This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Sprott September Commentary: Total US Government Obligations At $118.6 Trillion

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Fitting commentary as the dollar keeps crashing and having an -1 correlation with stocks day after day.

 

 

h/t Rod

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:13 | 72265 Cheeky Bastard
Cheeky Bastard's picture

this is nothing, 118 trillion pfffff. Let me know when they reach a quadrillion or two, and then,MAYBE, i'll get excited about it. Till then; this is still sustainable and not only that; it's even productive. Carry on, carry on; its all good; and may I recommend you to bu some GE and C ?

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:37 | 72295 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Screw GE & C... Goldman just put Textron on it's conviction buy list. Where have you been?

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:40 | 72298 Cheeky Bastard
Cheeky Bastard's picture

or that; and i have been ..... around .... :D

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 13:36 | 72519 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

I know the comment its tongue in cheek, but realistically what difference does it make if it's $10tr, $100tr or $1qr? By now, nobody seriously expects to pay it off, anyway.
--Tesla

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:15 | 72267 CD
CD's picture

Amusing, if confusing/inaccurate, global debt clock on the Economist website:

http://buttonwood.economist.com/content/gdc?source=features_box4

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:29 | 72284 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Even more "amusing" is the map showing who's in debt relative to each other.  Clearly shown is the West's full-body embrace of Keynes.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:56 | 72315 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

That graph is not right - Canada has a much better debt/gdp ratio than the US, but the picture shows it as worse.

2009 figures in the graph are 950 billion for Canada and 6708 billion for the us. The real numbers are 460 billion (489 billion $CDN) for Canada and 11819 billion for the US.

http://www.debtclock.ca/
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

So Canada has debt/gdp of 30%, and the US has 84%, not counting unfunded social security or medicare, and not counting state or provincial debt.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:42 | 72300 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

U.S. debt is only $6.7 Trillion? Are they serious? Normally these guys are ahead of the curve. Must be in pounds or something...

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:10 | 72331 lookma
lookma's picture

That is publicly held debt, or what the US G owes to external owners of US G debt securities.

The are trillions in other debt that is not "publcily held," like intragovernmental holdings and the social security trust fund.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:39 | 72378 Cheeky Bastard
Cheeky Bastard's picture

hala Madrid !!!1

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 15:25 | 72608 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Thanks for the reality check!

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:16 | 72271 LoneStarHog
LoneStarHog's picture

Breaking News:  Kevin Skinner wins 2009 America's Got Talent.

Time to invest in Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson, et.al.

 

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:21 | 72274 Crab Cake
Crab Cake's picture

Numbers shmumbers. 

War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength.

-1984

"The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth."

- Alan Blinder, Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve

"Fed audit would be problematic for the country.  Auditing the Fed is a line that we don't want to cross..."

- Tim Geithner, Sec US Treasury

Bernanke: "Those are swaps that were done with foreign central banks..."
Grayson: "So who got the money?"
Bernanke: "Financial institutions in Europe and other countries..."
Grayson: "Which ones?"
Bernanke: "I don't know."
Grayson: "Half a trillion dollars and you don't know who got the money?"
Bernanke: "Um, um, the loans go to the central banks and they then put them out to their institutions..."

- Ben Bernanke, a lying thieving criminal in charge of handling matters for the banking consortium here in the US

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:09 | 72326 Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper's picture

Show some respect. He is the capo di tutti capi.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:21 | 72275 TraderMark
TraderMark's picture

Speaking of debt crisis

some of the US peasantry looks unhappy with unilateral increases in interest rates - the Youtube revolt debtor revolt begins? hah

 

http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/09/youtube-debtors-revolt-begins-no...

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:24 | 72278 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

IMO it is only a question of timing.  We have already passed the event horizon, and our entry into the singularity is assured. 

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:28 | 72283 Crab Cake
Crab Cake's picture

I guess that would explain the time dilation. 

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:34 | 72288 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

It's sad; we'd already sent in a probe (Argentina) to send back the data, but inexplicably we've all been sucked in anyway.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:52 | 72309 Herne the Hunter
Herne the Hunter's picture

Quantum entanglement is a bitch.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:13 | 72417 Jim_Rockford
Jim_Rockford's picture

we'd already sent in a probe (Argentina)

That Governor of South Carolina is a patriotic sumbitch.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:44 | 72302 ratava
ratava's picture

You mean the transhumanist definition when the HFT algos surpass human intelligence? Yup, seems we made it.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:08 | 72321 Crab Cake
Crab Cake's picture

No, Moore's law hasn't caught up with us just yet.  I believe he's referring to the fictional variety of black hole phenomena, which is really just an accounting place holder for a lot of bad astronomical ideas.  They also fit nicely into the self seeking result models generated in a computer not a lab or by observation.  The current system doesn't work mathematically so they have to invent "voodoo" space.  One has never been seen or documented, Hubble's redshift has proven faulty, and further they/nor their forces have been replicated in a lab.  It's not empirical. Black holes and dark matter are essentially modelling to fiction.  Plasma cosmology (electric universe) is a much cleaner view IMO, and is testable and repeatable in the lab, but what do I know?  I just read alot, and do some tinkering.  Science is in much the same place our economic and financial worlds are sadly...

