Tag: National Debt

BUYING VOTES 101

The national debt went up by $1.2 TRILLION in the last fiscal year. Tax revenue plummeted, while spending skyrocketed. Interest on the debt soared to an all-time high. Promise more tax cuts with no plan to pay for them by cutting spending. That’s the ticket. Now you know what they taught at the defunct Trump University. But when this mountain of debt come tumbling down, it will be the Fed’s fault for raising interest rates above 2%. So it goes. I wonder how much my taxes will go up after this “cut”.

Image result for funny trump tax cuts

Via Marketwatch

Trump says he will propose 10% tax cut for middle-income earners

Speaking to reporters on the White House law, President Donald Trump said the administration will propose what he called a “resolution” to cut taxes by 10% for middle-income earners. He made clear that this would be for Congress to enact and not to be done administratively. He acknowledged that Congress would not take up any legislative proposal until after the election.

WHAT KEEPS THEM UP AT NIGHT

“Government has coddled, accepted, and ignored white collar crime for too long. It is time the nation woke up and realized that it’s not the armed robbers or drug dealers who cause the most economic harm, it’s the white collar criminals living in the most expensive homes who have the most impressive resumes who harm us the most. They steal our pensions, bankrupt our companies, and destroy thousands of jobs, ruining countless lives.” – Harry Markopolos, Madoff Whistleblower

Image result for bank ceos in front of congress

The tenth anniversary of the Wall Street created financial catastrophe brought back some bittersweet memories this week. I wrote my first articles during the summer/fall of 2008 for Seeking Alpha. They included: Is The U.S Banking System Safe? (Aug 2008), The Great Consumer Crash of 2009 (Aug 2008), Looming Financial Catastrophe: A Real Inconvenient Truth (Aug 2008), Is Wachovia the Worst Run Bank in America (Sept 2008), The U.S. on the Precipice (Sept 2008), On Board the U.S.S. Titanic (Sept 2008), Our Coming Depression (Oct 2008), among others. I was pumping out 5,000 word articles every 2 or 3 days.

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Here’s who owns a record $21.21 trillion of U.S. debt

Via Marketwatch

Who owns the huge and growing U.S. national debt? By and large, Americans.

Some 70% of the national debt is owned by domestic government, institutions investors and the Federal Reserve. A shade under 30% is owned by foreign entities, according to the latest information from the U.S. Treasury.

The nation’s debt climbed to a record $21.21 trillion at the end of June, a 6.9% increase from a year earlier.

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Government’s already-dismal budget forecast just got 106% worse

Guest Post by Simon Black

Yesterday the Office of Management and Budget released a new report called the “Mid-Session Review” of the US federal budget.

It’s something they’re required by law to do– periodically review and update the government’s budget and track the changes.

The last government budget update was released in February. And according to the February budget, the government’s deficit for this fiscal year was going to be a whopping $873 billion.

Now they’re projecting to close this fiscal year (which ends on September 30th) with a deficit of $890 billion… which means they’re over-budget by just under 2%.

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The root of the debt crisis: every $1 in debt generates just 44 cents of economic output

Guest Post by Simon Black

Exactly ten years ago, in the middle of the summer of 2008, the world was only two months away from the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.

At the time, the size of the US economy as measured by Gross Domestic product was around $14.8 trillion– by far the largest in the world.

And the US national debt back then was about 64% of GDP– roughly $9.5 trillion.

Fast forward a decade and take a snapshot of the same numbers: US GDP has grown nearly 35% to $19.9 trillion.

But the national debt has soared 122% to over $21 trillion.

Continue reading “The root of the debt crisis: every $1 in debt generates just 44 cents of economic output”

A NATION BUILT ON LIES

“The greatest want of the world is the want of men — men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” – Ellen G. White

The world becomes more chaotic by the day. Good luck finding a politician, business icon, or religious leader who is not bought and sold by corporate or special interests. Finding truth telling honest leaders in today’s world is virtually impossible. Charles Foster Kane, a quasi-biographical portrayal of William Randolph Hearst, is a fine representation of the billionaire clique that pull the strings in our warped, deceitful, greed driven, materialistic world.

Citizen Kane’s thematic portrayal of the American Dream is far more germane to our society today than it was when made in 1941. Financial affluence, material luxury, wielding power over others, and controlling the opinions of the masses through propaganda media, did not guarantee happiness or fulfillment for Kane or todays oligarchs. Kane was happiest as a poor child, living with his parents, playing in the snow on his sled – Rosebud.

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CBO – “Making America More Indebted”

Guest Post by Lance Roberts

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In December of last year, as Congress voted to pass the “Tax Cut & Jobs Act,” I wrote that without “real and substantive cuts to spending,” the debt and deficits will begin to balloon. At that time, I mapped out the trajectory of the deficit based on the cuts to revenue from lower tax rates and sustained levels of government spending.

