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3 Days Into The Month = $169 Billion Of Debt Redeemed
Three days into the month, and the Treasury has already redeemed $169 billion in debt, of which $137 billion in Bills. Run-rated (for Bills alone) this is about $5.5 trillion annually, or basically 63% of all marketable US debt. And somehow the Treasury is lowering the amount of new bond issuance beginning next week. We wonder just where Tim Geithner will get the much needed cash to plug not only the increasing daily deficit spending (today alone the US burned $21 billion net of debt transfers, gross the number was even worse), as well as to fund daily rolls once rates start eventually increasing. This is financial suicide, although the Treasury knows that all too well. It is now stuck in a corner and has no way out than to hope for the best.
Total US debt today was $13.06 trillion. Total debt on March 6, 2009 was $10.95 trillion. The government has spent $2.1 trillion dollars to create a bear market rally which has now fizzled, and to fund a fiscal stimulus that is now dancing its death rattle. GDP will now gradually roll over, the unemployment rate will once again start increasing, diffusion indices, manufacturing and all other economic output will begin declining, but not before the bill is in. It cost Americans $2.1 trillion in debt to generate a 14 months sugar high (for which all will promptly receive a much higher tax bill). Luckily, we will never pay this debt off, so perhaps "the joke is on them" after all.
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I miss Bernie, he knew the game was over and admitted it.
Exactly, but I wonder if he would've just kept his mouth shut if he owned a printing press to whip out when the redemptions came pouring in.
The Feds can extend & pretend as long as they have a press.
Everyone shut up and buy solars...
<sarcasm off>
.....couldn't resist
Even a broken clock is right twice a day so give Leo some credit. Solars will have their day in the sun.
With over $1 Quadrillion outstanding in derivatives and the current deflationary environment along with the volatility, it surely will be someone that goes upside down and dies a quick death.
It really doesn't matter "who" because it WILL be someone.
Derivatives will blow up without a doubt and the ripple/domino effect will take the system with it.
It is the same thing with sovereign (?) governments, now Hungary has a problem out of the blue, who'd a thunk it?
It doesn't matter "who" goes first, Greece, Spain, Hungary... blah blah blah... it just doesn't matter, because they will basically all go.
The mathematics at this point virtually assure a massive monetization worldwide to save the fiat system which, in fact, will be the final nails in the fiat coffin.
Today's action was not lost on Gold, down early and up nearly $10 in response to the further cracking of the Euro. The markets are looking at this 1.21 area on the Euro, 10,000 on the Dow and casting its vote for the safety of Gold.
Today's action has just the whiff of "loss of control" because these things should be bouncing and even with intervention they are not.
This is the stuff that panics are made of !
Panics come about when an "oversold" market continues down and does not bounce.
The "pros" read their tea leaves (call their well connected mafia buddies) and when the intervention (read...manipulation) fails, panic ensues and this is what could be setting up here and now.
If not now, it will happen out ahead with the only question being when.
Another area beginning to panic are the credit markets.
The spreads are really blowing out today in weaker sovereigns and junk which means credit is drying up in a nutshell. It also means that anything that needs to be rolled will be difficult if not impossible. We are rapidly approaching the exact same situation that existed in late 2008 when Lehman Bros. collapsed with one giant caveat.
This time it is not only about the banks, this is about governments going belly up and bankrupt.
There is one and ONLY ONE safe haven when governments in a fiat system go broke.
Yes!... here comes the broken record again...GOLD!
When everything else goes tits up, an ounce of Gold will still be an ounce of Gold, it will not have defaulted because it cannot and value from broken entities far and wide will accrue to it. You will either own it here or you will financially die because there is no other safe place to hide when all is said and done.
But, but the Dollar is rising and acting like a safe haven right? For now, yes.
Against Gold, no.
The day will come ...(I believe it has already on 9/11/01 when just like then)...you will wake up and the Dollar will be cascading like shit out of a Canadian goose and go splat. It is coming as sure as the Sun will rise tomorrow morning.
Be prepared as best you can because this will be so complicated that even a lifetime "survivalist" will surely forget one thing or another.
Think it through and prepare for the worst because we are entering uncharted territory in human history.
Crap - now Hungary has a problem? The pi(i)g issue just became a phig issue. Just doesn't have the same mental image, does it?
When PHI(I)Gs fly!
Talk to any kids-phishing has a whole new meaning. - Ned
f == ph has exactly the same mental meaning.
Long legged Italy kicked little Sicily into the Mediterranean Sea. Austria got Hungary and gobbled up Turkey and all that was left was Greece! A droll little geography lesson.
Phigaro phigaro phigaro.
Oh Phuck!