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:33 | 72287 Stuart
Stuart's picture

Debt??? Who cares, maybe my kids, but doesn't affect me... I've gotta go and buy some more shit to max out the credit card, again. Besides new 'survivor' season is about to start. C'mon, lets focus on what really matters.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:35 | 72292 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

what the FFFFFFFF is going on with this mkt!?!? S&P drops ~.8% off the highs & the VIX simultaneously hits lows of the day! how are stocks positive again!?!? the bond os up over a point already, there is a strong bid for 4.20% yield over 30 yrs!!! wtf!!!!

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:41 | 72299 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

GE's jack Welch has been praised for biz acumen. Yet he ran GE into the ground beyond bankruptcy; only in biz courtesy of 300 billion credit line from Geitner. This is also a failre of the American University system. Educating and producing idiots. The first signs were with the bankrupt pro sport teams in the US; they cant sell tickets, tv ratings way down,etc; yet, they receive FREE billion$ stadia from the taxpayor!! The NFL, MLB is bust without communism.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:01 | 72403 keehotee
keehotee's picture

The American university program has not failed- it is working fine turning out lemings.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:45 | 72303 tradertim
tradertim's picture

"Fitting commentary as the dollar keeps crashing"

since the top in early march, the dollar has been dropping an average of 2.4% per month till now. if we keep dropping at that same rate, it will take 178 months or almost 15 years to reach 1$.

so relax...we have lots of time. :)) enjoy the bubble while it lasts. lol

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:46 | 72304 orca
orca's picture

This thing is getting so ridiculous that I just want to kick the monitors of my desk. I know, don't fight the tape, well, I am fighting it. Posted before, within callspreads shorting the futs (EU & US) and waiting for the mother-unload. Been waiting a mighty long time by the way, preparing to wait until eternity if need be, but I w.i.l.l. fight the tape. Thank you for listening.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:16 | 72341 djchill2
djchill2's picture

I' m with you man....and I know how you feel.  At this point though it would be fucking retarded to switch sides now.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:21 | 72350 orca
orca's picture

Churchill has the answer:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender
Man this is frustrating.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:30 | 72435 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Follow that up with his classic; "This is not the end, or the beginning of the end. This is the end of the beginning".  I am with you on calling this action frustrating.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:48 | 72389 jm
jm's picture

I hear you.  On the one hand you have clear credit and M2 contraction.  On the other hand, you have clear Treasury insolvency.

Either way you're fighting something massive.

 

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:47 | 72305 Ouroboros
Ouroboros's picture

"Man must rise above the earth -to the top of the atmosphere and beyond- for only thus will he fully understand the the world in which he lives."

 

Socrates 

 

 

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:15 | 72340 Crab Cake
Crab Cake's picture

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

TD the philosopher...

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:52 | 72311 Bearish Spirits
Bearish Spirits's picture

Watch out.  76 DXY hurtling toward us.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:01 | 72320 Herne the Hunter
Herne the Hunter's picture

This just in (http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/334648/Too-Much-Debt--Pleas...):

"The U.S. has too little debt, not too much, Fisher says.  The U.S.'s return on assets is high and interest rates are low, so our borrowing capacity is much higher than our current debt levels.

Also, Fisher says, you have to look at the U.S. in the context of the world, because the U.S. is only 25% of world GDP.  The world is way under-leveraged, so one country's particular debt-to-GDP ratio doesn't matter."

Yeah... until the Chinaman comes into your house and pees on your rug.

And then takes it.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:10 | 72330 George the baby...
George the baby crusher's picture

Specially when the rug really ties the room together.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:13 | 72335 orca
orca's picture

Well, the Chinese are fucked either way and they know it. Moreover, they know that we know, which makes them even more pissed off, since face-saving is their fetish, and now they're getting face-raped. I have no idea what their eventual response will be but it will not be pretty. I would suggest invading Taiwan just for the fun of it, or point blank refusing to buy any more Treasuries, or dumping $1TR any price any bid, but the responsible capitalists that they are they will probably find some creative response.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:00 | 72400 earnyermoney
earnyermoney's picture

Use dollar reserves to purchase hard assets. Following article from Commodity Online sheds some light on potential remedies for the Chinese: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/China-may-ban-export-of-gold-silver-...

