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I think the Fed is buying the debt to keep their scam going. The USA is their “front” operation and their muscle, just like any organized crime syndicate. You ever seen the movie The Town? The Fed is Fergie pretending to arrange flowers for a living when it’s really the brains behind the operation telling the rest of the crews what to do- sell bonds, invade countries, wreck markets-whatever it takes to keep itself both in power and under the radar.
None of it is real, it’s all an illusion. There is no money, no debt, no value beyond what people are convinced exists, but the illusion is extremely powerful despite it’s intangible nature because human beings are the one animal that are able to manifest reality simply by agreeing to believe in something. Love, nation, the printed value on a piece of paper.
Right up until the moment they don’t.
Yep. Just ask the tulip traders. After all, tulips are better than one.
I got it.
SS has begun running a deficit, so the government has to borrow money to replace the money they took from the SS Trust fund over the past 50 years. Boomers are the generation who will take down Social Security and Medicare.
Boomers did it all. Congress is just an innocent bystander .
Congress is full of Boomers
Boomers didn’t create the ponzi scheme known as social security, dumbass , but we sure as hell were forced to fund it. That stupid trope is getting real old already.
Like any Ponzi Scheme, if the base does not grow, it will collapse on itself. Boomers are the generation that will overload it and are the generation that stopped having large families to continue the growth of the base.
FDR was looking for votes when he proposed and passed SS. Average lifespan was under 70, so very few were able to draw on it. We now have millions who draw it almost as long as they paid into the system. Throughout my life, I have seen Congress spend the SS surplus funds.
I can only imagine how much more I could have saved for my own retirement, if the 15% taken from me and my employer was invested in something more productive than Special Treasury Bills, but who would have taken care of those who did not save for their own retirement?
Way to double down, dumbass.
Boomers thru no fault of their own were born and became the largest generation in American history.
Boomers thru no fault of their own were forced to pay FICA tax involuntarily withheld from paychecks whether they liked it or not.
Boomers thru no fault of their own grew old and were forced into retirement .
Boomers thru no fault of their own became eligible upon reaching 62 to recoup the tens of thousand they paid into Social Security over their working lifetime in the form of monthly payments.
Only a fucking moron would diss a person for collecting a return on his or her own money confiscated over a period of decades by a criminal cartel commonly known as the US government.
Are you going to be that fucking moron , asshole ?
BTW, as a former employer , I was forced weekly to match whatever my employees paid into FICA and now some pea-brained shithead is spewing shit that I and my entire generation is to blame because US government misappropriates and steals every penny that taxpayers pay in? I don’t think so.
My friend, Boomers have a lot to answer for.
In many ways they are a failed generation. In general, they are materialistic, fully embracing of the consumerist, disposable, incessant shopping culture. They’ve spurned or apathetically let their family’s Christianity attenuate, and did a piss-poor job passing it on, when they even bothered.
They’ve voted lockstep for the D’s or R’s, cementing massive government and the regulatory state in place. They’ve not taken a political stand on anything that might have required them to say no (see their gutlessness on LBGTQA, for but one example).
They’ve been atrocious at defending and promulgating core American ideals.
They greenlighted and expanded the permanent warfare, welfare and surveillance states.
And of course, have borrowed and spent the country into a guaranteed insolvency.
The list goes on, too.
Spare us the righteous defense of your vaunted generation.
All of this is not to say that the Greatest Gen or the Gen X are great at much of the above, either. But you doth protest too much, my friend.
First of all shithead , human are humans i.e. fallen , easily corrupted creatures and have been since our creation. The less the population less destructive. Can your tiny shithead brain comprehend the vast complexity of such a simple truism? Save you blather for the inbred idiots in your family. Intelligent people know better.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing, shithead. It will shine a light into the darkest corners of your ignorant mind. Get some before you choke to death on your own stupid.
FYI, the boomers didn’t create corrupt government.
The US government has always been gang of thieves butt-raping ignorant shitheads, not unlike yourself. You have just been to ignorant to realize it.
Suck on this . It’s ain’t much, but might do something to reduce the pucker for that blistered anus you were born with.
Tragedy and Hope
Carroll Quigley
https://archive.org/details/TragedyAndHope_501
Ad hominem attacks do not strengthen your argument. In fact, you are arguing with someone who agrees with much of what you are saying. If you would use just a modicum of reading comprehension, you would see that I agree that SS was designed as a Ponzi Scheme to get politicians elected, to raise TRILLIONS of $ they could spend on their foreign wars, lucrative social safety nets and generally in buying votes and raking in personal fortunes.
My Econ 101 professor told the class in 1972 that SS was actuarily bankrupt and we would be lucky to see ANY payouts. A few tweaks extended the deadline, but we are rapidly approaching the day that the SS “lockbox” is empty and the entire thing will be funded by current contributions, plus out of the general fund. We are already running TRILLION $ deficits and SS will throw in a few hundred BILLION onto that unimaginable sum.
I do not blame the boomers, I blame the politicians, but the boomers are the ones who will overload the system and cause it to fail.
Way to double back for the sneak sophistry attack …I don’t blame boomers, it’s only that when I do…. blah blah blah.