A very good question at the end of these paragraphs:
"As I was getting ready this am, I decided to watch our local news channel here in Columbus. Our city is the largest and most "profitable" city in the state. Did I fail to mention we are broke too? Anyways, in a cost cutting measure, the city has decided to cut the public school buses routes for 9th grade and up from 1451 routes to 166! That is a reduction of 1335 routes daily or 92%!! They said the inner city kids will have to find alternate ways to get to school. They said kindergarten kids were exempt!? Nothing like the trickle down of the Formula hitting even the children.
God help us all when the greed of the powerful impact the innocent. NOBODY is immune to the fallout. When they speak of our "grandchildren paying back the deficit" how the hell are they going to pay back anything when they can’t even get to school to get an education to get a job?"
Don't worry. The education is worthless and there are no jobs.
Iceland shows the way
anyone who has given birth after TARP was passed should be arrested for child abuse. no one deserves to be born into this ridiculous farce.
+1
Don't worry, we're all criminals by default anyway. Every minute we spend outside of prison is a privilege granted through the generosity of the State.
All must bow to the State! Be grateful for what you are granted!
Here is the proper way to address the mighty - watch and learn!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FucbvoFFy0
These are indeed Strange Days. Your ZOSO'd correspondent was standing not 3 hours ago in Penn Station, NYC waiting the Acela Express back to Philly from NYC (attended the 11th Annual Private Equity Real Estate Conference, an equally strange admixture of near-suicidal fund managers with collapsing investor interest and the glass-half-full crowd seeing nothiing but blue skies and butterflies ahead), when who to my wondering eyes should appear not 10 feet away but Hank Paulson and his presumed bride, lugging a pile of luggage which summarily dropped to the floor amidst the bustling crowd of Friday afternoon travelers seeking to escape the 90 degree heat. He turned and moved towards me - the thought occurred that perhaps I should offer Zero hedge views on his effectiveness as Treasury Secretary, but could only muster a quick "how ya doing, Mr. Paulson?" He looked right through me and staggered off in search of god knows what, leaving his wife looking somewhat anxious, as if she were wondering when he would return.
While I was unable to get a moment with him to discuss the intial draft of the TARP legislation, a model of brevity and utter insanity, I still marveled at the sight of a multi-hundred millionaire sweating profusely in a suit, and lugging around suitcases and following his wife just like the rest of us mere mortals. He disappeared into the first class section of the train - I alas had mere coach tickets and could not follow to engage him. Perhaps that is for the best, and even now I just wonder if it was some apparition, heralding the collapse of the market. Who knows. No one else seemed to notice or care who he was, but this is NY. A true story.
Awesome story! I think your convo would have gone like this:
"Mr. Paulson, (insert informed question, with a hint of statement)?"
"Ba ba da da mmmmffffff." As drool dripped down his chin.
"OoooooKay, thank you for your time."
Gee, a train?
I guess we are doomed.
Nice icon. And I was wondering too, WTF, where is the limo? Guess you accumulate that kind of dough being phenomenally greedy AND cheap.
ya silly out of towners. the train to DC is faster and nicer then the shuttle.
Gee, a train?
I guess we are doomed.
Yeah, Paulson must expect ATC to fail when the system collapses. Naturally, he took no chances.
I have promised myself, if ever I see that treacherous man, I will spit on him.
You know that feeling you have after encountering someone, you know, " I should have said. . . " I had that feeling, especially since if you have ever followed my comments here I view him as someone who should be prosecuted for his involvement in the B of A/Merrill debacle, let alone the TARP monstrosity, which Deadhead ( I miss him) and I were all over at the time, and you wish you had said. .. but here he was, a mere mortal, dragging his luggage, but clearly oblivious when I said "hey, Mr. Paulson," like I wasn't there, which, I imagine, for him, I was not there, being just another sucker taxpayer who enabled the survival of his one and only concern, Goldman Sachs.
I miss Deadhead, too. Do you know if he's doing okay?
Ned
Get yourself to an Exorcist !
I am immune to the satanic forces that no doubt rule his world. . . just one of my things.
Seeing Hank Paulson at Penn Station would be a great opportunity for a citizen's arrest.
Or, jump on top of bench and yell to Penn Station crowd, "Hey folks, look who is trying to get out of town. It's Hank Paulson, the Goldman Sachs CEO who was a ringleader of the Wall Street gang that raped and pillaged the mortgage industry, ruined the housing market, destroyed the credit system, endangered municipal financing, pension funds, and the banking system, sent the economy into a downward spiral, and endangered the world financial system.
"Yes folks, the same Goldman Sachs Hank Paulson who became Secretary of the Treasury in the worst conflict-of-interest in U.S. history, and wiped out Goldman Sachs competitors Bear Stearns and Lehman, used your tax money to bailout Goldman Sachs from billions in counterparty risk at Fannie, Freddie, and AIG, and hired Goldman Sachs henchmen to control key positions at the U.S. Treasury and to advise him on how best to the enrich Goldman Sachs with your tax money."
