This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Treasury Confirms Debt Ceiling To Be Breached Today; Will Tap Pension Funds
It's official: the US credit card has officially been maxed out, just as we predicted on Wednesday, and througout Q1 and Q2. The United States is expected to reach the legal limit on its debt later on Monday and will start dipping into federal retirement funds to give the country more room to borrow, a Treasury official said. As Reuters reports further, The U.S. Treasury will settle $72 billion in maturing bonds on Monday, which will push the country right up against its $14.294 trillion borrowing cap, the official said. To all those who thought only the insolvent government of Ireland will plunder pension funds, our condolences.
Full release (no pun intended):
As US Reaches Debt Limit, Geithner Implements Additional Extraordinary Measures to Allow Continued Funding of Government Obligations
Today, the United States has reached the statutory debt limit. Secretary Geithner sent the following letter
to Congress this morning alerting them to actions that have be taken to
create additional headroom under the debt limit so that Treasury can
continue funding obligations made by Congresses past and present. The
Secretary declared a "debt issuance suspension period" for the Civil
Service Retirement and Disability Fund, permitting Treasury to redeem a
portion of existing Treasury securities held by that fund as investments
and suspend issuance of new Treasury securities to that fund as
investments. He also suspended the daily reinvestment of Treasury
securities held as investments by the Government Securities Investment
Fund of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Thrift Savings Plan.
For more information on these measures, please read this FAQ.
Last Friday, Secretary Geithner also responded to an inquiry from
Senator Bennet regarding the fiscal and economic consequences of failing
to increase the debt limit. That letter can be found here.
Secretary Geithner continues to urge Congress to raise the debt limit
in a timely manner in order to uphold the full faith and credit of the
United States.
The Honorable Harry Reid
Democratic Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Leader:
I am writing to notify you, as required under 5 U.S.C. § 8348(l)(2),
of my determination that, by reason of the statutory debt limit, I will
be unable to invest fully the portion of the Civil Service Retirement
and Disability Fund (“CSRDF”) not immediately required to pay
beneficiaries. For purposes of this statute, I have determined that a
“debt issuance suspension period” will begin today, May 16, 2011, and
last until August 2, 2011, when the Department of the Treasury projects
that the borrowing authority of the United States will be exhausted.
During this “debt issuance suspension period,” the Treasury Department
will suspend additional investments of amounts credited to, and redeem a
portion of the investments held by, the CSRDF, as authorized by law.
In addition, I am notifying you, as required under 5 U.S.C. §
8438(h)(2), of my determination that, by reason of the statutory debt
limit, I will be unable to invest fully the Government Securities
Investment Fund (“G Fund”) of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System
in interest-bearing securities of the United States, beginning today,
May 16, 2011. The statute governing G Fund investments expressly
authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to suspend investment of the G
Fund to avoid breaching the statutory debt limit.
Each of these actions has been taken in the past by my predecessors
during previous debt limit impasses. By law, the CSRDF and G Funds will
be made whole once the debt limit is increased. Federal retirees and
employees will be unaffected by these actions.
I have written to Congress on previous occasions regarding the
importance of timely action to increase the debt limit in order to
protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid
catastrophic economic consequences for citizens. I again urge Congress
to act to increase the statutory debt limit as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Timothy F. Geithner
Identical letter sent to:
The Honorable John A. Boehner, Speaker of the House
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader
The Honorable Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader
cc: The Honorable Dave Camp, Chairman, House Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable Sander M. Levin, Ranking Member, House Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable Max Baucus, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance
The Honorable Orrin Hatch, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Finance
All other Members of the 112th Congress
The Honorable Max Baucus, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance
The Honorable Orrin Hatch, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Finance
All other Members of the 112th Congress
Colleen Murray is Spokesperson for Domestic Finance.
Posted in:
Debt Limit
Debt Limit
»
- 43503 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
About as much as when they confiscated all the Pot in America. Those who want it can get it, those who want to sell it will sell it.
I look forward to them spending (x+1) dollars trying to generate (x) dollars through confiscation.
Visited a new local pawn shop yesterday specializing in guns and gold; owner said both are flying out the door as soon as he gets them. He related that they are more than 500,000 thousand hunters in a number of states who put meat on their tables by hunting. If the kleptocracy decides TO TRY TO confiscate PMs, I wonder how docile armed folks will be. A friend relates that some ammunition is now being fabricated to
expire after a year; anybody know about this?
Only if one is muzzle loading tater-tots.
lawrence,
The Feds (EPA) has been trying to get ammo mfgrs, to use Green primers for several years.(you can buy it online )
Basically it removes lead stypnate from the primer mixture.