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:41 | 72380 Icarus
Icarus's picture

No, I think this Fisher video is better

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/334550/It's-a-V-Shaped-Rally-and-It's-Only-Half-Way-Done-Fisher-Says

F*ck freedom of speech, Yahoo should be prosecuted for putting this guy on the air.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 14:13 | 72555 bonddude
bonddude's picture

You wanna talk about a guy who was wrong? It was this pompous, over gesticulating fraud who feeds on dot commers and family office wealth out of Woodside. The Cramer of big planners.

He didn't show his face for a GOOD LONG TIME.

Fri, 09/18/2009 - 04:22 | 73182 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

here is "wrong". i gave FI $530k near the market top based upon his past timing calls and assuming if things went in the shitter they would sorta know. At the bottom my $530k was worth $330k. I recently pulled the plug at $375k to avoid more losses in a sudden tern.

On the way down they ept telling me not yto worry, they 'expected' this (huh?), and on the way up they kep telling me to stay invested because they 'expected this' aswell. WTF, if they 'expected' both, they should never
have lost any of my money to begin with... just cashed me
and made money on the upswing.

Ken is a cocky mofo...

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:11 | 72333 Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper's picture

Not to worry folks. SS and Medicare are off balance sheet items.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:15 | 72339 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Why do people continue to talk about debt, when Americans (even those tea party folks) are unwilling to do what it takes to pull this debt back?

Here's the reality of the situation: in order to balance the budget and start paying off debt, we need to make cuts in two areas - health and defense. We could cut military spending by probably 3/4 and healthcare by at least 1/2, maybe as much as 3/4. That would save us about $1 trillion a year.

But guess what, NO ONE, not even those wacky tea party folks, are willing to take on major cuts in healthcare or defense. Townhall-grandma wants her hover-round and she wants to see her grandson sent off to some pointless war. She may shout down her congressperson and bitch up a storm about big government, but the second that congressperson talks about cuts in defense or her Medicare... oh boy, that lady is going to go ape shit. Ain't no way she's going to support someone making cuts in those area. And that's the way it's always been. People, even conservatives, vote FOR healthcare and defense, not against it.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:31 | 72368 Cistercian
Cistercian's picture

 I told my son 2 years ago, The good news is that you are going to be a millionaire!The bad news is that bread will be 50,000 dollars a loaf!

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:38 | 72374 Icarus
Icarus's picture

So the premise for inflation is that to escape unfunded future liabilities the US will print money.

But future liabilities occur a real cost in the currency value when incured - you cannot make something less expensive in the future by inflating the money supply today.  Inflation will not work.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:46 | 72387 Gabriel Gray
Gabriel Gray's picture

So what happens when our Masters decide they want all your gold?

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:20 | 72428 keehotee
keehotee's picture

Everyone needs to see that we can have any future we can imagine.  Start imagining you loving yourself.  Try empathy for a change- even for the "drones" and evil ones.  Really, the only solutions to this mess starts with the metaphysical awakening.  They can have my gold if they really want it- it does not define me.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 14:02 | 72543 Gabriel Gray
Gabriel Gray's picture

That's very deep... sssssssssssssp!

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:53 | 72395 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

ocra said

"Well, the Chinese are fucked either way and they know it. Moreover, they know that we know, which makes them even more pissed off, since face-saving is their fetish, and now they're getting face-raped. I have no idea what their eventual response will be but it will not be pretty. I would suggest invading Taiwan just for the fun of it, or point blank refusing to buy any more Treasuries, or dumping $1TR any price any bid, but the responsible capitalists that they are they will probably find some creative response."

How about cornering world markets in gold, silver, copper, rare earth metals, etc. THEN dumping $1T of UST? What happens to the value of their commodities holdings?

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:14 | 72419 orca
orca's picture

True. They should buy (and I think they are already ferociously buying) every precious metal fut and demand physical delivery. There is one snag tough, they appear to have bet heavily against silver and are now threatening to not honor their commitment. Complete mess, makes me think of 20 years ago with the Japs, they were also expert buyers, not. I honestly do not understand how they have managed to dig themselves into this hole, apart from trying not to revalue their renmimbi/yuan. Interesting times we live in.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:53 | 72459 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Honestly? You're really confused as to how a bunch of idiot fucking communists could've possibly dug themselves into an economic hole?