Thanks for the sighting report. I will email this sighting to America's Most Wanted.
knowing how none of them will suffer or go to jail, my first impulse is a kick in his balls.
I would not be so kind.
A knife in the back would be fitting.
I would of hit him in the the temple with the corner of my brief case. His wife, I would go to tell the others, "no one is safe."
Ned Zeppelin
So you didn't try to give a little back by fucking his wife?
Nice. Besides, he wouldn't care, he is an ass fuck. His son, trying to get taxpayers of Portland OR to pay for his soccer franchise's stadium. Daddy would not give him the money, said Daddy is one of the tightest wads there is. Mean fuck. The franchise is a really stupid thing, ya would think with all the rich people sonny grew up around, if it was a good idea, he woulda found a private backer. The dipshit Mayor, Sam Adams (I did not have sex with that teenage "intern") is his biggest supporter.
Paulson family is a fascinating study in family dysfunction.
I wonder if Hank had a childhood like this adorable little munchkin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfGWvexg90w
I would advise you to think happy thoughts when you see Hank!
or at least a handjob.
Cool story.
One thing about NYC, no matter how rich and powerful you are, you can't avoid "the street" in some way shape or form.
I once saw Jim Cramer on his way into an expensive French restuarant on the upper eastside. To this day, I regret not hitting him over the head with a garbage can.
Daniel? Cafe Boulud? Please let me know so I can stake it out. many thanks.
The first one.
Maybe he was taking the train because he's afraid someone is going to off him. Taking a plane out of the sky is a much more effective means by which to off someone than derailing a train.
Friday night, time for Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser
came across this vintage episode from just before the market crash in 1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MyToTwag34
Anybody out there wallowing...
Maybe it was Louis that caused the crash. Wasn't he the only financial news outlet back then?
That type of negativity would never be allowed today from the host.
as my grandpa on my mothers side used to tell me, Louis was a permanent bull. That being said this and related videos are haunting, maybe because Louis was a permanent bull.
3 banks down tonight and it is still early.
Come on guys, Dick Cheney has said deficits don't matter then the Bush administration spent like drunken sailors (or is that dry-drunken sailors?). Then, along came Obama and his change which looked a whole lot like Bush's 3rd term (as if his owners would let him do anything else). Such is thinking in Washington.
The Demopublican's and Republicrats wouldn't lie to us, would they? All will be well...for them and theirs. The rest of us are screwed and really aren't their concern. Just drink the Kool-aid, shut up and enjoy your serfdom.
Come on - the Cheney quote is a myth, never happened and denied by everyone except the guy who got fired as Treasury Secretary.
It was supposedly spoken at a smug moment by Cheney. Then he of course denied it. He has to deny it. What else is he supposed to tell his working class constituents that will get stuck with the bill and believe the myth that Republicans are financially responsible?
As for Cheney's quote being proved a myth, it's sure tough to find such "proof" anywhere on the web. It's pretty much Cheney's word against O'neill's word. If there was real, genuine proof, every wingnut website would have the proof on every search engine possible. Even National Review calls it an allegation, not a myth: http://old.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200403050929.asp
The point being, it's the mentality that has existed in Washington by both parties for years. Cheney's smug comment, myth as you say, or not, has pretty much been the prevailing reality by both parties for at least 30+ years. Sure, Republicans have talked the fiscal responsibility game during elections and when the Dems run the show, but they haven't shown they can walk the talk either.They both spend money like crazy, it's just a difference of who gets a cut.
Maybe it was Turd Blossom?
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/the-emptine...
If "Hoping for the Best" is the current FED plan what happens if their hopes don't work out?
"Hoping for the Best" = cash in the safe, gold in the backyard, debt at minimum, investments low levered, pantry w/ 3 months supply, and knowledge I've no idea what's gonna happen next...but I'm hoping for the best!!! (I know I was supposed to also claim my firearm(s) and copious amount of amo (hollow point?) but I still haven't crossed this bridge...and it was weird stocking up on shit at Costco and wondering, really, what if I am a coock so I made sure to only buy things we'd actually eat if this turns out like Y2k (BTW - I wasn't worried bout that or the terrorists...I've never been worried before). Now my kids want to go to the garage to eat all the good stuff in our emergency reserves and my wife wonders what she's gotten herself into. Oh well.
I used to claim firearms until they fell out of the boat with all the ammo when I was fishing last week. Deep water, too. Or maybe they fell down the volcano when I was trekking in Iceland after they told the banks to go to hell and I was so happy to be in a land of sane people they just all fell off of my back.