These primers(Green) are not reliable and usually take an Al Gore after 24-36mos.
Most are used in indoor ranges and are designed to stop lead poisoning the instructors.
Contrary to most folks beliefs, the primer is the main lead source in ammo.(Not the bullet),it(lead from primers) goes airborne upon firing.
The gun grabbers,OTOH,have wanted them used to do exactly what you refer to, but thus far have not been able to legislate it.
Thank you NRA/GOA/JFPO,etc
Cant be far off at all.
I have been telling people to get out of those things for years. They won't listen.
It requires extraodinary courage and OTB thinking. They've been warned, they deserve what they get..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6_i8zuffs Go long pots and pans.
I hereby give the United States debt ceiling the finger....the middle.
Yours Truly,
Benny Bernank
The digitus impudicus, or the Impudent Digit, a universal sign of disrespect that dates from the days of the Roman Empire.
In USA debt = wealth. And on that note, I'm about to buy 2 yr Greek debt. What the heck. Even with a 50% haircut, it's more than 12% yield. Looks a lot better than 1/2% yield in USTreas.
I was hoping someone would point that out. Yes, profit ahead of the demises around the globe, all the while accumulating more physical PM's, guns, ammo, and like-minded neighbors.
++ neighbors and common interest
Lol!
O/T..From theoildrum.com:
Nine of the 125 gates at Louisiana’s Morganza floodway opened yesterday, allowing the muddy Mississippi River to pour into the Atchafalaya River basin as part of the Army Corps of Engineers strategy to save Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
...Alon USA Energy Inc. (ALJ)’s refinery in Krotz Springs is threatened by rising spillway waters. The 83,000-barrel-a-day refinery is within a zone that is under a mandatory evacuation order, St. Landry’s Parish spokeswoman Francine Sias said. Alon spokesman Blake Lewis said the parish had granted the company an extension. A temporary levee is being constructed by employees to protect the facility and 243 nearby homes.
could this trigger a scramble to pull 401k funds? Everybody wants a reason to tap into what last bit of money they have left anyway.
Anyone with any sense at all did that almost a year ago.
Fidelity sees record number raid their 401(k)shttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38783832/ns/business-personal_finance/t/fide...
"federal retirement funds" - Is this all worker bees including the elected drones?
In other words, is this like a blackmail threat to SINators and CONgress to get with the program? If you don't dig a deeper debthole, Timmah will plunder your retirement plan?
its almost as if they know something really bad is going to happen that will make default seem like a bump in the road and they see their actions as being of no consequence.
Yea, they just dont care right now, which should really scare people. We need Tylers 'deer in headlites' pic to describe the real state of this country right now.
But then again, most are watching CNBS as theyre being told all this is GREAT NEWS!
Sorry, but I couldn't resist. It is Monday morning after all so I get a pass. This is the face of Amerika when the banks don't open one morning.
I love Amerika!
In case you hadn't noticed....THEY DO WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT ANYWAY....WITH NO CONSEQUENCES!!!
:-d
Can they even legally do that without authorization? It seems like the flow of QE would be interupted.
I thought the treasury issues requests to the fed to borrow. What...
Ok so the Treasury is borrowing money from pensions to give to the fed to print money?
Emergency Powers baby...they can do what ever they fucking want!
Quix,
This is just a 1000th of the PDD's /EO's done since then.
There is one redeeming feature, what they do may be so heinous, the Military will refuse to comply.
IOW, Stand Down.
Their Oaths are first to the Const,not the POTUS.
Any orders that do not pass muster would be ignored, and the one's that did agree, would be at odds w/ the majority that would not be a pretty picture.
Then you have the Unorganized citizen militias, all able bodied males are members...............
So ,when folks in the MSM try and strike terror and scrae tactics into the public, little do they know they themselves are THE Unorganized citizens militia also.
"Can they even legally do that......."
What??? Is there any thing legal left anymore?
This kind of thing makes me nervous as a holder of physical PMs
Hey, at least they would have to find your physical first. If you are a Govt worker, they just took your money. If your pension is held within the world of paper, they know where to find it - they'll just ask your fund manager for the details.
IF confiscation becomes an issue, it'll happen only after they're already tapped out the rest of the paper pensions first. Of course, at that point, law and order will probably be a happy memory.
The US Gov't sent one of the 911 hijackers are visa extension 6 montsh after he killed himself in the attack... and you seriously think they can run around and confiscate every ozzie of fizzy in the USA.
Umm..no, I don't think they can do that. Hence my comments about law and order....
flag as government shill (1)
Funny...I hold lots of physical PM's, and dont feel the least bit nervous at all.
