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 cant 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. Trumps vaguely sketched proposal as fanciful, saying there was no reason to think Americas creditors would accept anything less than 100 cents on the dollar, regardless of Mr. Trumps 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. Were paying a very low interest rate, he said. What happens if that interest rate goes two, three, four points up? We dont have a country. I mean, if you look at the numbers, theyre staggering.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
BS.
There’s a few problems with that the way I see it. The debt was created at a near zero interest rate. So what to do, give the Fed a haircut on a near zero interest rate? OK, then what? The principle is still outstanding. Just the debt from deficit spending is nearing 100% of GDP, where does that money come from?
You may say too bad to the Fed, you have to eat it. Then what happens? Those electrons or greenbacks are already in the money supply. Now you stand a good chance of unleashing the inflationary pressure that have been held in abatement while the Marxist Muslim has been in power. Even If inflation doesn’t go hyperbolic you still stand a grave possibility of strong inflation.
Inflation is nothing more than stealth tax on productivity. Unless we can negotiate from a strong position with the ability to pay down some principle you are at the mercy of the Fed and the globalists.
You do realize that is why companies pay so much more for borrowing on much small amounts of money, don’t you?
On the other hand, this is exactly what states and local governments should do when theor outrageous pension promises become unsupportable.
Certainly, Trump is not about Conservatism, either.
Trump or Hillary is the worst set of options of the last 50 years.
Hillary is a crooked politician. Trump is absolutely clueless about how things work.
Campaigning for Hillary is certainly “not about conservatism”. Yet here we have Cruz and his supporters trying to divide the GOP. Pathetic.
What should happen is for the fes to stop all grants to states, states in turn reduce their grants to localities, and those stae and local govnments to give their creditors haircuts, as required.
And when the assets are redeemed for an amount of electrons less than their carrying value, what balances the other side of the ledger?
Reserves (equity).
And when a bank’s reserve amounts gets too low, how many new loans can it make? That is how the money supply will get reduced, sir.
Perhaps you needed a candidate thet “ knows how things work”, in other words, a Uni-party hack that goes along to get along? Any ways who was your choice? Bernie? GIlmore? Rubio? Christie? Paul ? Don’t be shy, tell us.
Really? The only thing that will go up are goods and services made/created overseas. What part of the average persons budget goes to buying durable goods? What will the stimulative effect on the economy be of ONshoring and repatriation factories to the USA?
Up until the 1960's the Republican Party was the party of protectionism. So were they the "liberal" party then or is the Republican Party of today ( the one in favor of RAPE trade ) the "liberal" party? Which is it?
We are bankrupt. This is the type of stuff that happens when you’re bankrupt. Trump’s just the messenger - its about to get fiscally ugly.
What I understand is the the world financial system is on the verge of collapse.
The numbers will soon be meaningless.
All economic and monetary theory has been turned on its head in the West.
Debt that cannot be paid is no longer an asset but a fig newton of someone’s feverish imagination of value.
This will soon be happening everywhere.
Greece, Cyprus, Puerto Rico are but the harbingers of things to come.
Worldwide resets are looming.
There’s lots of ways to decrease debt.. my guess is Trump will use them all. Trump knows the national debt at current levels is a ticking timebomb.
For the past eight years the press has ignored the debt as it has climbed by many trillions. Now Trump is getting them to talk about it while the gay Muslim is still president.
One of Trump’s biggest mistakes was saying he wouldn’t make any cuts to entitlements. Of course that’s most of the budget. You can’t address the budget deficit and debt unless you tackle social security, medicare and medicaid. It’s tough though because anyone who says they will cut it will get killed, yet it has to be done.
Giving the debt a haircut will of course hit social security the most.
Just...like...in...the...real...world....So many of the status quo politicians and pundits hide behind the concept that governments and other bigly entities don’t have to bow to principles that rule us little people. Principles such as spending less then the amount coming in... Let’s see if a business man can sort things out in Washington.
The Government could legally welch on 100% of all Social Security payments made starting tomorrow - and it would be 100% fine, from a legal aspect. They could continue to demand you pay in, even when there is zero chance you'd get any pay out, and it would be 100% legal.
It was a sop to buy the votes of retirees - and has grown into a massive entitlement to keep those votes for big Government types. But in reality, it's just another income tax, just one that's capped on the first $110K of your income.
“Yet here we have Cruz and his supporters trying to divide the GOP. Pathetic.”
I thought that was the Trump supporter’s goal. RINOs? Get out! Constitutional Conservatives? We don’t need you! Dems? Welcome! Bernie supporters? Welcome!
Actually, it’s a brilliant way to force a balanced budget! If you can’t borrow, then it HAS to be on a cash basis - and that would be a good thing...
Flemming vs Nestor: There is no defined right to SS.
regarding bonds, how do you make future generations pay what they did not agree to? it will be ugly. The only question in my mind is do we recognize we cannot service our obligations and restructure the debt in as orderly manner as possible, or carry on until a black swan event overtakes us. Think Puerto Rico without US backstops.
Russians paid Soviet ruble debt in devalued currency.
full pensions bought a bag of potatoes in the 90s.
The damned NYT had no problem with Obama riunning up the National Debt to the tune of $20 Trillion and not a word from the whores at the NYT about that.
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