Follow Iceland's Lead
Will you marry me? Broken down, high mileage engineer, but I love to fish. I'm a good cook too! :)
Don't live somewhere where you have to declare what weapons you have, or if you must, don't declare them.
seriously, where do you have to declare what guns you have? that little sheet you fill out when you buy?
No wonder Obama doesn't want the Fed audited. They must be handing him freshly-printed cash, no silly Treasury-note "obligation" necessary.
That is the answer to the missing debt. Print more and hide it.
Einstein was right...nothing more powerful than compounding interest. I thought he was talking about investing. I was way off, he was talking about government debt, he knew full well that it would get into the quadrillions LOL what is after that???
I know...DOOM
Quintillion, Sextillion, Septillion, Octillion, Nonillion, Decillion, Undecillion, Duodecillion, etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers
Obama budget 2011
Its only 2 Sextillion and Hey no Gay bath house jokes!
when you realize that Obama is merely the Janitorial President, with no say in any of this, then you will understand. Those who think he is in charge of any of this do not understand what, and who we are dealing with.
Exactly.
+1000
To think anyone is in charge is no better than the myth of any god.
Tell that to the soldier who has a gun in your face...
go British long system of numbers, lasts longer.
Thousand (3), Million (6), Milliard (9), Billion (12), Billiard (15), Trillion (18), Trilliard (21), etc. Then we can hyperinflate casually with nomenclature that everyone is familiar with allowing the surreal nature of A Trillion (18) to mean something again.
Of course, we are well aware that these folks are serving dinner for old one eye on 12.21.2012, right? They are prepping the atmosphere right now.
non of those numbers is as big as what comes next, the "Bernankillion"
on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 17:17
#396235
I used to claim firearms until they fell out of the boat with all the ammo when I was fishing last week. Deep water, too. Or maybe they fell down the volcano when I was trekking in Iceland after they told the banks to go to hell and I was so happy to be in a land of sane people they just all fell off of my back.
I bet your are such a dumbass that you were afraid someone would steal your gold, so you took it with you on this ill-fated fishing expedition, didn't you?
That's what happened to me! Paranoid lil ol me took my guns and my gold out on a cigarette boat, the engine seized up, boat flipped over and everything was GONE! They then got the engine fired back up OK, but do I feel like a dumbass!
If I had guns I would claim they fell out of my boat too. It is a good think I don't have any so I don't have to lie about possessing them.
In the long run, we are all dead.
mochoajr
There can be only one
Today is a good day to die.
Rosebud...
et tu, brute?
goldbug...
So going long just means "in my lifetime," right?
look at the fckn oil pouring out of that hole, it's heartbreaking what is happening there
http://bit.ly/cRYuHX
Agreed.
The BP execs should be "sentenced" to spend the rest of their days living in a work release program rescuing and cleaning wildlife, and cleaning the beaches etc.
Alternatively, we can shove them down the well and see if they plug it up. But as a friend wisely observed, "they're probably too slimy to stick."
Yes because it was clearly the BP execs manning that rig and doing the cementing job.
God DAMN those oil companies for trying to deliver a product that people DEMAND they get or else riot over.
Off with their heads!
You can't blame the people because mobs are always right.
Don't forget about Squid management.
Squids, serpents, titans, demons, gods, etc... all myths.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870402620457526656093078019...
Yes. The BP execs.
No, they won't pay for the excess debt(public AND private debt transferred to the public).
There won't be many QE rounds left. Two at the most. The first one will happen soon. All fiat currencies will lose another 20% against gold. But they won't let hyperinflation take over, because the last QE round will be so massive, that it will be too late for all those who haven't yet converted their paper savings into gold and other hard assets to do it. We're going to see a massive internal devaluation of the monetary system before it collapses.
QE is ongoing. Did you mean to say bailout? Of course, those too are ongoing.
Brushfire, I don't buy a bit of it.
It's in your dreams.
All this world Debt. and Fiat money is going to end badly.
the Silver / Gold Ratio is as high as I can recall.. 70.1
Silver is so cheap right now.. It should be $ 110. / oz
The FED will start raising interest rates as has already been suggested ever so subtly through Hoenig. Does anyone think the ECB will?
Raising interest rates == removing liquidity from the system. Fed can only control (directly) the overnight rate. But the lead in to the story is that they are buying back debt, putting more dollars into the system. Opposite effect. ECB has no plan imho.
- Ned
Please consider the following:
1. We have about $1 Trillion of excess reserves in the banking system.
2. There are no plans to reduce this level of excess reserves in any serious way. The most aggressive Fed Head ( Kocherlakota) speculated a few weeks ago that maybe the Fed should start to sell bonds at a pace that would bring the excess reserves down to pre-emergency levels ( 2007) in about 20-25 YEARS.
