Posted on 05/09/2016 6:09:29 AM PDT by GIdget2004
Donald Trump assailed the media on Monday for what he said was a misrepresentation of his comments on debt, rejecting the notion that he would have the United States default on his debt.
"I said if we can buy back government debt as a discount. In other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back as a discount, if we are liquid enough as a country we should do that. In other words, we can buy back debt as a discount," the presumptive Republican nominee said in a telephone interview on CNN's "New Day."
Those who said he wants to buy debt and default on it are "crazy," he added.
"This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money. I hate to tell you. So there's never a default. But the point is it was reported in the New York Times incorrectly," he said, referring to a critical Times article that ran on Friday.
That article examined an interview Trump gave to CNBC last Thursday in which he suggested that he could reduce the national debt by persuading U.S. creditors to accept less than full payment.
"It was reported in the failing New York Times and other places that I want to default on debt," Trump said. "You know, I'm the king of debt. I understand debt probably better than anybody. I know how to deal with debt very well. I love debt but you know, debt is tricky and it's dangerous and you have to be careful and you have to know know what you're doing. If there's a chance to buy back debt as a discount, interest rates up and the bonds down and you can buy debt. That's what I'm talking about."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
That’s fine to live your life that way, to not incur debt.
However think about who hires you. Entrepreneurs often borrow money to start their life’s dream. It’s credit (debt) that really powers our economy - that and risk takers. You and I wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for that.
So debt is not always bad.
Yes, it is a mess.
First stop the bleeding and balance the budget. It is silly to talk about debt reduction while we are still taking on debt daily.
Well, they can’t demand anything other than legal tender. But, that is why they are buying US companies’ stock, real estate, etc. They convert their trade imbalance claims to real property and shares.
Sell all of our debt to China and then nuke them into oblivion. Problem solved.
There is nothing bad about debt entered into with informed willingness. The problem is with a pandering government that makes obligations upon you and your heirs in which you had no say so whatsoever.
This is a philosophical discussion about eh value and merit of borrowing and the needed ensuing effort to retire the debt through WORK and EFFORT and determination.
Letting a politician create debt for you to pay is insanity. He is NEVER responsible.
No, seriously. Over $2T in goods and services per year.
Think Boeing, Caterpillar, Merck, IBM, Microsoft, etc.
There are many, many good Americans making products and providing services for export.
Pretending that you can shut down trade and not negatively impact millions of Americans just shows that you aren't serious.
However, money has value in part because of its relative scarcity. If governments just keep printing money it becomes worthless. Does anyone remember Germany after WW-I when baskets full of money were needed to buy bread and it was cheaper to burn bank notes for heat than use them to buy coal? Ditto for Zimbabwe where trillion dollar bank notes were printed to make it easier to buy bread.
Ah! You’ve found the problem. Irresponsibility. Or better yet lack of consequences. The link between action and consequences is severely broken in our country (all countries?)
Politicians face no consequences for overspending - if anything they get rewarded. Unless we find a way to make them suffer directly and quickly the consequences, nothing will change. The other solution is to limit the amount they can spend - something that would be voted on by only taxpayers.
But we agree now that debt (credit) in itself is not bad?
>>>A 20% import tariff balances the budget tomorrow.<<<
Remember the good old days when the Federal Government was funded almost entirely by Tariffs and not Income Taxes?
It was written in that outdated Constitution thingy as I recall.
Our trade “partners” have many barriers to entry of our manufactured products, from Japan’s keiretsus and health and safety laws to China’s demand for technology transfers in the case of Boeing.
Somehow they manage to prosper. Apparently the world only ends if we do something that impairs their access to our market.
It’s just one of those Great Mysteries of Life where American industries will fail if there is a any sort of protection but foreign firms don’t. Go figure.
Some of us have noticed that millions of Americans employed by small manufacturers have already lost their jobs, showing that the lack of serious thought on the subject belongs to you.
I agree. My real feeling and fear is that even with Trump, there is no political will or courage to deal with it and a default will happen no matter what.
“We open our markets and they close theirs.”
Well the last President to take this seriously was Reagan.
His Commerce Dept with the likes of Clyde Prestowitz took the issue seriously and forced Japan to make significant trade concessions in autos, semiconductors, and motorcycles. They didn’t break Japan’s onerous ‘safety’ inspections that severely limit American auto exports but it was a start and certainly more than the dimwits who followed.
After the fall of the iron curtain and the opening of China the problem for American producers has become vastly larger.
You're avoiding addressing the point that large tariff increases will hurt millions of Americans.
Of course we've lost lots of manufacturing jobs, for a variety of reasons, but ending trade with the other 6 billion people in the world won't help.
It's just whistling past the graveyard to pretend that we can close our markets and the rest of the world won't.
There may still be trade barriers, but we still export over $2T in goods and services according to the World Bank.
What happens to our economy when that ends?
“You’re avoiding addressing the point that large tariff increases will hurt millions of Americans.”
While you’re avoiding the issue that our current trade policy has already hurt millions of Americans. So I guess we are tied.
You must be mentally ill. The rest of the world has already closed their markets to us. Why can't you understatement that? Are you uninformed or just infirmed?
The pavers in the sidewalk to get to the shelter is a nice touch.
Americans do everything, even building bomb shelters with style, and class.
Ho ho ho ho! Very loud LOL regarding the disappearing ink. Thanks for lightening my lunch!
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