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A Zero Hedge Petition: Break Debt Habit, Freeze The Debt Ceiling
Submitted by Zero Hedge on 09/14/2009 14:54 -0400
Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.
- Sen. Barack Obama, 2006
While Zero Hedge has been accused of disagreeing with President Obama's statements, ideas, and policies before, we would like to state on the record that we wholeheartedly agree with the President on this one occasion, with the caveat that it was uttered at a time when i) he was not a president, and ii) he presumably actually did in fact care about "our children and grandchildren" instead of simply indulging in an onanistic splurge of spending, bailing out beta chasing bankers and hedge fund managers, and, through his appointee Ben Bernanke, reducing the national currency of the United States to a smoking hulk of burnt toast. Superimposing Obama from 2006 with his current incarnation, threatens a schizoid break no less than would dropping Bono's two alter egos (Macphisto and The Fly) in the same room without a limitless supply of Thorazine.
Ironically, the President now has to completely backtrack on his rhetoric and must tell his adoring public that he was only kidding in 2006, being a young and foolish Senator, while the grizzled and cynical Obama of today is forced to convince another pack of young and foolish Senators to raise the US federal debt ceiling from $12.1 trillion to $13 trillion. Absent this approval, the US will likely default by mid-October.
So even as the President may no longer really care for the "children and grandchildren", 300 million other Americans do. Raising the debt ceiling (first to $13 trillion, eventually to $1 quadrillion+), and printing an infinite amount of infinitely devaluing pieces of printed cotton is easy. It is also wrong. This is especially true because the President is doing it in order to inflate his way out of the massive credit crunch that would force the entire US banking system to go bankrupt and subsequently restructure- like it is supposed to- if only it were left alone to its own devices. This is why, we at Zero Hedge, appeal to you, our readers, to join us in this petition to prevent the debt ceiling from being raised... and again... and again... until such time as it is merely a joke of a formality (if we are not too late), and the US descends ever faster on its way to sovereign insolvency and its new status as a Chinese vassal state. On the bright side, there will be renewed United States interest in Nepal.
Once we have collected your signatures, we will forward the petition over to members of Senate who will certainly not change their behavior, and who will absolutely pass Obama's debt ceiling increase request, but who will be made aware that an increasing number of Americans are watching their every step and grow increasingly disapproving of the actions taken by both the Senate and the Congress, as they pile on a skyrocketing and untenable debt burden for future generations, all with the simple goal of buying some more election goodies and making sure that the current banking system can indefinitely postpone its inevitable day of reckoning.
(Only your City and Zip Code will be displayed on Zero Hedge- (we collect Zip Codes for Congressional district identification) but your name will be forwarded to the United States Senate)
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Hey, wait a minute, isn't the FDIC almost broke?
Hope none of you are account holders, if past performance is any indication of future results the bond holders get in line before you.
Unless you're unionized. Then bond holders suck your fumes.
+100
I saw Greenwich on the list - must be a spy or an unemployed hedge funder.
I saw Wasilla, Alaska on the list. Maybe Sarah P. is a secret Hedger.
There is a part of me (the monkey-wrench activist part) that wants congress to raise the debt ceiling by a LOT more than the US Treasury will request -- why not make it $31.078 trillion for instance? We keep going through this protracted agony of becoming incensed at every marginal event that takes us closer to the inevitable conclusion.
Frankly, I'm anxious to begin life in America 2.0. Perhaps with a new form of government (parliamentary democracy perhaps?), reaffirmed constitution, and a dramatically scaled-back Federal government in terms of size, scope, and extent of social contract.
We could drag the current train-wreck on for years. Why not help it fail faster?
Let's borrow a lot more -- buy everyone a new car, bailout everyone's over-extended mortgage, credit card balance, SIV, CDS, CMO and other exotic derivative portfolios, give ourselves bigger social security payments, guarantee everyone's pension fund, etc. Just call it even. The Supreme Court can legalize corporate ownership of Congressmen, judges, environmental protection folks, etc. Just let 'er rip. Make it all fail faster.
So instead of sending this note to the self-centered, irresponsible, people in DC who have abdicated their responsibility to make hard decisions in the long-term best interest of our country, turn it around and demand they borrow more to give us all the stuff we want now and saturate our thirst for instant gratification.
Monkey Wrench This System.
Right! Why not offer IPOs on the American Parliament. Buy a share have an ear. Why should lobbyists and hand greasers get all the puppeteering?
Monetize the Senate! That way democracy and plutocracy will have an open forum. Buy the law, found it upon influence and self interest, stomp out the plebians.
As long as they have public houses, primetime, tabloids, and anti-depressants, they'll serve for the linens and stables.
Economessed.
Yes, that is exactly the approach I now take...monkey wrench this system. I vote for every bailout, expansion of government, foreign adventure, any stupid numb nuts idea the morons dream up. The only way out now is to crash.
