Free Republic

This is truly the new version of “Girls Gone Wild!” except this time it is elderly politicians in Washington DC acting like demented children. Biden will not budge on spending cuts with the debt limit soooo close to the point of no return. But Biden may not budge since he has the corporate media spewing hate against Republicans nonstop. And on top of Biden’s outrageous budget, largely payoffs to progressive groups, Missouri Representative Cori Bush (D-of course) is demanding $14 TRILLION in slave reparations. Or what?? More BLM riots? Even California Governor Gavin “Gruesome” Newsom isn’t stupid enough to approve...

President Biden said at the Group of Seven (G7) summit on Saturday that he believes the United States will avoid a default as the deadline for lawmakers to reach a deal approaches. Biden said at a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, that he is “not at all” worried about the ongoing negotiations to raise the debt ceiling before the limit is reached. He said the process goes in stages, and one meeting might not make progress, but subsequent ones do.

Yes, the clock is ticking on a possible debt default and Biden is off in Hiroshima Japan instead of negotiating with House Speaker McCarthy. The treasury cash balance is only $18 billion away from Yellen’s minimum balance redline of $50 billion. That’s one day of spending in crazy spending Washington DC.

The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) continued its decline in April, dropping 0.6% MoM (in line with the 0.6% decline expected). The biggest positive contributor to the leading index was stock prices at 0.16 The biggest negative contributor was average consumer expectations at -0.26 This is the 13th straight monthly decline in the LEI (and 14th month of 16) – the longest streak of declines since ‘Lehman’ (22 straight months of declines from June 2007 to April 2008). Let’s go Brandon! He needs to finish the job! Or destroying the US economy and making the US a vassal state...

Is the thrill gone from Dogecoin? In the crazy world of Cryptocurrencies, two “coins” stand out: the venerable Bitcoin and Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer’s Dogecoin (aka Dog Coin based on a Shiba Inu dog. After a jolt of popularity, likely related to Elon Musk’s tweets, dogecoin has dropped -46.5% since November 1, 2022 while Bitcoin has gained 34% over the same period. In the highly volatile world of cryptos, XRP is today’s leader at +4.81%. Today’s biggest loser is Polygon at -2.31%. Dogecoin is down almost -1% while Bitcoin is up slightly. With Washington DC completely out of control...

Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday that “time is running out” for Congress to lift the debt ceiling and avert a default on the nation’s debt, which the secretary says would be catastrophic for the economy. “Time is running out. Every single day that Congress does not act, we are experiencing increased economic costs that could slow down the U.S. economy,” Yellen said in remarks to the Independent Community Bankers of America. Yellen’s department has warned that its ability to stave off a default through the use of extraordinary measures could run out by June 1 unless Congress takes...

I used to think that The Kabuki Theater surrounding the raising of the US debt limit and passing a Federal budget would be over by now. But since Biden is being controlled by the hard left “Progressives” in Washington DC, he may be reckless enough to let the US default just so he can blame Republicans. And with our useless and deeply-biased main street media (MSM) just repeating Democrat talking points blaming Republicans, we may actually see a US debt default. So while Yellen is warning that time is running out, notice she never encourage Blaming Biden to negotiate his...

Right now, the Fed’s gold certificate values gold at $42.22 an ounce. That’s obviously not anywhere near the market price of gold, which, again, is about $2,042 an ounce. Now, the Treasury could issue the Fed a new gold certificate valuing the 8,000 tons of Treasury gold at $2,042 an ounce. They could take today’s market price of $2,042, subtract the official $42.22 price and multiply the difference by 8,000 tons.

Flashback 8/7/2011: David Gregory: "Are U.S. treasury bonds still safe to invest in?" Alan Greenspan: "Very much so. This is not an issue of credit rating..the United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that, so there is zero probability of default."

Treasury Secretary Janet “The Evil Hobbit” Yellen is a Statist. She can only think of an all powerful central government calling the shots since the private sector and individual liberties are something to be eliminated. So, it is not surprising that Yellen is pushing for Congress to raise the debt ceiling without conditions. Even Democrat Senator Joe Manchin is saying that Biden is ‘Hypocritical’ On Debt-Limit Demands’. Back in Mordor on The Potomac, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy postponed a meeting on the debt ceiling set for Friday. People familiar with the talks said the postponement was...

No one lends or borrows dollars. They lend or borrow what dollars can be exchanged for.Please keep this in mind amid all the hyper-ventilating over potential default. Janet Yellen, the walking, talking-est contrarian indicator on earth claims default would be "catastropic," while the always and everywhere expert reverent Catherine Rampell tells readers "If you're not afraid yet [about default], you should be." Wise minds will be calm. This is such a non-story.For one, As evidenced by the floating, occasionally very weak dollar over the decades, the U.S. has defaulted numerous times. And that’s not a partisan point. Left-of-center economists Carmen...