+5,430 ;-)
Then you should hold less expensive, more effective metals in your portfolio
For the faint of heart, I suggest Iron, Steel, or may be non-decomposable Plastic. LoL
Then sell them.
Bitch.
Soooooo,
What are these federal pension funds invested in? Do they really exist or do assets need to be sold to generate the cash required?
Probably tobacco stocks. Legalized addictive product sold in every corner store.
Round and round.
And when they are sold will they be sold for a fair price, or will it be another exercise in front running?
They are one of the largest holders of US government debt.
Dupe post.
The United States is expected to reach the legal limit on its debt later on Monday and will start dipping into federal retirement funds to give the country more room to borrow, a Treasury official said.
They're spending money they want to spend but which doesn't have to be spent by debiting funds that have to be paid back (public sector defined benefits).
Touche.
Yep. Eventually they run out of money they can tap. Then we all either admit that the debt is a fraud or we have a world revolution. Either way, fraud has been the status quo for some time now and the wealthy are starting to say "fuck it" as well. When they start heading for their bunkers, then you can sweat.
It's more like they've just bypassed their current credit limit by directly converting it into your future tax liability (without any of that messy legislative or bond market business). There's still quite a lot of property and wealth in the country that doesn't belong to the government. But they've just drawn a bull's eye on it.
Yes, is this the final straw that wakes people up? That is the question.
AH HAHAHHAHAHA.....
as fucking if.
As long as if the US defaults on its debt then I can default on my own debt along with it then I am ok with that.
Fuck yeah, tap out all those fat government pensions, starting with all administrators and representatives. Make it retroactive starting with anyone left over from the Nixon administration. That is when the ponzi went full retard anyway.
Any lingering doubt about USA's sovereign status, is now completely gone. It's all down from here.
Hope we dip on silver at least one more time, I need to top off.
What is this Europe? Where we let the government start stealing our retirement funds too? This is F**KING TREASON and where is the Congress to charge Geithner and Bernanke? This bailout shit is getting out of hand. It has to stop.
You think politicians are different over there and yours are somehow better? You've been lied to boy. Government by Kleptocracy is as American as Mom's Apple pie.
Funny that, crabapples are the only indigenous apple in North America.
So far it's just .GOV retirement funds, so I really couldn't give a shit!
When they come for your 401K et al. retirement funds, I won't give a shit about that either...
All you fucking (D) & (R) Retardos deserve what's coming to you.
Have a nice day!
;-)
LOL. That's what most people are thinking about Public employees and their unions. They are not loved by J6P. J6P won't care-until they start grabbing J6P money. There is where I agree, I don't give a shit about that either. But J6P will pop an artery and absolute fucking chaos is going to ensue. J6P will probably have fun taunting the unions when they start marching. Geez, the possible scenarios are endless! ; )
Perhaps TTT needs a waterboarding?
M.A.D Timmah
Nifty DOWN and tomorrow's forecast.:
http://markettechnicals-jonak.blogspot.com/
Tap dat A$$!!!
They're here......
http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Geithner-Implements-Additiona...
Now we're into the next dimension...
So heartened to see that we can connect to the Treasury now via Twitter.
@Geithner "I just found $6B more at the NEA!"
Timbo,
Ain't you sticking your neck out a little too far?
I can't believe they are now taking hard working people's money for big business! Wow. How outrageous. But the same thing over and over - Screw the people and always give money to the top.
I don't think the people in the g0v are working so hard...and their money is really all the taxpayers money so they are taking back from the g0v employees what they had taken from the people to use to keep the financial destruction machine afloat.
Anyone ever hear of pykrete:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete
Always so easy to suggest taking money from other people. Even money that they've earned through legal contracts. But hey, it's ok to take away a government worker's pension because we hate government! rawr! That'll teach the powerful people who are immune from such actions!
Not legal contracts. In fact, these were contracts procured through bribery and fraud. Taxpayers were not represented at the bargaining table, although that is to some extent their own fault. Nevertheless, all public employee contracts were procured through bribery and fraud. In a better world, they would simply be tossed asunder.
Yet the Dow is only down 33. What's it going to take to finally push everything off the edge, and usher in QE3 4 5 6 7 8...
Bill Gross on CNBC smiling like a butcher's dog, he's got gold so he doesn't give a fuck.
And I'm pretty sure he just mentioned ZH, not by name but he said "a blog reported we were short treasuries, but that's a misconception."
The colloquial language we use here when you dont own something is to be short that item. Especially if we think someone will buy back into that item at a later date.
The dow or the S&P is not indicitive of the real economy. Rather it is indicitive of forex and particularily the EUR/USD moves.
The headlines should all read, EUR up, is the reason dow (or whatever indicies) is up.