3. Bernanke pushed for and got congressional approval to pay banks interest on their excess reserves. The idea is - if the Fed wants to raise the Fed Funds rate they can simply pay banks , say , a 2% interest rate on their excess reserves. Then no bank will lend its escess reserves to another bank at less than 2%. Voila!
4. So- in the past when the Fed raised its Fed Funds Target rate it then reduced reserves in banks byu selling bonds until the Fed Funds rate reached the target - therefore it was a tightening of monetary policy. The bernanke idea is - he will simply state that he will PAY banks 2%(say) on their excess reserves. So - now - there need be no tightening of monetary measures in order to raise the Fed Funds rate. Clever huh?
So - my question is - Will the Fed raising rates from now on actually mean monetary loosening? After all they will be putting billions of freshly printed dollars into their darling banks - money that did not exist before - in the form of interest on excess reserves. In fact I am starting to wonder if raising rates in this manner might in fact have the opposite effect of rate increases of the past. Great for banks - and therefore great for risk assets. Not great for those who aare betting on Japanese style yield curve!
There are no DOLLARS being printed.............
There are only entries on a computer screen.........adding zero's.
+ 13 Trillion
Rock? Hard place.
Hard place? Rock.
Oh, you're already well acquainted? Well then, carry on.
Anybody have a reference for what debt levels trigger hyperinflation (as a % of GDP) and what the mechanism is. All the "liquidity" created by the Fed to date (a lot of the last 2 Trillion of debt) was a shadow bailout of the banks and sitting in reserves (zero velocity). What event is going to push those reserves into the system?
I doubt stated reserves, as if banks ever just sit on cash.
Those reserves are more like net calculations on phony balance sheets. Under honest accounting, those reserves are negative.
The dude Admonishing everyone a week or so ago to SELL everything, was spot on..........
This beast from Hell, is going to grind us to dust, and take every dime you have.Before it's over, if you own a home outright, you will lose it.
This train must be STOPPED,with the tax increase coming, and 200-300% increase in utilities,fuel,food, your nest eggs.........unless HUGE, are gone.
By default we will be driven into poverty, or what they want, into their camp.
You (unless you know), have to ask why we would chase a system of governance, that has / is failing miserably worldwide.
Yet, this Admin is dead set on pushing it down our collective throats...........
One word..............CONTROL.
Flaherty (Canada) wins big victory against the Global Banking Cartel. Go-Jimmy-Go! Had this past...big step towards Global Banker Control and I must say this move by the Big Banks is extremely upsetting to me.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100605/business/g20_bank_tax_cda
Which will happen more quickly:
a) USD deflates.
b) Gold inflates.
The G20 needs to get together and plan the swap and purchase of each others debt. Run the printing press to the max to fund the purchase of all the debt of other soverigns based on GDP. Once the collective debt is purchased 100 percent by the governments, they declare a swap and write-off each others debt. Liquidity would return back to normal levels, all sovereign debt would be forgiven and the countries would begin with square one. When it is fiat currency you can do anything with it.
Even if debts were not owed mostly by governments to banks, this would still only reward those who borrowed and punish those who invested.
I say, no, let's not erase the records of who was naughty and who was nice and let this problem take care of itself. Let it play out.
Sounds ominous. Perhaps the gold bugs should consider trading the precious metal for one of a more base variety...preferably hollow point.
Both! Diversification is good.
But, better get started. Gold, lead and lead delivery systems may soon be hard to get.
May want some steel core assets too. Some varmints have tougher hides than others.
Here is a link to the full report if your are interested.
http://fms.treas.gov/dts/index.html
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The issue/redemption rate will naturally increase as the churn moves towards the shorter end. Obviously any net positive gain in debt will be eventually be seen as an adder to the churn.
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A few points:
I do not think ARRA contributed to equities in any meaningful fashion directly. From what I see, up until this point, ARRA should really be called America de-leverage act. The majority of the money has been used to pay bad-debt, or debt incurred through underfunded legacy programs. The states at this point do not care about jobs, they care about the Medicare/Medicaid payment offsets to help balance their budgets.
The most striking effects of ARRA is how it has illustrated the complete disconnect between DC and the states, in the mechanics of economic growth.
Essentually, the central government has increased the overhead to the point that the states cannot produce a net gain, and then the administration wonders why there is no real job growth. There seems to be a complete and utter disconnect from reality and meaningful reforms.
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As far as equities, to me the main avenue for member banks funding for FY2010, either through bad asset transfers or access to low interest money, is the FED and not TARPisms. As hard as I may look, the FED balance sheet is never included in an accural estimate for total outstanding public debt from Treasury.
However, it is clear that the FEDs purchasing through QE is as much an obligation as Treasuries to the taxpayer. Moreover, the residual effects of monetary inflation produce an added "tax" of loss in real worth on savings.