For a man who likes to play an unctuous super genius in commercials when he’s pinging on more accomplished governors for unsophisticated, lo-information audiences (no doubt on the state’s dime)… …as California’s GOVERNOR, Gavin Newsom in the flesh is a walking disaster zone.Has California solved all its problems? Is that why our Governor @GavinNewsom starts his day by attacking Republican-governed states? There are teachers on strike, water flooding farms, electricity shortages, and a massive budget deficit. Got anything else to do today, Governor? https://t.co/LN4iHDMW2o— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) May 8, 2023The population outflow from the state remains unabated.California’s population continued to...

California just did what Slow Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuckles Schumer are threatening to do. Biden and Schumer still refuse to negotiate (allegedly) sending the US Federal government careening towards a staggering debt default. The source of both California and US Federal government fiscal problems? Out of control government spending, aka, government gone wild! Now we have the State of California defaulting on $18.6 BILLION in debt. This is Governor Gavin Newsom (Nancy Pelosi’s nephew) bragging point to be President? Horrible fiscal management and a default? In any case, California borrowed approximately $20 billion from the federal government...

The Federal government in Washington DC is broken beyond repair. Politicians get elected by promising free or cheap things, so they keep delivering the bacon. Or pork to political donors. The top 1% get massive payoffs (like green energy subsidies or bank bailouts), the bottom 99% get out of control entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And other unsustainable entitlements. In fact, student loans are now an entitlement since some voters will vote for the corrupt politician (no, Joe Biden isn’t the only corrupt politician in Washington DC) who will forgive their student loans. In fact, we now have...

California borrowed approximately $20 billion from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits during the pandemic, and with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to not pay it back, employers are now saddled with the expense, according to experts. “The state should have taken care of the loans with the COVID money it received from the government in 2021,” Marc Joffe, policy analyst at the Cato Institute—a public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C.—told The Epoch Times. In the proposed 2023–2024 budget, $750 million was allocated to start paying down the loans, but Newsom made changes to the plan in...

Ok, it is well-known that Biden was the stupidest man in the US Senate. And with Washington’s Patty Murray in the Senate, that is quite an accomplishment. But Biden is President and is still stupid and spiraling down the dementia rabbit hole. He is blaming Republicans for their budget proposal to end the debt ceiling crisis despite saying previously that he would negotitate. Apparently, Biden’s puppet masters are telling him to risk default by playing the blame game. So, US credit default swap (CDS 1Y, SR, EURO) price remains elevated which indicates that Biden, Yellen and Schumer may actually default...

Troubles of Brookfield DTLA show how some office-sector bets are starting to unravel ... A major Los Angeles office owner operated by Brookfield Asset Management is struggling to make mortgage payments as vacancies and rising interest rates disrupt the city’s commercial real-estate market. The company, known as Brookfield DTLA Fund Office Trust Investor Inc., owns six Los Angeles office buildings and a retail center. Five of the office buildings face the risk of foreclosure, according to its public filings, and at least two of its mortgages are in default. The company on April 21 filed to delist from the New...

The US could default on its obligations as soon as June 1 if Congress doesn’t address the debt limit before then, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday. “After reviewing recent federal tax receipts, our best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government’s obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time,” Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The accelerated timetable increases pressure on President Joe Biden and House Republican lawmakers to ramp up...

Thanks to O’Biden (Obama/Biden) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s failure to negotiate a debt ceiling increase, the US has officially become a banana republic. Crazy government, lawless censoring and arrest of opposing political candidates. The US CDS 1Y SR Eur just hit a staggering 176.53. That is the price of insuring against a debt default by O’Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Is a US debt default likely? It shouldn’t be. But you never know with the circus clowns in the White House and nasty Chuck Schumer. But arresting the leading Republican Presidential candidate before the elections is pure...

James Carter (no, not Mr. Peanut, the smart one at America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Prosperity) had a nice op-ed on American Thinker entitled “The Biden Administration’s Budget Hypocrisy.” The Biden administration’s claims of deficit reduction come in stark contrast to the president and his team, having added $4.8 trillion to the deficit through 2031. No, but Biden and Congress are serious about bankrupting the US Treasury and moving to a Socialist model. And what even James Carter doesn’t mention is the staggering levels of UNFUNDED LIABILITIES of $187 TRILLION. The question for Biden is …. how are...