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Meet the Economist NPR Interviewed to Explain Why America’s $34 Trillion Debt Is Definitely Not a Problem
American Institute of Economic Research ^ | January 17, 2024 | Jon Miltmore

Posted on 01/27/2024 5:08:59 AM PST by DoodleBob

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Since its rule is exploitative and parasitic, the State must purchase the alliance of a group of ‘Court Intellectuals,’ whose task is to bamboozle the public into accepting and celebrating the rule of its particular State. In exchange for their continuing work of apologetics and bamboozlement, the Court Intellectuals win their place as junior partners in the power, prestige, and loot extracted by the State apparatus from the deluded public.


1 posted on 01/27/2024 5:08:59 AM PST by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob
‘The Carpenter Can’t Run Out of Inches’ when measuring where to cut, but he sure can run out of inches strolling blithely over a precipice to fall to his death.

Sometimes these intellectuals are such ass hats.

There is a Freeper who cited the ass hat Paul Krugman as his rationale for an opinion.

'Perpetual bonds' means perpetual servitude and FOR THE NEXT GENERATION.

2 posted on 01/27/2024 5:18:38 AM PST by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: Worldtraveler once upon a time

Liberals think they can just cancel the debt and dare those who we borrowed from to wage war to take the infrastructure back.

That’s basically their reasoning.


3 posted on 01/27/2024 5:28:40 AM PST by Jonty30 (In a nuclear holocaust, there is always a point in time where the meat is cooked to perfection. )
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To: DoodleBob

Financing government by printing more money seems painless to the taxpayers initially, but comes back to bite the taxpayers with inflation.

Isn’t it amazing that:

1. Cars that were selling for $4000 in 1973 now sell for $40,000.

2. Houses that were selling for $25,000 in 1973 and the same house now sells for $250,000.

Have we really become more wealthy in the past 50 years?

Or do we think we are wealthier simply because we now pay more for the same stuff?


4 posted on 01/27/2024 5:30:45 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: DoodleBob

A guy I used to work with went to work for the bureau of Printing and Engraving. He asked me to be a reference for his Top Secret Clearance. When they interviewed me I did think about trashing him so he couldn’t be able to participate in destroying our nation’s economy.

Instead, I told the truth and he is enjoying his new job.


5 posted on 01/27/2024 5:32:10 AM PST by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: Jonty30

Do they have a theory regarding the methodologies to be used to persuade new lenders in the wake of their planned default?


6 posted on 01/27/2024 5:33:16 AM PST by steve in DC
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To: DoodleBob

$34 trillion of debt is what happens when the most affluent nation in the history of mankind is filled with people who think they have a God-given right to enjoy a standard of living they: (1) can’t afford, and (2) don’t have to work for.


7 posted on 01/27/2024 5:35:02 AM PST by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: Presbyterian Reporter

Let me add:

1. The National Debt in 1973 was around $500 BILLION.

2, The National Debt today is above $34 TRILLION.

We can only imagine what the prices of STUFF would be today if the National Debt was still $500 BILLION.


8 posted on 01/27/2024 5:35:48 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: steve in DC

Liberals don’t think about consequences. Why else do they support unlimited illegal immigration that will put their own children into servitude?

Consequences is the word that divides liberals from conservatives from the top of the list to the bottom. Conservatives think in terms of consequences for their values. Liberals think in terms of preventing the consequences from their decisions.


9 posted on 01/27/2024 5:36:32 AM PST by Jonty30 (In a nuclear holocaust, there is always a point in time where the meat is cooked to perfection. )
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To: steve in DC

Liberals don’t think about consequences. Why else do they support unlimited illegal immigration that will put their own children into servitude?

Consequences is the word that divides liberals from conservatives from the top of the list to the bottom. Conservatives think in terms of consequences for their values. Liberals think in terms of preventing the consequences from their decisions.

Conservatives build societal foundations. Liberals build Jenga towers.


10 posted on 01/27/2024 5:36:57 AM PST by Jonty30 (In a nuclear holocaust, there is always a point in time where the meat is cooked to perfection. )
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To: DoodleBob

There are some ideas so stupid and unreal that only liberal elitists can believe them with a straight face.


11 posted on 01/27/2024 5:39:46 AM PST by Bernard (We honor veterans who fought to keep this country from turning into what it now is. --Argus Hamilton)
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To: Bernard

It was a few years ago, I had an arguement with a liberal who argued that the low interest rates should be a reason to rack up the debt to build infrastructure because the carrying costs wouldn’t burden society.