If there's anybody stupider than capitalists, it's DEFINITELY communists.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 13:41 | 72524 orca
orca's picture

Yes and no. Yes communists are stupider than anyone bar Western government officials (especially FED and SEC equivalents), but no, because they are not commies any more, only superficially so. Their whole spiel is based around a party, any party, could have been the Vegetarian Party of China for all I know, but commies they are not. They started this whole endeavour after the Asian currency crisis of 1987 and look what a world of good it has brought them. Currency hoarding is fine, but only when diversified and up to absolute (rather than relative) points, and I honestly do not understand how they managed to dig themselves in this hole, since this is the Asian currency crisis in reverse. Never ever make someone else's problem yours.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 16:52 | 72715 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

you and orca = dumb and dumber

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:56 | 72445 FreddyInBangkok
FreddyInBangkok's picture

Sprott fucked up on his moly portfolio. Embry sales sidekick- gold stock pumper.

Fuck both of them. Actually you don't need anyone to advise you. know what I mean? Alexander paid his troops 500 tons of gold in one day. I mean, what the fuck else would he use ....

good luck with your hebe admins over theres. know what i mean?

you better get yr shit straightened out over there real quick ... pushing paper & gym weights don't cut it sweeties ...

 

they got you by the BALLS.....   better do sometin

 

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 13:16 | 72491 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

CNBC poll on ending the Fed:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32881898

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 14:23 | 72569 Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

83 percent say yes so far. So it's too divided to have any chance. The fed stays. LOL

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 16:24 | 72679 percolator
percolator's picture

Currently with over 4000 votes, over 85% say "yes" abolish the Fed and less than 10% say "no".  I'm betting this poll will mysteriously vanish.

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 14:22 | 72567 mhmani
mhmani's picture

The reason we continue to print is very easy. We don't want to change the current status quo in America. America became a super power by spending and by consumption. From this we became the worlds biggest and strongest super power. We brazenly flaunt our hegemony and others tow the line, because of one simple figure.....9600....The number of nuclear weapons we have. Most people think its inconceivable we would ever use them, I am included in this, but don't ever think for a moment we will ever let the USD ever lose reserve currency status. This is not happening in this lifetime or in the future. I am quite disgusted with the bailouts and never ending money printing, but its all being done so that the machine can keep rolling. Once the machine stops...America Stops. That is an America that I don't want to live in, bailouts or no bailouts.

 
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 14:50 | 72585 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

So whenever the gov. spends 1 trillion, I cringe because that means each citizen is on the hook for about $3,000 dollars and my family of 4 is on the hook for $12,000. If the Federal debt is about 12 trillion, then our family is on the hook for $144,000. If we liquidated everything and moved into a tent like that kidnapped girl and her children, Jaycee Lee Dugard, we might just be able to cover that amount. But if the government has us on the hook for 100 trillion, then all 4 of us will need to work, assuming we can find work, giving most of the income to government, while -living off the fat of the land-, you know, in the tent eating squirrels, wild onions, sometimes a little rice, for the rest of our natural lives. I know, this sounds overblown, but honestly, The Fed printing more money isn't going to solve the tent slave problem, it only makes the condition look less the result of a tax bill and more like the result of some unfathomable -black swan- event.

Greenspan:
"I was wrong, cars cannot be left to drive themselves."

Bernanke (future):
"I was wrong, floored peddle acceleration into a massive pileup doesn't restore traffic flow."

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 15:00 | 72594 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

We need to rally the unemployed. They need to be the First Army in this revolution.

But while they are collecting gov't checks that is very unlikely.

The lowest classes of society have been co-opted and mis-educated for years. Turning them into an ally will be extremely difficult, and this is what the Elite are counting on.

They know they have dumbed down a large part of society to extraordinary levels, and that it is almost impossible for the self-educated members in society to help out the rest. You can't help someone who refuses help!

You also can't help someone who doesn't understand the real root of the problem.

By keeping the populace at large ignorant, the Elite have secured themselves a 50% chance of victory. I say we go and burn their houses in Paraguay down right now, just so they know there is no 'easy escape'!!!

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 15:40 | 72627 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

The idea that we can print our way out of this is preposterous. Hyperinflation would be so bad from money printing that the economy would cease to function. (1) Politically, we can't eliminate the entitlement spending dragging us down; (2) we can't borrow the money because no lender is that stupid; and (3) we can't print our way out of it because the economy would lock up; therefore, we are doomed to a societal disintegration. It is impossible to predict what that will look like but it's coming because a situation that can't go on forever, won't.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!