Since that writing, the government has now lifted the “debt ceiling” for two years and passed a $1.3 Trillion “omnibus spending bill” to operate the government through the end of September, 2018. Of course, since the government has foregone the required Constitutional process of operating on a budget for the last decade, “continuing resolutions,” or “C.R.s,” will remain the standard operating procedure of managing the country’s finances. This means that spending will continue to grow unchecked into the foreseeable future as C.R.’s increase the previously budgeted spending levels automatically by 8% annually. (Rule of 72 says spending doubles every 9-years) 

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Treasury Admits It Lost $1.2 TRILLION in 2017

Guest Post by Mark Nestmann

In 1971, President Richard Nixon told an ABC News reporter that he was “now a Keynesian in economics.”

Nixon’s statement was an acknowledgment that he agreed with the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes was an economist whose theories once underpinned the economies of every major country.

Nixon’s endorsement of Keynesian economics was shocking. To understand its impact at the time, consider how the world would react today if the leader of ISIS converted to Christianity. Or if the National Rifle Association endorsed a ban on semi-automatic weapons.

Nixon’s statement was astonishing because one of the fundamental precepts of Keynesian economics is that governments must intervene in the economy to ensure “optimal outcomes.” To economic conservatives, this was dangerously close to socialism or even communism.

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ECONOMIC PROGRESS IN BIZARRO WORLD

Nothing like a one month budget deficit of $215 billion to get the stock market to new record highs. The markets yawn at the news, even though we used to run ANNUAL budget deficits below $215 billion before 2009. Interest on the national debt, even with historically low interest rates, will exceed $500 billion this year and will continue to increase exponentially. Annual interest on the debt in 2003 was $300 billion.

Even the horrific budget deficits detailed below are bullshit. They are massaged and adjusted to provide the best view. Even these numbers are trending towards a $1 trillion deficit. Bravo Trump. Go to the national debt page for a real dose of reality.

The national debt has gone up by $700 billion in the first five and a half months to $21 trillion. It is on track to go up by at least $1.4 trillion this year. With rates rising and deficits soaring, interest on the national debt will be over $700 billion per year by the end of Trump’s term. How long can this be sustained? I guess we’ll find out. It’s just maff.

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The US Government Quietly Added $200 Billion To The National Debt This Month Alone

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

There’s been something happening this month that very few people have noticed.

It’s been lost beneath all the other headline-dominating news, from the Las Vegas shooting to Harvey Weinstein to the Mueller investigation.

But very quietly behind the scenes there’s been an extremely rapid uptick in the US national debt.

In the month of October alone, the US national debt has soared by nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars.

BULL IN A CHINA SHOP

“So the modern world may be increasing in technological knowledge, but, paradoxically, it is making things a lot more unpredictable.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

“Success brings an asymmetry: you now have a lot more to lose than to gain. You are hence fragile.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

I had read Nassim Taleb’s other best-selling tomes about risk, randomness and black swans – Fooled by Randomness & The Black Swan. They were not easy reads, but they were must reads. He is clearly a brilliant thinker, but I like him more because he is a prickly skeptic who scorns and ridicules academics, politicians, and Wall Street scumbags with gusto. There were many passages which baffled me, but so many nuggets of wisdom throughout each book, you couldn’t put them down.

When his Antifragile book was published in 2012, the name intimidated me. I figured it was too intellectual for my tastes. When I saw it on the shelf in my favorite used book store at the beach, I figured it was worth a read for $9. I’m plowing through it and I haven’t been disappointed.

His main themes are more pertinent today than they were in 2012. He published The Black Swan in 2007, just prior to one of the biggest black swans in world history – the 2008 Federal Reserve/Wall Street created financial collapse. His disdain for “experts” like Bernanke, Paulson, and Wall Street CEOs, and their inability to comprehend the consequences of their actions and in-actions as the financial system was blown sky high, was a bulls-eye.

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Stabbing With Their Steely Knives, They Just Can’t Kill the Beast

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor…

– Ezekiel 28: 15-17

In horror stories originating from the times of the first songs there have always been common enemies.  Creatures of sinister intelligence, blind violence, disingenuity, clever crafters of schemes, or often containing the capacity for all of these; lurking in the dark, or hidden in plain sight, but always waiting and watching.  Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs suffered through the antics of wily wolves. Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel agonized before the wicked wills of warted witches; and with Jack of Beanstalk fame it was jeering giants who longed to grind his bones for bread, alive or dead.  Star Wars had Darth Vader and the Lords of the Sith, whereas it was the evil eye of Sauron that ruled over J.R.R Tolkien’s shadowy land of Mordor.  And for most of the world’s religions today it remains Lucifer, the morning star, who fell from heaven by the weight of a prideful heart and now reigns as the Prince and Power of the Air; tempting, taunting, and tantalizing, all of mankind.

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