So, My feeling is the FED MBS investment, is a larger burden than if the amounts where all Treasury debt. With MBS the FED is exposed to non-linear loss effects relative to real estate market price. Also, the FED pays a high price in fees to have these accounts managed. It is possible that once real estate prices stabilize down, that the real losses in some traunches could be higher than 100% when fees (costs) are included. Only the FED could afford a loss below total capital invested, and still be in "business".
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GDP as a useful measure for economic performance, and its inability to tally true effects due to borrowing, has created an index which is essentually meaningless.
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Also, it is not wise to link market perfomance to economic health, or stimulus like ARRA. You have fallen into the FED PR media trap. Today, there is no real correlation between the equity market and the real economy.
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Perhaps the more productive approach to your explaination, is what happens when the different avenues of Government liquidity are pulled. If these were itemized you would get a better picture of cause and effect relative to the different sectors of the economy, and perhaps even the market.
Mark Beck
+1 HAHAHAHAAA!
I forgot that when the Fed buys a shopping mall for $200M that's really worth $40M, that after management fees (costs) are included, it costs the taxpayer $300M!
Of course, we can be like the FDIC and *pay* people to take it off our hands. Maybe the Fed can buy for $200M and pay somebody another $150M to take it off the Fed's books. Given liabilities in commercial property (e.g., liens, environmental cleanup laws, etc.), that's not too far-fetched.
The sublime. The surreal. Oh, we're out there now ...
Mark Beck, you always write interesting stuff. Like I have said to others:
Never leave us!
By the way, Vote Yes on 16 which is advertising on Zero Hedge, is terrible, but there’s no way it can be defeated. There was no money against it to counteract the millions spent by PG&E to impose it on California, advertising on conservative radio stations, use of special slate mailers recommending candidates in “voter guides” paid for by PG&E, direct mail pieces, hired innocent-sounding voices for commercials saying “Isn’t it time we had a chance to vote”… This is exactly what’s wrong with the current political system. In all my political experience, I’ve never seen a ballot measure as blatantly deceptive as this one. Some have called it PG&E’s monopoly insurance.
“It imposes a two-thirds vote as well as an expensive election requirement on local governments before they can contract with alternative suppliers of electricity. These outrageous requirements seal in PG&E’s monopoly on supplying electricity.” ~ United Republicans of California (UROC)
P.S. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness ...”
The YES ON 16 ad reads:
Right to Vote: Vote YES on 16
Paid for by Yes on 16/Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote, major funding from Pacific Gas and Electric Company and CA Business PAC, sponsored by CA Chamber of Commerce, a coalition of taxpayers, business and labor.
General Question for Everyone:
We all pretty much seem to be in agreement that things will take a dramatic turn for the worse fairly soon.
In fact, I believe that we are in for a Second Revolution .... but one more like 1789 than 1776.
The recent conferences by Barry O with the rest of TPTB remind me of nothing so much as Louis XVI covening the Estates-General to discuss ways by which the Government might bail itself out - remember, it was also broke at the time.
My question to you:
What in your opinion will be the coming "1789 Moment", where "the people will take no more" and how will it play out?
Over to you.
KrvtKpt laughing swordfish
DKM Trading Division
Your reference to the French Revolution is quite timely. I think that it is striking how similar Washington, D.C.’s federal community is to the buildings, gardens and society of Versailles. Louis’ grand Court numbered about 200,000 people—all housed at Versailles. The nobility numbered about 400,000 and most of the prominent people in the French population paid no taxes; 140,000 clergy (the church owned one-fifth of the land in France) had paid no taxes on their properties or their fortunes for three generations. America’s welfare system differs in the population segments that support or take from the system. But when debt finally cuts the taxpayers’ air supply, the curtain comes down.
As you say, an economic event felled the French monarchy--bankrupt, unable to borrow with huge portions of the population takers instead of payers and tax paying citizens demanding that politicians solve the problem or get out of the way. Déjà vu? IMO, the same deepening debt crisis is bringing the reach of the run of the falling dominoes to U.S. shores and corresponds, as you say, with the increasing frequency of summits, G-20 deliberations, IMF/Euro confabs, and especially with Obama’s call-up of TPTBs.
If France is our guide, then revolution or change of the guard, is just around the corner.
Viva la revolucion.
I hope we can skip the Terror/Tyrant phase after the revolution!
And to all those 'ethically' inclined brushfire-hater saps, please keep paying your taxes, so I can surf the web. BTW, got any good trany links? My office is just down the hall from Mary Shapiro's. Stop in sometime, but please--knock first.
As long as the Fed exists, morality will NOT. So any 'ethics debate' is MOOT.