Boomers have been the dominate political force in this country for well over 3 decades. At some point you bear responsibility.
dominant
Spell check for morons…the greater good is real.
Dominatrix
Who bears the burden for the mass murder of Christian Europe ( twice) and consequently the slow rot of the Republic? Boomers do that too?
The thinner the population the smaller the government thus the lesser the evil.
More people have more needs, therefore demand a larger government to provide for and administer those needs. They vote for it. It’s more a population thing than generational. Do you even do simple logic?
You can’t blame a generation for the sins of their fathers when they’re just passing on what they learned as children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd44iVUq5fs
Here’s a boomer we can all admire, a man who obviously cherishes Western Civ.
Hah! My mom had an old-lady crush on this guy, like woah!
Having been self-employed, I got to pay both the employer’s and the employee’s share!!
Yup, poor congress, always the victim…
Congress allowed everyone and his brother who didn’t contribute to draw benefits from SS.
Congress raided SS surpluses dozens of years ago to fund their pet projects and buy constituencies and replaced the funds with IOUs.
Like Twain said, America has no distinctly criminal class except for Congress.
Bingo
GREENSPAN: I will wait to see what the numbers look like.
HOLLINGS: Well, the truth is…ah, shoot, well, we all know there’s
Washington’s math problem. Alan Sloan in this past week’s Newsweek says
he spends 150%. *_What we’ve been doing, Mr. Chairman, in all reality,
is taken a hundred billion out of the Social Security Trust Fund,
transferring it over to the spending column, and spending it. Our
friends to the left here are getting their tax cuts, we getting our
spending increases, and hollering surplus, surplus, and balanced budget,
and balanced budget plans when we continue to spend a hundred billion
more than we take in. _*
That’s the reality, and I think that you and I, working the same side of
the street now, can have a little bit of success by bringing to
everybody’s attention this is all intended surplus. In other words, when
we passed the Greenspan Commission Report, the Greenspan Commission
Report only had Social Security in 1983 a two hundred million surplus.
It’s projected to have this year a 117 million surplus. I’ve got the
schedule, I’ll ask to put in the record the CBO report: 117, 126, 130,
100, going right through to 2008 over the ten year period of 186 billion
surplus. That was intended; this is dramatic about all these retirees,
the baby boomers. But we foresaw that baby boomer problem, we planned
against that baby boomer problem. Our problem is we’ve been spending
that particular reserve, that set-aside that you testify to that is so
necessary. That’s what I’m trying to get this government back to
reality, if we can do that.
We owe Social Security 736 billion right this minute. If we saved 117
billion, we could pay that debt down, and have the wonderful effect on
the capital markets and savings rate. Isn’t that correct? Thank you very
much, Sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
SS is NOT running a deficit — the Government borrowed/STOLE SS surpluses for decades to bail itself out.
TAKE the pensions, assets, and benefits from ALL Congressmen, Presidents, SCOTUS judges. TAKE their personal money …. THEY stole the SS Surpluses.. THEY gave away YOUR property.
Social Security is NOT an “entitlement”
Social Security is YOUR money, that YOU put in & matched by your Employer which makes it all YOUR pay.
Social Security is the Private PROPERTY of the Workers that PAID for it.
Social Security is a TONTINE, a TRUST FUND.. American workers pay into it their entire lives through payroll deductions. Social Security payments are supposed to come from that fund. So why is Social Security needing an increase in the debt ceiling? Where did our money go? Of course, this is a rhetorical question. Starting with the Lyndon Johnson administration, the government “borrowed” the cash in the Social Security Trust Fund, replacing is with Treasury Bonds that the US Government is now unable to redeem. $3TRILLION dollars. The implications are obvious. Because the US Government cannot redeem those Treasury Bonds in the Social Security Trust Fund, the US Government is already in default against the American workers. The American workers’ money is gone. The US Government has effectively embezzled the retirement money ($2.6TRILLION+) of American workers. So, in borrowing money to replace the looted cash, the US Government is expecting future workers to pay for Social Security benefits that were already paid for once before, effectively double-billing We The People. To put it another way, the US Government just sold us an apple, but is forcing us to pay for two, and trying to look like this is wise fiscal management of the peoples’ retirement funds!
Now sit down:
This PIG has been living off YOUR future for 20 YEARS — Free Health Care, Free rent, $700 in Soc Sec & $280 in food stamps. and “your” politicians claim YOUR Social Security is “going broke”?!??! The Politicians STOLE it and GAVE it away
https://streamable.com/43v2w
. How many 100thousands ILLEGALS are living directly off YOU thanks to “your” Treasonous politicians????
LBJ was a boomer 2 !!!
LBJ was born in 1908, almost 40 years before the first Boomer was born.
ha ha ha …. mooron
There is only one maroon I see on this board, making comments that have zero relevance and are mostly denigrating other thoughtful posters.
AMF
The deficit I referred to is the amount of money coming in vs the amount of money being paid out, so yes, there is a deficit and it has required some of the Special T-bills to be sold to cover the deficit. To redeem the Special T-bills, the givernment has borrowed funds from the fed by selling Treasury bonds.