Truth telling is for dead people and Patriots headed that way.
Oh look, I see dead people.
How many IOU's (frn's) are in the Federal pension fund?
Federal Debt:
Last figures I saw was 27% of the debt is owed to Social Security, 6% to Civil Service Retirement Fund, and 2.7% owed to Military Retirement Fund.
However, since it's all paper, there really isn't any pension fund anyway
The United States has 202 Trillion in debt, according to noted and respected economist Laurence Kotlikoff:
U.S. Is Bankrupt U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It: Laurence Kotlikoff By Laurence Kotlikoff - Wed Aug 11 01:00:00 GMT 2010Let’s get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills.
What it can and must do is radically simplify its tax, health-care, retirement and financial systems, each of which is a complete mess. But this is the good news. It means they can each be redesigned to achieve their legitimate purposes at much lower cost and, in the process, revitalize the economy.
Last month, the International Monetary Fund released its annual review of U.S. economic policy. Its summary contained these bland words about U.S. fiscal policy: “Directors welcomed the authorities’ commitment to fiscal stabilization, but noted that a larger than budgeted adjustment would be required to stabilize debt-to-GDP.”
But delve deeper, and you will find that the IMF has effectively pronounced the U.S. bankrupt. Section 6 of the July 2010 Selected Issues Paper says: “The U.S. fiscal gap associated with today’s federal fiscal policy is huge for plausible discount rates.” It adds that “closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of U.S. GDP.”
The fiscal gap is the value today (the present value) of the difference between projected spending (including servicing official debt) and projected revenue in all future years.
Double Our TaxesTo put 14 percent of gross domestic product in perspective, current federal revenue totals 14.9 percent of GDP. So the IMF is saying that closing the U.S. fiscal gap, from the revenue side, requires, roughly speaking, an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act.
Such a tax hike would leave the U.S. running a surplus equal to 5 percent of GDP this year, rather than a 9 percent deficit. So the IMF is really saying the U.S. needs to run a huge surplus now and for many years to come to pay for the spending that is scheduled. It’s also saying the longer the country waits to make tough fiscal adjustments, the more painful they will be.
Is the IMF bonkers?
No. It has done its homework. So has the Congressional Budget Office whose Long-Term Budget Outlook, released in June, shows an even larger problem.
‘Unofficial’ LiabilitiesBased on the CBO’s data, I calculate a fiscal gap of $202 trillion, which is more than 15 times the official debt. This gargantuan discrepancy between our “official” debt and our actual net indebtedness isn’t surprising. It reflects what economists call the labeling problem. Congress has been very careful over the years to label most of its liabilities “unofficial” to keep them off the books and far in the future.
For example, our Social Security FICA contributions are called taxes and our future Social Security benefits are called transfer payments. The government could equally well have labeled our contributions “loans” and called our future benefits “repayment of these loans less an old age tax,” with the old age tax making up for any difference between the benefits promised and principal plus interest on the contributions.
The fiscal gap isn’t affected by fiscal labeling. It’s the only theoretically correct measure of our long-run fiscal condition because it considers all spending, no matter how labeled, and incorporates long-term and short-term policy.
$4 Trillion BillHow can the fiscal gap be so enormous?
Simple. We have 78 million baby boomers who, when fully retired, will collect benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that, on average, exceed per-capita GDP. The annual costs of these entitlements will total about $4 trillion in today’s dollars. Yes, our economy will be bigger in 20 years, but not big enough to handle this size load year after year.
This is what happens when you run a massive Ponzi scheme for six decades straight, taking ever larger resources from the young and giving them to the old while promising the young their eventual turn at passing the generational buck.
Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. President Richard Nixon, coined an oft-repeated phrase: “Something that can’t go on, will stop.” True enough. Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme will stop. But it will stop too late.
And it will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast quantities of money to cover its bills.
Worse Than GreeceMost likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices. This is an awful, downhill road to follow, but it’s the one we are on. And bond traders will kick us miles down our road once they wake up and realize the U.S. is in worse fiscal shape than Greece.
Some doctrinaire Keynesian economists would say any stimulus over the next few years won’t affect our ability to deal with deficits in the long run.
This is wrong as a simple matter of arithmetic. The fiscal gap is the government’s credit-card bill and each year’s 14 percent of GDP is the interest on that bill. If it doesn’t pay this year’s interest, it will be added to the balance.
Demand-siders say forgoing this year’s 14 percent fiscal tightening, and spending even more, will pay for itself, in present value, by expanding the economy and tax revenue.
My reaction? Get real, or go hang out with equally deluded supply-siders. Our country is broke and can no longer afford no- pain, all-gain “solutions.”
(Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and author of “Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking.” The opinions expressed are his own.)
So if the .mil 's get pissed off about their money is it good or bad that so many are out of the country. Homeland Invasion?
This is amazing to me. One of my clients is a 25-year military vet, and she owns the G Fund in her fed retirement plan.
Fuck the warmongers too!
http://www.republican-elephant.com/john-mccain-warmonger.jpg
Snake, youre on a roll today. Right on!
...and market reaction in 3....2.....1.....
Oh wait - the rigged game, like the time and tide, 'waits for no man'.....other than Bernanke.
WE NEED SUPPORT.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/dxy
It's like when you steam into a fight bravely and then you turn around and see all your 'mates' are still stood back on the kerb.
Of course your mates being Bernanke, Timotei and Greenspan directing things - you never really had any mates to start with!
I've been saying it for the last two years that this entire financal crisis will eventually be swept into pension funds one way or another and by hook or by crook.
Whether it be firms defaulting on their employee pension obligations or states defaulting on public sector pension liabilities or by countries degrading and reducing promised pension levels or by banks being allowed to sweep junk assets on their balance sheets into pension funds they have under managment or by outright debt default by sovereigns/municipalities/firms.
This is happening already in the UK and will happen everywhere else. Pension funds are the only pot of assets that are left to fill the hole that is the overwhelming public and private debt liabilities.
The US Treasury dipping into the pension funds is the equivalent of going to the hock shop and pawning a piece of jewelry that you are still making payments on...
Please let us borrow more money; our country has survived borrowing $14 trillion; what's another $5 trillion. In other words, like Wimpy in the Popeye cartoon use to say: "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." Sadly, the U.S. govt has become a con artist cartoon character in a ponzi carnival show that's about to be cancelled.
There's no assets in the pension funds.......only a file cabinet with IOU's in it. What drama!!
and starting today, until the debt ceiling is increased, it has iou's to give iou's at a later date...
We must stop the government from piling debt on children not even old enough to vote.
Selfish piece of shit boomers must be stopped
( i will also include selfish piece of shit military industrial complex too)
This has gone far enough.
Quick Tyler,get on the phone to my lawyer,'am a suing the gubberment.The number is located on the reverse side of that picture next to your bloomberg professional trading terminal........yeah,its written on the back of ya crooked mother-in-law's portrait.
I have been searching, and cannot find anything that gives Geithner the ability to do this. Where the f**k is our Congress? These clowns just make up the shit as they go, and do whatever they want. Next they will be trying to take people's 401k's so they can borrow more.
WTF?
Oh, I see the crooked shit now, discretionary authority, WTF? Let's just write more checks we can't cash. If a citizen does this, they end up in jail for fraud. I don't know about you guys, but we need to be on the phone blowing up Washington call lines and asking WTF?
better call C-Span...that way at least you can hear your own voice...good therapy...otherwise, forget about changing things...they own it and they will do what they want!
sadly it is built into the fund to be able to do this, if and only if it prevents a debt ceiling breach
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/5/usc_sec_05_00008348----000-.html
and has been done before
http://www.gao.gov/products/AIMD-96-130
enough is enough! Buy Gold and Precious Metals miners.
Unable to invest fully, Bitchez !
And just look at next weeks treasury auctions...
IOU...
The Honorable, The Honorable, The Honorable......give me a break
Hey Tyler, how do I get Timmy to write one of these letters to my creditors?
3 years ago I cleaned out my Thrift Savings Plan which is the retirement fund that has just been raided. I purchased PM's with all of it. 401(k) and IRA accounts will be next. TPTB will use the Argentina plan. I suggest you read this article and use it as a guide.
How Gold Would Be Used In Hyperinflationhttp://buygoldandsilversafely.com/gold/how-gold-would-be-used-in-hyperin...
(1) What is the process for converting the TSP to an IRA?
(2) Tax ramifications?
(3) Can it be done by current employees or only those already retired?
I retired early so I had the opportunity to leave the money in my TSP account. I subsequently realized what was happening and doing so was stupid. I took the substantial tax hit involved because it's all in rapidly declining USD confetti anyway. I converted all to 75% Silver @ $12 an ounce and 25% Gold @ $700 an ounce. Needless to say I've more than made up for the tax hit even if the low end predictions for Silver in the $20's and Gold in the $1,200's in the coming months. I really don't care about prices in USD because it's all Jew confetti anyway. If you are still actively employed I would check with whoever is available to talk to about your account. I know things have changed sense I got out and now you may not be allowed take your money from your account now due to the FED's theft of your retirement.
