Category: US Debt
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Debt Fuelled Zombie Capitalism, Bernanke "Marching Ignorantly Forward" / Economics / US Debt
Australian economist has another blockbuster post on the dynamics of debt deflation and the Great Financial Collapse. Please consider Debtwatch No 41, December 2009: 4 Years of Calling the GFC.
Read full article... Read full article...During a debt-driven financial bubble, which is the obvious precursor to a debt-deflation, rising levels of debt propel aggregate demand well above what it would otherwise be, leading to a boom in both the real economy and asset markets. But this process also adds to the debt burden on the economy, especially when the debt is used to finance speculation on asset prices rather than to expand production–since this increases the debt burden without adding to productive capacity.
Monday, November 30, 2009
U.S. Debt, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Real Time / Economics / US Debt
Anyone who has visited New York has probably seen The National Debt Clock, a digital readout of how much the federal government owes its creditors. The speed at which that number grows is daunting.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
From Zombie Banks to Corporations to All of America / Politics / US Debt
The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6
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Monday, November 23, 2009
U.S. Stages Fake Coup to Wipe Out National Debt / Economics / US Debt
Congress says that with no way to actually pay back our debts, faking a coup to eliminate financial obligations is the best plan for the U.S. economy.
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Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Hidden Costs of Too Much Government Debt / Economics / US Debt
This week was a fascinating one on the geopolitical front. President Barack Obama travelled to China in what was billed as a major diplomatic trip.
The idea? Try to reach common ground on several fronts, including global nuclear proliferation, environmental issues, and especially China’s currency …
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Saturday, November 21, 2009
Government Debt Default, How (Not If) Will it Happen / Economics / US Debt
I have surveyed the Austrian School's theory of money. This theory began with Ludwig von Mises' "Theory of Money and Credit" (1912). I presented Mises' theory of fractional reserve banking and the creation of the business cycle in my mini-book, Mises on Money (2002).
The previous parts of this series are on-line here.
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Friday, November 20, 2009
A Wiser Use of Borrowed Money / Economics / US Debt
It nearly slipped through the cracks this week as mediastocracy marveled at the apparent lack of inflation as the PPI and CPI reports his the wires. However, just beneath the surface, the financial and economic metamorphosis continues unabated. I am talking about Qatar and its very successful bond sale.
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
What If the Foreigners Stop Buying Our Debt? / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By Doug Hornig, Senior Editor, Casey Research - “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” said Blanche DuBois, in the final words of the play A Streetcar Named Desire. Well, don’t we all.
Many citizens probably still cling to the old saw that public debt doesn’t matter because “we owe it to ourselves.” Wrong. Debt always matters. And as for whom we owe it to, it is a lot of kind (or, at least, not yet unkind) strangers.
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
U.S. Debt, Where’s the Money Going to Come From? / Economics / US Debt
A lot of what passes for analysis of the US economy is far too complicated. The reality is that you only need to do basic arithmetic to see that the US is STILL in a recession if not depression.
Let’s break it down.
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
Deficit Doubles for Government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp / Economics / US Debt
So many future bailouts to look forward to, so little time. So many cans do kick down the road via accounting adjustments, so few feet do keep doing the kicking. While I read this piece I was struck by my own reaction... not even $30 billion in deficit? This is peanuts! We've become so numb to bailouts that anything less than hundreds of billions seems like a normal part of Bailout Nation. Yet just over a decade ago the world was in a panic over hedge fund Long Term Capital and its gaping hole of $3.6 billion.
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Friday, November 13, 2009
Bankrupt States Seeking to Boost Their Revenues By Any Means / Politics / US Debt
Slow Down… or Else
On a whim following our Denver Summit – and despite truly abysmal weather – Casey Research CEO Olivier Garret and I cabbed it down to a local public golf course for a quick nine holes. Afterwards we were returning to the hotel through a neighborhood best described as poor, but not disreputable. While our cab made its way down a side street, a radar gun-wielding policeman leaped out of the bushes down the block, pulled the trigger, and waved our immigrant cab driver to the curb. The offense, we soon learned, was going five miles an hour over the speed limit in a school zone… well after school was out and with no other children in sight.