Here is how it works:
Uncle Sam owes you for SS, so he borrows money from the Fed to pay you, increasing the amount of debt you owe and charging you interest on that amount. In the end, you and I are getting a royal screwing
As I recall, SS is not quite yet at the point where current revenues = current outlays, so, in TN’s terminology the deficit is not yet a deficit. But, it is fast approaching. Take a gander at some of the charts, and compare that with what is explained.
Regardless the arguments, nothing much has been done in recent times to put SS on better footing. Congress, as we all know, has much bigger fish to fry and cannot be bothered with doing what is morally and ethically right for the country.
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/understanding-the-new-social-security-projections-in-five-charts/
Thanks for the charts, Waterlogged. SS is a moving target with lots of variables so it is difficult to pinpoint when the deficit will begin. I think we were very close several years during the 0bama administration and have seen the number improve under Trump, with more people working and wages going up marginally. Boomers are retiring at a rapid pace, putting additional pressure on the system and once the deficit starts, it will snowball out of control.
You are correct, Congress has been too afraid to touch the third rail of politics and will continue kicking the can down the road until it is too late to save the system, if it can be saved at all.
As I said previously, had I had the opportunity to take my SS “contributions”, along with the matching amount from my employer and invest in companies that would provide growth, I would have retired with a very substantial nest egg. Even if I only got to invest my “contributions” only, I still would not have to rely on the system. Of course, SS was always meant to be a wealth transfer portal, taking care of those who did not save for themselves.
I remember seeing an old illegal mexican who was interviewed after Reagan’s amnesty. He had been in our country for 20+ years and could not speak the language. It said a lot about how much he really wanted to become an American.
Are you dogging EC?
No. He seems to at least read and write the language, so I will give him a pass.
He sure seems to be upset that you had no interest in him, though. I can tell from his posts that he still pines for you.
This is also why we run $trillion dollar deficits now – the Fed vig is so much better.
The Fed is buying to avoid paying the interest on the debt. Debt to GDP is over 105% and if we get hit with another recession SHTF bigtime. Bank “holidays” and government shutdowns will be big stories of the day and even the TIP bond funds/money market funds will get monkey-hammered.
Time to get an insurance plan that doesn’t involve paper. I laugh because now people are being told to “learn how to code”. In the next turndown “learn how to farm” could replace that advice.
More likely, they will be told “You should have learned how to survive on your own, because the givernment is not able to provide any longer.”
When I was a youth (a few years ago), attempting to make sense of SS, I studied it with much interest. One day having a conversation with my uncle, I told him, this thing is a ponzi scheme. He replied with a grouch on, “a what?” I repeated, a ponzi scheme, it will never work. Very frustrated he replied, “You think too much kid.”
My Econ 101 Prof told the class it was a Ponzi Scheme in 1972. It was true then and it is still true.
One of the best, most accurate observations about SS: “Your first check will be the largest you ever receive”.
Think about it.
Unfortunately, I live in NJ.
When the economy takes a dump this state will implode financially. The people hardest hit will be public pension retirees because the state system is a mess. Where I live it will be rioting seniors pillaging and burning their high-end retirement communities, not the minorities.
I think you are on to something there e.d. But it’s not just where you live, I believe it’s everywhere, very much including my neck of the woods. I can stand right here on my farm and consider all of the retirees within a 3 mile circumference; totally unprepared for what is coming, physically or mentally. When the balloon goes up it’s not going to be pretty. 79? 29? No, we got to go way back to see the kind of carnage that is going to happen. And with the numbers we have, it is only logical that it will be the worse ever in history.
Congress is suppose to create and regulate the money supply. The “debt” is owed to private individuals. Think ODIOUS debt.
And individuals must collect from their Retirement Investment Hedge Fund Financial Syndicate Vampire Squid when the SHTF.
Increase in the debt is arithmetic now . The real shtf will hit when it goes geometric.
yes, and the betters do understand that fact; ergo, their manipulation of fake interest rates and obscure meddling in the markets that no one wants to come clean on. I’m still laughing about the repo explanation that on September 17 there were a lot of corporate tax payments due (yes) and that the liquidity issue was temporary (no, as the daily Fed injections are still going on and now include not only overnight but “term” programs (meaning longer than overnight, like 17 days, 23 days, 42 days)).
Waiting for Powell to go on teevee and tell all the sheeple that if you like your nestegg you can keep your nestegg.
Before you can understand someones motivation, you must understand who they work for. The Fed works for the largest banks who make up the Fed. The Fed is not a government entity, it is a corporation, with stockholders, and those stockholders are the countries largest banks.
Each of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks is organized into a corporation whose shares are sold to the commercial banks and thrifts operating within the Bank’s district. Shareholders elect six of the nine the board of directors for their regional Federal Reserve Bank as well as its president.
Corporations are only responsible to one entity, and that is their stockholders.
Why do you think Fed policy was to bail out the banks in 2008 while it left the US citizens twisting in the wind?
If you want to know why the Fed is doing what it is, it is doing it because it is in the best interest of its shareholders, who are the too big to fail banks.