In most standard 401(k)s you can take a loan out and pay yourself back at 4.something %. There are downsides, mainly that you can only take out one loan at a time so you get 'stuck' with a lot of balance in there as the first loan is paid down. But if they come along to 'use' it they will find an IOM (I Owe Me) in your account.
If you think an alternative investment is better than 4.something percent nominal, well....
Sounds wonderful ,, So let me see if I get this straight.
I borrow from my 401K at 4% and then pay it back with taxed money and when I take my money out in the future I pay tax again? Baahh Baahh Baahh
It's just getting better and better! Well they can kiss my ass good bye, I have nothing where they can steal it from! It's all "gone"!
Nice...hold the pensions as ransom....Anyone think they won't vote on the increase now??????
Do like the Greek.
Hoarding Euros.
I've been known to be confounded by a captcha, but I compute the debt ceiling inflation at :
7.68%
The government is growing how much faster than the population? 5X?
STOP! The miners--tell me when the miners are going to turn around and catch up with and surpass physical gold. What is the basis for believing that this will happen?
The miners will catch up as the earnings print serious money making
each quarter. The miners are not being priced in as if bullion will remain
at these levels. If you believe bullion prices will remain at these levels
or increase in the next few years then miners will be reporting record
quarterly earnings which can't be ignored.
The Miners will be Nationalized...........Bank it.
If you mean that in a literal sense, I advise against it, especially when stated to law enforcement.
I saw what happened to a property owner while standing at his land boundary line. The equivalent words had barely left his lips before he was gang-tackled by about 4 or 5 officers.
Timmy uses turbo tax again ! Vote these feckin' morons out of office. has to remind one of the USSR....just take / print $ from anywhere to justify one's economic policies.
You 2 should post tandem more often, Acid, Serotonin, Clowns with dumptrucks. It really is getting weird.
The shit won't hit the fan until either a) they raise the limit and continue printing money and the Weimar rally continues or b) don't raise the limit and a deflationary depression occurs.
Either way, it's clear: we're fucked and we'll know how so by Sept/October/November at the latest. So it makes perfect sense paper stocks are higher today, I mean, seriously, right?
There is no end to the degree of plunder that goober will wage upon the citizen of this republic.
I bet Timmy is on Luke Rudkowski's list of elites to confront in person. He confronted Bernanke Friday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AcpznV4RGY
This guy has steel balls.
Luke interviewed by RT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSKuMmyHdLg
beat me to it, great post!
He'd better watch out or he'll end up on Oblahma's hit list.
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/obama-orders-targeted-assassination-of.html
Judicial Reform activist, Bill Windsor, has just added his name to the list of political activists reportedly targeted for assassination by the U.S. Government.William M. Windsor was informed yesterday by a reliable source that he may be targeted for assassination by the U.S. Government. Windsor is an activist seeking to stop government corruption and judicial corruption.
Windsor was a guest on a radio talk show on Republic Broadcasting on Thursday, May 12. Following the radio show, Windsor was contacted by a known, reliable source who informed him that the U.S. government may be targeting him for assassination.
........."
is this the same luke that steals money from the we are change organization and uses it to fund his college education?
Tap bankster bonuses.
Riiight. You can bet BOTH your balls that those will be the absolute LAST things to be tapped right after illegal alien benefits.
.
Even Superman has forsaken us...
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/04/27/superman-renounces-us-citizenship/
Did anyone happen to catch that Silver is the only major metal down today, on a day when we have a technical default on the debt limit, while physical demand has never in the history been stronger while the inventory as weak?
Oh, yeah. It's not manipulated on the COMEX. If you believe that, you must still believe the tooth fairy, right?
All aboard the barbarous relic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfysyex_DAk
Seems like everything is getting breached:
Seawater found in coolant at Hamaoka plant
At the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan, seawater has been found in coolant at one reactor.
Five nuclear reactors at the Hamaoka plant in Omaezaki City, Shizuoka Prefecture, were all shut down on Saturday due to concern that a massive earthquake might hit the area. The move was in line with a request by Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
In the course of shutdown, plant operator Chubu Electric Power Company found impure substances in coolant water at the No.5 reactor.
The company reports damage to a pipe connected to a condenser, a system that turns the steam generated by a nuclear reactor to water through the use of seawater.
Chubu Electric Power Company says 400 tons of seawater may be mixed into the cooling water that goes through the reactor.
It says 400 tons would not severely affect the reactor, and that no radioactive substances were detected outside the building.
But in order to prevent the reactor being eroded by seawater, the operator will take measures to remove salt from the cooling water.
Monday, May 16, 2011 05:31 +0900 (JST)
While we are at it, can we make the whole stock and bond market a black market? I am getting sick of watching it get manipulated every day.
this isnt going to end nicely for the public employees
Cut services, raise taxes or both.