Friday, November 13, 2009
America Follows Japan Over the Debt Fuelled Economic Cliff / Economics / US Debt
“It’s amazing; the US is doing everything that Japan did wrong,” said a friend yesterday.
Let’s see, in the 1980s Japan’s corporate leaders thought they were going to take over the world. Investors thought so too. They expanded. They wheeled. They dealed. Prices shot up and they all thought they were geniuses.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
The State of the American Economy in One Chart / Economics / US Debt
They say a picture paints a thousand words. Well this picture paints very clearly the American Economy for the last 30 years.
Ever decreasing Bond Yields which = EVER EXPANDING DEBT.
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Monday, November 09, 2009
U.S. Debt Explosion Sets in Motion Massive Revolutionary Changes / Economics / US Debt
I’ve just returned from Munich, Germany, where Claus Vogt and I addressed the 8th Annual Conference of Sicheres Geld subscribers.
Here are the highlights of my side of the presentation. (Claus will give you his side in a future issue).
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
U.S. Budget Deficit Debt Crisis, Austrian, East European or Glide Option Solution? / Economics / US Debt
The Present Contains All Possible Futures
The Ugly Unemployment Numbers
Argentinian Disease
The Austrian Solution
The Eastern European Solution
Japanese Disease
The Glide Path Option
The present contains all possible futures. But not all futures are good ones. Some can be quite cruel. The one we actually get is dictated by the choices we make. For the last few months I have been addressing the choices in front of us, economically speaking. Today I am going to summarize them, and maybe we can look for some signposts that will tell us which path we're headed down. For those who are new readers and who would like a more in-depth analysis, you can go to the archives at http://www.2000wave.com/ and search for terms I am writing about. And I will start out by briefly touching on today's ugly unemployment numbers, with data you did not get in the mainstream media.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The Kiss of Debt / Economics / US Debt
Regular readers of this space will recognize this as the third in a series. Irregular readers will not recognize it at all. They will look at us as though we had come from Mars. Earthlings are all convinced that a financial crisis of cosmic proportions befell the planet last fall. Had the authorities failed to act with determination and speed, it would have been the end of the world. In the popular mind the politicians have saved capitalism from its own excesses.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Securitization Bankrupted America, So Who Owns It Now? / Economics / US Debt
Everyone is familiar with the chart of US debt that goes up to about 350% of GDP in 2008, this is the same slide except looked at another way [1]:
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
United States Catching the Argentinian Economic Disease of Hyperinflation? / Economics / US Debt
Catching Argentinian Disease?
The Ascent of Money
The Independence of the Fed Threatened
A Few Quick Thoughts on the Dollar, GDP, and the Recession
I have been in South America this week, speaking nine times in five days, interspersed with lots of meetings. The conversation kept coming back to the prospects for the dollar, but I was just as interested in talking with money managers and business people who had experienced the hyperinflation of Argentina and Brazil. How could such a thing happen? As it turned out, I was reading a rather remarkable book that addressed that question. There are those who believe that the United States is headed for hyperinflation because of our large and growing government fiscal deficit and massive future liabilities (as much as $56 trillion) for Medicare and Social Security.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Consequences of Deficit Spending Debt Build up in Our Lifetime / Economics / US Debt
I am in Argentina today, but still have found time to read a rather provocative speech by David Einhorn, who is President of Greenlight Capital, a "long-short value-oriented hedge fund", which he began in 1996. Einhorn has long been a critic of the current investment banking business, and today he discusses the problems with not only the proposed new government regulations (or lack thereof), but also the problems with the US debt and our currency valuations. It is a most thought-provoking and fun speech.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Exploding U.S. National Debt Means Bye Bye Miss American Pie / Politics / US Debt
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” - Bertrand Russell
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