Category: US Debt
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Fed Emperor Nakedly Monetizing Debt, Desperately Seeking Stability / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Jesse
The Fed is monetizing debt, colloquially known as 'printing money.'
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Municipal Bond Market Score Card / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Fred_Sheehan
Meredith Whitney has kicked up a storm with her 600-page, municipal-bond report. She was one of the first analysts on Wall Street who warned the banks were going to topple well before they toppled. (Standard & Poor's downgraded Bear Stearns three notches - to BBB - on March 14, 2008, two days before J.P. Morgan acquired Bear's carcass.) Whitney told 60 Minutes on December 19, 2010: "You could see...50 to 100 sizable [municipal] defaults.... This will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of defaults." The municipal bond CABAL (issuers, fund managers, analysts, the municipalities) denounced Whitney and her predictions.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Unsustainable and Simply Unpayayable Global Sovereign Public Debt / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Bob_Chapman
Public debt has become a problem worldwide. What is becoming more and more evident is that it is unsustainable and simply unpayable. It could be compared to a giant Ponzi scheme. We see no meaningful debt reductions thus, government will have to raise taxes, which will further suppress the economy, or people and companies will be forced to buy such bonds, or perhaps pension and retirement funds will be seized to continue the game for a while longer.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sustainable Shortfalls on Unsustainable Debt, Buy Gold / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Richard_Daughty
From the Economic Collapse Blog, an essay I found at LewRockwell.com, we learn the horrifying news that the United States Census Bureau has, for some reason, probably after spending millions and billions of dollars and countless man-hours, found out that there are approximately 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the United States, although what this has to do with the Census Bureau is beyond me, except that they are probably trying to justify their existence in light of looming budget cuts in light of a collapsing economy.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
US Budget Expenditures - CBO Long Term Outlook / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Jesse
Obviously one can question their growth assumptions, and therefore tax revenue assumptions.
However bear in mind that this chart is for the expenditures as a percentage of GDP, and is therefore tied to the growth.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Don't Be Fooled By Washington's U.S. Debt Ceiling Debate / Politics / US Debt
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
I have to tell you that - as a former international merchant banker - I want to laugh out loud when I hear the dire predictions of how the United States will have to default if Congress doesn't raise the nation's debt ceiling.
With a little Wall Street-style creative financing - even when the government's outstanding debt level reaches the official limit of $14.3 trillion sometime around the end of March - there's no reason why the country can't go on borrowing as if nothing has changed.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 14, 2011
Obama to Propose More than $1 Trillion in U.S. Budget Deficit Reduction / Politics / US Debt
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: The Obama administration will release a federal budget today for the fiscal year beginning October 1 that cuts the total federal deficit by as much as $1.1 trillion over the next decade, two thirds of it through cuts in domestic spending, according to press reports over the weekend.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
China Syndrome Debt Bubbleomics And Crude Oil / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Andrew_Butter
Along with the emergence of the much heralded “Green Shoots” that must by now be turning into roses (?), has come the sinking realization that (a) just piling debt on debt is not a long-term solution to anything, and that (b) perhaps there might have been more “wrong” under the blanket of mark to market (when markets were in a bubble), and mark to fantasy when they crashed, than can be swept under the carpet forever; like perhaps something structural?
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
U.S. Debt, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lender / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Casey_Research
Terry Coxon, The Casey Report writes: It was Otto von Bismarck who explained that “politics is the art of the possible.” We can thank him for that much, but he didn’t tell the whole story. I’ll give you the rest of it. Politics is the art of the possible fictions you can get away with.
Politics is mostly dissembling, and the dissembling is mostly about dodging personal responsibility for the messes governments make. It works out that way because making messes is most of what governments do. So when we ponder how the U.S. government will go about defaulting on its debts, a good way to approach the question is to consider how a default might be presented.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Ben Bernanke and The Confidence Men / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Jeff_Berwick
Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke and other government officials always talk about the importance of "confidence" to the economy. But that is because they are confidence men (aka. conmen) playing a confidence game (congame).
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Chinese Puzzle, U.S. Debt Holdings / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Professor_Emeritus
Position papers of professorfekete #4, February 7, 2011
There is really just one question about China, the Western mindset's "enigma wrapped in mystery". How could the Chinese have made the colossal mistake of investing their hard-earned savings in the debt of the U.S. government -- to the tune of $ 1 trillion, the largest sum one country has ever loaned another in all history. (There is only one other puzzle greater than this: How could the U.S. government in good faith allow its debt to accumulate in Chinese hands? But we leave that question for another occasion to discuss.) U.S. debt is easy to buy but hard to get rid of. The harder, the larger are the sums involved.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 04, 2011
The U.S. Government Budget Deficit Scam / Politics / US Debt
By: Richard_Daughty
I am constantly amazed at the number of people who think that a budget deficit is the same thing as the total federal deficit, which it ain't.
Actually, I remember one time early in my career where I was so desperate to cover up the results of my own incompetence that I tried to exploit this confusion with a "budget deficit" scam of my own, and it seemed to work for almost a month!
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Debt and Deficits, “The New Humpty Dumpty” / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Andy_Sutton
Irony is a wonderful thing sometimes. It has a habit of framing things exactly the way they need to be framed. Unfortunately, this is a knife that cuts both ways and irony sometimes points out awful realities. I am not a political animal per se, but I find it incredibly ironic how the avalanche of bad news on the deficit, Social Security, and essentially most of the things wrong with our economy was saved until after Tuesday’s SOTU speech. Make no mistake, this has happened before, and each time I find the timing to be absolutely incredible. It is very clear at least at this point that our leaders prefer to pay lip service to the idea of reducing the deficit rather than actually trying to rectify the situation. I say this because, with very few exceptions, the rhetoric centers around a silver bullet solution that will allow programs and spending to remain pretty much on the same path as what got us here, but at the same time, ‘fixing’ things.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Should Congress Raise the U.S. Debt Ceiling? / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Robert_Murphy
At current rates of spending, the federal government may bump up against its debt limit as early as March. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warns that it will be "catastrophic to the economy" if Congress doesn't increase Uncle Sam's credit limit. Writers in conservative outlets call for Republicans to use this opportunity to extract significant spending cuts before extending the limit. And some extreme libertarians argue that the debt ceiling shouldn't be raised, because a government default would be a good thing for the American people.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
U.S. Federal Budget Deficit Climbing Dangerously Higher on Continued 2011 Government Spending / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Money_Morning
Kerri Shannon writes:
On the heels of U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union address - during which the commander in chief highlighted the need for investment in innovation - a steep federal budget deficit projection yesterday (Wednesday) showed the harsh reality of the U.S. government's spending spree.