No more putting debt on our children.
No chance, fag bonuses and government collusion with fraud has to continue.
Next stop is everything YOU have so your kids can't have that either -- watch.
My little bit of scratch is well protected.
I am not new to this. I have been planning for all eventualities since 1997.
I will look indigent on government means testing too, when the time comes.
I applied for a BS clerk job at the county jail, low tax bracket. If a don't get or something similar, I'm gonna SNAP, hate to think ab giving the JP a cut though.
An indigent physician, yeah that will sail right past em.. Only Timmy gets to cheat TCT..
This is all starting to look like dumb and dumber:
"What the f*ck is this???"
"Those are IOUs...they're as good as cash"
Right, all those IOU's are as good as cash because they can bundle em all up into a 'product' and sell them about 100 times. They've learned nothing, and never will learn anything, the only thing this type of people understand is a noose on the end of a rope.
"Those are IOUs...they're as good as cash"
FYI, all 'cash' is derived from debt. That's how the FR works. So the truth in that statement sublime - exchanging one bad paper for another.
There are trillions in pensions and S.S. Raiding them to float the stockmarket is very bullish for equities.
My understanding may well be incomplete, but 'full faith and credit of the US Treasury' and 'general obligation of the US Treasury' have always been considered more than just empty words with reason. Perhaps, I have been out of the country for too many years and the meaning of the law has changed; however, the unfunded Social Security debt of the US Treasury is a general obligation of the US Treasury and as such the Treasury is legally required to meet this obligation and the government is 'obliged' to raise taxes with or without authorization in order to do so.
As this is an event that has never tested the law, it will be interesting to see how this issue will be resolved. The two funds that are being used as fear levers may or not be general obligations of the US Treasury and for this reason have been chosen rather that Social Security payments.
Hopefully, there are some on this forum who can correct my understanding of an issue that is may well be less than complete.
oldman
The flaw in your argument is "Treasury is legally required". The sense of obligation of our government officials to obey their own laws has been steadily eroding. I think we're fast approaching the point where they will do what they want and say "too bad, so sad" to those who complain about legal obligations.
My understanding may well be incomplete, but 'full faith and credit of the US Treasury' and 'general obligation of the US Treasury' have always been considered more than just empty words with reason. Perhaps, I have been out of the country for too many years and the meaning of the law has changed; however, the unfunded Social Security debt of the US Treasury is a general obligation of the US Treasury and as such the Treasury is legally required to meet this obligation and the government is 'obliged' to raise taxes with or without authorization in order to do so.
As this is an event that has never tested the law, it will be interesting to see how this issue will be resolved. The two funds that are being used as fear levers may or not be general obligations of the US Treasury and for this reason have been chosen rather that Social Security payments.
Hopefully, there are some on this forum who can correct my understanding of an issue that is may well be less than complete.
oldman
We can change the law.
Time to quit selfishly adding debt to people too young to vote against it.
Did you get to vote for the debt for which you are obligated?
Taking from 401Ks and IRAs to fund this profligate government will be the "shot heard round the world v2.0." That will be the second intolerable act. The first was an Indiana or Illinois ruling that you can't forcefully resist an unlawful police entry (who needs the 4th amendment). Do they actually think they own us and our property?!
Try and take it mothafuckers!
February 01, 2011
Stop the Fraud -- Freeze the Debt CeilingBy Monty Pelerin
The upcoming battle over raising the debt limit is a microcosm of the fraud that government has become.This Kabuki act is performed every time Federal debt approaches its legal limit. The stage play is always the same:
- Politicians admit that spending is unsustainable and speak about cuts -- only in generalities and never specifics.
- The party in power always argues how important it is to increase the debt ceiling.
- The party out of power argues how doing so is irresponsible.
- The demagogues in power then warn about world-ending damage if the debt limit is not raised.
After this drama plays out, politicians reluctantly (that is their marketing term, not mine) raise the debt ceiling. This political act is then mothballed until the new debt limit is approached. By that time, the protagonists may have changed positions. For example, then-Senator Obama in 2006 voted against raising the limit, stating:
Why his reversal? Simple: George Bush was president then. Today, Obama and his administration argue that not raising the debt ceiling would be "irresponsible" and "catastrophic."Both political parties are filled with scoundrels for whom politics is merely a game with few rules. These unprincipled parasites are concerned only with furthering their political careers. Concern for the public is important only to the extent that it furthers political interests. Good policies don't matter -- only good politics. Harmful policies are good politics if the public perceives them as beneficial.