Ever read the Jim Jam Jems book on the fed? Spread far and wide, it's a great read!
http://tinyurl.com/25lg8d3
Funny, was just reading Johnny Silver Bear’s article,“The Illuminati and the House of Rothschild,” yesterday—a topic and connection of which I was unaware that seems to bear investigation. He mentions two books regarding England’s Rothschild-dominated financial district covering 677 acres in the heart of London, i.e., “The City”—one by Des Griffin entitled Descent Into Slavery; the other, E.C. Knuth’s book Empire of the City. Anyway, the article connects a lot of international dots.
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/home.html
You might be interested in these reviews of The Federal Reserve Conspiracy by Antony C. Sutton:
http://www.personalliberty.com/suggested-reading/the-federal-reserve-conspiracy-by-antony-c-sutton/
http://republic-mainstreet.blogspot.com/2010/02/federal-reserve-conspira...
or
Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution by Antony C. Sutton
http://www.reformation.org/wall-st-bolshevik-rev.html
And thanks! for the Jim Jam Jems! What a find! And the invite…
Speaking of the ethics debate being moot, I just recently posted this Adam Smith piece on Reggie’s latest:
_________________________________________________
One word should connect all of society’s financial avenues…the disciplines of credit and debt, deposit and drafts, markets and interest, and all the rest.
That word is trust. Money itself is a promise, a representation of worth. And the banking business is nowhere if it can’t be trusted.
As “lack of trust” pummels bank-to-bank lending in the Eurozone…no one demonstrates the value of trust better than Adam Smith.
In Adam Smith’s analysis of the energy that sparks individual effort from self-interest and freedom of choice afforded by laissez-faire liberation of markets, Jerry Evensky points out that in the story Adams tells, the energy that unleashes markets that “can seem magical in the ability to coordinate the labors of the legions of autonomous individuals who have a hand in bringing about such things as a simple ‘woolen coat…which covers the day labourer’” is available “only where trust prevails.”
Says Evensky in Adam Smith’s Essentials: Trust, Faith and Free Markets, “In human interaction we trust individuals and institutions to the degree that they have over time proved trustworthy. Faith is a leap beyond the rational calculus of probabilistic trust to belief without doubt.”
Writes Evensky: “If all individuals were angels we could take it on faith, no evidence … no probabilistic calculus necessary, that in all market interactions (indeed, in all interactions) we are dealing with individuals whose behavior is constrained by the rules of justice… In Smith’s real analysis we leave the realm of faith and the issue becomes trust…
“To the degree that our trust diminishes, the transaction costs associated with protecting ourselves from the risk of immoral or unethical behaviors rise.
“Every market interaction involves a probabilistic calculus of the perceived risk so that the transaction costs can be assessed. This is a challenge in an intimate society. It is a daunting challenge in the global market system. In that larger economic system, one is unlikely to have direct information on the trustworthiness of the other parties involved, so in a laissez-faire environment one must resort to proxies: Risk assessments by others who in turn must themselves be assessed for risk…
“This opaqueness of risk in a world in which the only rule is caveat emptor makes for dangerous going, but Smith believed it need not be so.
“In Smith’s analysis the establishment of a system of positive laws and the institutions to implement and enforce those laws provides an imperfect but potentially constructive solution to assessing risk in a world of less than angels. Establishing rules of justice and insuring that the alignment of institutional incentives encourages individuals to follow those rules, no matter the individuals’ ethics or lack thereof, reduces risk…"
Says Evensky: Smith developed a theme that is the constant in his modeling of a constructive human society: “’Order and good government’ that ensure that rules of justice are defined and enforced are essential for mutual trust among citizens. This trust is the sine qua non for social cohesion. Absent this trust a society will degenerate into a war of all against all:
Society … cannot subsist among those who are at all times ready to hurt and injure one another. The moment that injury begins, the moment that mutual resentment and animosity take place, all the bands of it are broke asunder, and the different members of which it consisted are, as it were, dissipated and scattered abroad by the violence and opposition of their discordant affections. If there is any society among robbers and murderers, they must at least, according to the trite observation, abstain from robbing and murdering one another. …
Society may subsist, though not in the most comfortable state, without beneficence; but the prevalence of injustice must utterly destroy it. … Justice … is the main pillar that upholds the whole edifice [of society]. If it is removed, the great, the immense fabric of human society … must in a moment crumble into atoms. …
“The central theme of Smith’s four stages analysis is clear: Without trust there can be no progress.
"For Smith commerce is the most advanced stage of humankind’s progress because a healthy commercial market system provides the greatest wealth for the nation and thus the greatest capacity to enhance the well being of society…
"If in a free society individuals’ choices are unconstrained by civic ethics, the expansion of government policing necessary to enforce appropriate constraints would turn that free society into a police state.
"Only where most individuals follow the dictates of civic ethics can the role of government police be lightly measured to constrain the unethical few.
