Free Republic

China is helping Saudi Arabia develop its nuclear facilities amid fears recent advances are a sign that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's chilling threat that the kingdom could develop nuclear weapons might become true. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that China is working on the development of a facility in Saudi Arabia that could extract uranium yellowcake from uranium ore, a huge shift in Riyadh's well-publicised civilian nuclear programme. In a highly enriched state, Yellowcake can be used in the development of nuclear weapons. The facility is believed to be located near the northwest Saudi city of Ula...

I have $235,000 of student debt. The first $120,000 came with a bachelor’s degree from my state school. Another $70,000 or so came with my master’s degree. The remainder is accrued interest. I would have to begin devoting half of my income to debt payment if I cared to pay it off by 2042. I can’t do that because I make just under $4,000 per month. And that income is a fairly new development in my life. Why would I choose to pay down my debt if it meant I wouldn’t be able to afford basic living expenses? My parents...

Forty thousand dollars. That’s roughly your share of the U.S. national debt. That’s bad, but it’s nothing compared to the debt the government’s going to be racking up in the years ahead thanks mainly to America’s old-age welfare programs. As the Baby Boomers retire, the bill for Social Security and Medicare will grow fast, setting off a debt tsunami. Economists can estimate the difference between how much government is on track to spend and how much it will raise from taxes. They call this “the fiscal gap.” That number is astronomical: $205 trillion dollars, or more than half a million...

American Consumer Culture = Debt Slavery A lot of concern – well founded, in my opinion, centers around the skyrocketing growth of our national debt. To everyone with a solid grounding in economics and history, this is a dark, ominous cloud hanging over America. I’ve noted that our grandchildren will despise us for bequeathing to them a collective burden of taxation and stifled economic growth that will be theirs from birth. But there’s an equally fearful debt problem that doesn’t attract nearly as much attention, even among conservatives. That’s our consumer spending culture driving the accumulation of personal debt. How...

The following 3 minute video explains what’s wrong with government debt. It specifically concerns the federal debt of $15.2 trillion (the number has gone up since the video). But it also applies to California’s $500 billion debt for government-worker pensions. Where’s all that money going to come from?

The federal government’s debt increased by $203,368,715,583.63 in the month of October, according to the U.S. Treasury. That equals about $650 per person for each of the 312,542,760 people the Census Bureau now estimates live in the United States. At the end of September, the total national debt stood at $14,790,340,328,557.15, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt. By the end of October, it had risen to $14,993,709,044,140.78. The debt increased far more this October than it did last October. Between the last day of September 2010 and the last day of October, the debt rose from $13,561,623,030,891.79 to...

If you haven't yet had your credit limit slashed on one of your credit cards, it's highly likely you will -- if Meredith Whitney is right, that is. Whitney, an analyst and managing director at Oppenheimer & Co. who predicted the current financial-services industry meltdown, now says credit-card issuers will eliminate more than $2 trillion in available credit over the next 18 months. Already, lenders have cut back on available credit due to their heightened aversion to risk and difficulty in funding loans. Before the financial crisis, consumer loans could be sold on a secondary market and the proceeds could...

Stung by the loss of more than $2.8 trillion in their net wealth, the nation's households paid down debts in the third quarter for the first time since at least 1952, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. As of Sept. 30, the total outstanding debt for households shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8% from $13.94 trillion to $13.91 trillion, the Fed said in its quarterly flow of funds report. It's the first decline in household debt ever recorded in the report. Households paid off more mortgage debt than they took on for just the second quarter on record. Mortgage debt...

A massive tidal wave of bad credit card debt is surging toward Wall Street, prompting more investor panic and pushing more consumers to the brink of financial devastation. That’s according to Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, an international investment research and advisory firm. Its latest report, “Credit Cards at a Tipping Point,” forecasts that credit card charge-offs by financial institutions will reach near $100 billion by the end of 2009. Charge-offs are when credit card accounts have been deemed irrecoverable or there has been no payment for 120 days, according to Innovest. The economy already is shaky under the crushing weight...

The impact of ultra-tight credit markets is hitting your credit cards, and you might not even realize it. On The Early Show Tuesday, financial contributor Vera Gibbons explained that lenders are tightening terms in numerous ways, and you need to be aware of all of them to avoid possible trouble down the road. Behind the changes is the simple fact that lenders want to protect themselves from bad debt, so they're tightening standards and practices in hopes of avoiding defaults by credit card users. What are they up to? LOWER CREDIT LIMITS This is the biggest and perhaps most ominous...