Cuts are not politically viable in our democratic welfare state. Generations have been conditioned to "gimme" politics. As a result, no politician can run and win on a platform of "vote for me and this is what I will take away from you." That is why cuts never come and spending rises inexorably. That is why the debt limit will be raised again (and again and again) until the dollar and economy collapse.
President Obama's State of the Union message was typical of the nonsense that passes for leadership. Depending upon your viewpoint, he either insulted the intelligence of the people of the country (difficult but not impossible) or exposed the level of his own intelligence. The speech was gibberish, promising a freeze on discretionary funding while advocating new programs.
Our fiscal situation is desperate. The deficit this year is estimated to be $1.5 trillion, the largest in history. No one believes the out-year budget estimates that show the deficit being reduced, albeit not by much. The country likely will not last long enough to determine how absurd these out-year projections are.
Mr. Obama's proposed freeze covers about 17% of government spending. It is meaningless, especially when the other 83% of government spending expands like a California wildfire. To better understand, assume Mr. Obama is an individual making $50,000 per year and spending $75,000. This is the approximate relationship between government revenues and expenditures.
Mr. Obama is tapped out in the sense that he is unable to borrow money. His only solution is to lower his spending to his income, or preferably to below his income. Instead of recognizing this situation, Mr. Obama focuses on approximately $15,000 of his spending problem. Even here, he intends not to cut spending, but to limit it at this excessive level. The other $60,000 of spending he plans to increase.
Any individual who believes that he can sustain a personal financial problem with such a plan should be adjudged delusional. Just as it would be for an individual, Mr. Obama's belief is delusional, and disastrous for the country.
The debt ceiling is a key to stopping the political insanity. It can prevent a collapse of the dollar and the economy. It must be used to enforce restraint on the cowards in Washington. It is a less desirable solution than a limit on government spending, but it is a stopgap measure. Any limit represents an improvement over the feckless pretend negotiations that politicians engage in.
A freeze in the debt limit puts responsibility for out-of-control spending squarely on the backs of the political hacks. It is no different from putting a teenager on an allowance, other than the fact that most teenagers have more sense and self-control than most politicians. The message sent by adopting such a measure is simple and unequivocal: "Here is your money. That's it! Spend it wisely. Screw up, and you will be voted out of office. Good luck!"
Robert Murphy makes the best case for not raising the debt ceiling:
A vote on increasing the debt ceiling represents a litmus test as to whether a politician is serious. Any vote for an increase should target that politician for defeat in the next election. That is the message the public must send to their representatives.
Because politicians are without cojones, we must play on their cowardice. The fear of losing office is the only motivation to which they will respond. It is a way to end reckless spending. It is the only quick and effective way to prevent the economic and political collapse that is headed at us.
Big spending apologists will say, with some validity, that you cannot just cap government spending without advance warning. From a practical standpoint, that is correct. Wouldn't it be revealing for them to have to respond to this question: "Just how much warning or lead time do you require?" The squirming and hypocrisy watching these parasites trying to answer that question would be nearly priceless -- and just an ancillary benefit of the proposal.
A simple solution to the lead time objection is to provide some. We run about $100 billion per month in borrowing. Have one more acceptable vote for raising the debt limit. Raise it by $300 billion. That provides three months' time to lower spending rates to revenue rates.
The lack of seriousness in Washington is apparent with gimmicks such as the "blue-ribbon commission" appointed by Obama to suggest solutions. Does anyone other than me remember the Bowles-Simpson Commission? They came up with a series of recommendations -- not enough in my opinion, but superior to doing nothing or continuing to increase spending (Obama's solution). Several suggestions were reasonable as beginning steps. This commission and its recommendations have been shoved down the memory hole of history so that Washington does not have to deal with specifics. It is nothing more than another example of the Washington charade.
We need immediate action in order to avoid economic and political collapse. The only way to get that is by freezing the debt ceiling. That should be done now! A more comprehensive approach can be developed after the hemorrhaging has stopped.
Monty Pelerin blogs at economicnoise.com.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/stop_the_fraud_freeze_the_debt.ht... at May 16, 2011 - 09:54:22 AM CDT
good post, escpecially the old obama quotation, but we all know this is already a done deal, we just have to be subjected to the charade of politicians pretending like they care or would do something other than increase the ceiling. in the meantime its a great excuse to have even more dinners with lobbyists so they can 'understand' the issues
I'm not 100% sure on this: is the treasury basically saying to the pension funds:
"Look...you know that IOU we gave you for the money we borrowed?Ummm...could we ,like, have it back...umm...without paying back the loan? We'll make good on the loan though, promiss. We reeeaaaally need this to make our balance sheet look better, thanx"
yes, they are turning iou's into, iou's of an iou, but the iou^2 doesn't count against the debt limit