"But government itself must do this measuring. If those who control these powerful institutions are not themselves constrained by civic ethics, the power of government can be captured for the very purpose it is ideally established to police – unconstrained greed. … Our point here is that in Smith’s analysis the success of a commercial free market system depends on the citizens’ trust that their fellow citizens are generally good citizens and that government will provide the police to discourage destructive behavior of those few who are not so good. Absent that trust, there would be no incentive to build the foundation of commerce: Capital accumulation." … (emphasis mine)
http://hes-conference2009.com/papers/SAT1B-Evensky.pdf
A closer analogy is the collapse and failure of the Mayan civilization IMHO.
dup
The PTB and their Obombonomics began in March of '09 to try to brain wash the public into believing everything was improving and tried to inflate a false sense of security. I turned off the TV or radio every time one of these flim flam men and women were on. No matter what they say, the indebted public will not be spending because they can't use their houses like ATM machines any more because their equity has evaporated. A whole new vocabulary of tv broadcasters was spawned trying to give a positive spind on everything. "Less worse than expected" is a classic example.
ON another topic, the guy that has the student loans and will not pay them back is part of the problem, not the solution, imho. Trying rationalize through the blame doesn't cut it with me. Using Macro events as an excuse to walk from one's individual obligations is theft. No one said he had to be a doctor.
Then what about calling the entire credit expansion a pyramid fraud and repudiating loans on that basis? When do people stop playing along with wealth transfer and actually rebel in a meaningful way?
We are looking at a future which looks like the 18th century--no bill of exchange not explicitly backed by gold or some other precious metal will be accepted in international trade. The Chinese will not be burned twice.
Yeah, the World (well most of it) is ****** but I'll bid the S&P at 666.
Barry Goldwater on economic planning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhgeEEDglnY
Nothing has changed. They still think the system will work.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-Albert Einstein
George Washington had a vision I believe, that the final American war would be a race war. China?
Sell your crazy somewhere else.
Updated DOW charts:
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/latest-market-outlook-1
The PPT (or possibly Market Manipulation Team - MMT) will ensure that the DOW et al are supported but only up to the point where they can still sell their bonds...
....So the ultimate question for me is 'how long can that situation last?'
...annoyingly, I'd say quite a long time.
Gold beeeatches!
So while this board debates what might happen, (see in particular the opening sallies about student loans), let me tell you about something that DID happen. I was traveling in the Hudson Valley the other day, and there was a home site where some guy got foreclosed on, and rather than let the bank take the place, he bulldozed it. Then he bulldozed the small shed he'd put up next to it. Meanwhile, the Ulster County gov't discovered the shed and tried to tax him for the shed. Then, after he bulldozed the place, the county tried to tack on fines for bulldozing without a permit.
This guy had been there for decades, had probably paid off his original mortgage, and apparently used his home as an ATM to start a business or expand an existing business.
So this is just one person, as the doctor higher up in the thread is just one person. Multiply these stories by tens, if not hundreds, of thousands, and see what happens.
What a mess.
That's awesome. There's someone thinking outside the box.
I got here late, read most of the comments, enjoyed the discussion that brushfire got going (whether it's a contract or an ethics issue, if your not going to attempt to pay your bills you are not to be trusted with guns, car keys or any more of other peoples' money) but I don't understand what Barry, Timmy, et al could be up to.
Somebody put forward a scenario or two that makes a reasonable attempt at a narrative of the next 30 months (which gets us to the 2012 election).
we're still not in the recession...yet. i disagree that "the government can no longer sustain this" although long before ZH brought up fixed income as "the big kaboom" we appeared well on our way to "the end." far from it as it turned out. this is not to say uncle sam won't have problems in this space in the next few years--but definitely not now. "Buzzsaw" is order of the day for the Fed's and "thy will be done." Now if "that other guy" could just solve the "oil problem in the Gulf." And stop it with all the "moral talk" of debt on both sides. The purpose of debt is to profit--nothing more--and so is the process of collecting said debt. And so it is with payment and non-payment. Obviously the advantage is with those who repay.
I came across this 'old' YouTube video about a new U.S. dollar in the works, sounds like BS but who knows...
http://moneyning.com/video/is-a-new-dollar-on-the-horizon-for-the-usa-in-2010/
JAS
So they're going to replace the old currency with a new one that's just like the old one in every way. That's too clever for me.
Banks that fail must be merged or nationalized, stock and bond holders must lose and management be fired with no golden severance packages!
We the tax payers must revolt! Now is the time to say NO more to the banksters and the Federal Reserve!!!!
lol
this
thread
is
still
going.
This thread is still going lol ;) And a serious question. I'm finally convinced to put some of my meager savings (it took me forever to pay off my student loan) into physical gold and/or silver. What is the best strategy for doing that in Canada? Suggestions appreciated - thanks.
arkadaba, on the west coast, try vbce.
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