12 posted on 01/27/2024 5:41:57 AM PST by Jonty30 (In a nuclear holocaust, there is always a point in time where the meat is cooked to perfection. )
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To: Worldtraveler once upon a time

Thanks for reminding me of Paul Krugman.

Then, I thought about Jim Cramer.

Just for kicks I typed “business show Jim, always wrong” into my search window.


13 posted on 01/27/2024 5:45:16 AM PST by ptsal (Vote R.E.D. >>>Remove Every Democrat ***)
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To: Worldtraveler once upon a time
Since the state can simply print money, its only real financial constraint is inflation,

Nothing could be more untrue. The only REAL financial constraint is when people, en masse, lose confidence in the currency. Some, I guess, don't believe that possibility exists. That possibility does exist and will bite us all in the butt.

14 posted on 01/27/2024 5:50:45 AM PST by Migraine
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To: Alberta's Child

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public..”

Alexander Tytler.


15 posted on 01/27/2024 5:51:26 AM PST by MachIV
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To: Jonty30
Any time I end up in a discussion with a liberal about debt, I ask when they are personally going to follow the practices of the federal government. That usually leads to a change of subject on their part.

Liberals defending more debt usually sound like they would provide more alcohol for alcoholics, more drugs for drug addicts, a new a abusive spouse for an abused spouse, and so on. It must be painful whenever they try to untwist their pretzel logic.

16 posted on 01/27/2024 5:55:49 AM PST by Bernard (We honor veterans who fought to keep this country from turning into what it now is. --Argus Hamilton)
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To: DoodleBob

The national debt of $34T (plus the over $200T debt not included in that) is no problem whatsoever. If it could be 10 times higher, that would be just fine with me. The same folks will be holding the bag at the end.... the FED, and its owners and about 300 stockholders.

Consider how a “dollar” is created in the first place. The private non-federal non-reserve FED was given “license” to create dollars out of thin air (fiat) with interest, by congress in 1913. Once created, it can generate wealth (interest/taxes/inflation) for the FED owners/stockholders forever.

Numerous times constitutional US Treasury dollars have been attempted to bypass the FED, with disastrous results. Lincoln did (with the precursor to the FED), JFK did (EO 11110).

Trump is doing what Lincoln/JFK started, and will succeed this time. It’s a multi-year process, and well underway. The UNITED STATES INC was bankrupted under Trump. Trump nationalized the FED (he placed it under the Treasury).

When (not if) the process is complete, the FED will have one more year to live alongside the Treasury, removing the FED dollars. It is happening right this second, and actually in some form since 2022 (see money creation on usdebtclock.org).


17 posted on 01/27/2024 6:11:18 AM PST by C210N (Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.)
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To: Jonty30
Interestingly, borrowing money to build infrastructure is one of the few cases where public debt actually makes sense — even if the government has sufficient tax revenue to pay for the infrastructure directly up front.

The problem with paying “cash” for infrastructure is that it’s a huge one-time expense for an asset that will be used for many decades … which means the burden of the cost is carried by one group of taxpayers, while the asset is used by many people who didn’t pay the cost of building it.

Think of a bridge that was built in 1950 without using any bonds, and lasted 70 years before it was replaced in 2020. The resident of that state who began working in 1960 and then retired to another state in 2010 was able to use that bridge for 50 years without ever paying a dime of either the construction cost or the replacement cost.

18 posted on 01/27/2024 6:13:40 AM PST by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: DoodleBob
“[T]he idea that taxes pay for what the government spends is pure fantasy,” she writes in The Deficit Myth.

This is mostly true. The printing of money pays for most of Government spending.

“[I]t is the currency issuer — the federal government itself — not the taxpayer, that finances all government expenditures.”

This is mostly false. Yes the issuer ‘The Fed’ pays for the spending but it is the holder of that currency which mostly the citizens of the United States that is ultimately paying for the US budget through devaluation of their money.

What has made this madness possible for the past decades is the policy of the Petro-dollar. All of the major economies in the world hold US dollars in reserve. Those reserves allow the US to tax those countries economies to fund our profligate spending.

When those countries finally stop holding US dollars and buying US debt the house of card will collapse in a few days and US dollars will at the end of the day be worthless.

19 posted on 01/27/2024 6:26:40 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: DoodleBob

It isn’t the word debt that makes people afraid it’s the ramifications of it.

Stephanie Kelton sounds like Biden’s speech writer Kelton was a advisor to Bernie Sanders too.


20 posted on 01/27/2024 6:41:56 AM PST by Vaduz
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