainly take less.
They created the money out of thin air, and they can make it disappear also.
Perhaps a mechanism needs to be created.... It is a sound business policy that works at the micro level. Worth a try.
No Cost of Living increases (not "raises" since you actually realize no added benefit) is already in effect for Social Security, which by the way, is merely the beneficiaries recouping the money the government FORCED them to contribute.
This is exactly what Obama did to the bond holders of GM and Chrysler, right?
Anyone remember the NY SLIMES raking Hussein for that?
The truth is... it was ALWAYS eventually going to come to this.
That debt will NEVER be repaid.
In the end, most of it will be written off, mark my words.
Make a deal to pay off Treasury bond holders at less than 100%. OK. But that will be the last Treasury bond ever sold. We will be on a cash basis after that.
What is he thinking?
Any loyal Trumpsters getting nervous yet?
How about selling land the government keeps locked up away from the citizens who ARE the rightful owners?
How about oil leases for land rights and the same for the Atlantic coast?
There are plenty ways for cutting the ND.
Let’s boot foreigners off the tax payer’s backs, too.
Is he advocating that investors in Treasury securities take a haircut? That’s not exactly the way to inspire confidence in investing in the U.S. because you’re basically saying that investing in U.S. treasuries is a bad risk.
He is correct is saying that we will be in deep doodoo if interest rates rise a couple of %.
It was always going to come to this anyway. What’s being presented here isn’t that outlandish.
Donald Trump is a man who successfully used bankruptcy laws to preserve his own wealth. He clearly doesn’t understand the dire consequences for the US government to do the same.
If they haven't gotten nervous ere now, this won't faze them. As Rush often says, the economic acumen in this country is sorely lacking.
I hope your not serious... if you think the money supply is too high we need to retire currency not bonds. If bonds are discounted, then the money stays in the economy.
“Make a deal to pay off Treasury bond holders at less than 100%. OK. But that will be the last Treasury bond ever sold.”
As others, upthread, have indicated, the Social Security trust fund would be the most likely hit by the “haircut” (Trump called it a discount) that Trump was discussing.
Any loyal Trumpsters getting nervous yet?
No, we’re watching Loser Cruzers campaign for the Butcher of Benghazi. How principled and conservative of them. Once again we see that the Cruz Crusade was never about conservatism.
I’m not, most of those T-bills are bought and held by the federal reserve. Any debt to that private bank should be attacked with a cleaver.
The Fed created $4.5 trillion of new debt with zeros and ones on an electronic screen.
It was called QE.
Now we have to pay it back with interest.
If they take a haircut, what have they lost?
Because haircuts are coming.
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