Sorry, pal. We can't do that otherwise we lose our powerful tool to play with Whitehouse.
Sincerely,
your Sinator/CONgress(wo)man
Guys, people probably won't get imprisoned or tracked for signing an online petition.
They just ignore it like everything else the American people ask for.
Now if Goldman Slacks calls their errand boy on the private hotline, he's all ears.
"Change has come to America"
Obama = George Bush on steroids
Enough change for me, thanks!
http://912dc.org/ better than a petition, hopefully i'll see you there
your linked page is partial Error 404: Page Not Found
Double speaking politicians... Grrr.... It's time for some changes. It's time to let these so called representatives who is in charge here. Empty your accounts to cash, pump and dump the cards, don't pay taxes, maybe spray paint 1207 on your nearest TBTF bank. It's time to make some noise, and demand REAL change.
I don't see....
BEAUUUUUUUTTTTIIFULLL Niceville(spl?) Florida on there.
Sooooooooo, that means you and Karl Denninger are neighbors??????????????????????????????????????????????? he is a righteous dude, good...............
I gathered my survival supplies last fall.
.50 Desert Eagle at my side.
F'n Bring It On!
.......... go ahead, knock on my door ........... MAKE MY DAY. Sincerely .......
And this is another problem. All you Internet tough guys think that the jackboots are coming to your door.
They won't--they'll arrest you at work or while you're leaving the grocery store with a cart carrying a kid in one hand. You'll have no chance to fight back.
Or, they will hit you by blasting through a side wall of the house with C4 or a ram and you will be outnumbered 20:1. You have to know their tactics.
Or shoot you through your windshield as you drive away with your crack whore right after you lifted $200 from the ATM machine for an afternoon of crack smokin' and paddy wang doodle all the day.
This guy needs a good beating:
John Carney|Sep. 9, 2009, 3:51 PM|31 Print Tags: Money Media, Markets, Treasury, DebtDoes ZeroHedge understand the Treasury market? According to the most thorough and well known bond market blog—John Jansen’s Across the Curve—Zero Hedge’s reporting “is just egregiously incorrect and demonstrates the collective lack of knowledge of the various authors.”
Without a doubt, the rise of the pseudonymous blogging-collective known as Zero Hedge has been one of the great underground stories of online financial journalism. Rising from an unknown blog last spring, Zero Hedge has been regularly cited in mainstream publications such as Barron’s, has inspired investment banks
to lash out with rebuttals to its charges and arguably helped focus journalists, lawmakers, and regulators on the issue of high-frequency trading.
So the question of Zero Hedge’s understanding of the bond market is important, especially since it has been highly critical of the Federal Reserve. Basically, Zero Hedge has accused the Fed of manipulating markets.
Today John Jansen argues that Zero Hedge misread the most recent 10-year Treasury auction. The dispute concerns the “expected stop-out” of the auction, which is highest yield at which market participants expect the Treasuries will sell. Zero Hedge read the most recent auction as blowing out the expectations, coming in at a yield of 3.51% versus an expectation of 3.35%. This would imply that the Fed's attempt to continue a program of quantitative easing would be in trouble.
Jansen says the expected stop-out was nowhere near that low. The bonds had not traded that low since Friday, before the labor report which showed joblessness at 26 year highs but new jobless claims falling to the lowest levels all year. The ten year notes were trading much closer to the stop than Zero Hedge reports, Jansen argues.
“One must logically conclude that when they make such a fundamental factual error as they did today that they should not be trusted when making grandiose charges about the conduct of monetary policy,” Jansen writes.
Of course, it's always possible that this is just a typographical tempest in a teapot. Maybe Zero Hedge just misread a 3.53% expected stop out as 3.35%.
You sound like the guy who gives towels to Central Bankers at the
restroom.
The treasury markets are toilet paper, don't forget. The T Bond
market has no value, nada, nothing. China could kill Wall Street
in 5 minutes. Everybody outside the US with lots of money can
ruin the fucked up financial system in the US at once.
Wall Street is a joke, don't forget that the whole world knows.
The next Enron is just around the corner, and the US has no more
money left for that case...
I wonder if anyone has run an algorithm or dummied up a scenario where the FED stood fast...No QE. Indeed, acted like Mellon, liquidate. Where would we be? Where would home financing be? Where would our Fed Funds and prime be?
Would it be an instant cash-n-carry society? Or can credit exist when creditor and debtor both know the Ponzi pyramid and are gaming head to tail?
Imagine where we'd be if Gold restrained the everyday nonsense in the forex, bond, equity markets we see.
Don't cry for me Argentina. You know my pain.
wow...wasilla is represented. Could Sarah Palin be one of our regulars???
If so ... Sarah I love what you say but for fuck's sake DON'T RUN FOR PRESIDENT! You'll just ruin it for everyone. That's how Obama got elected; too many Republicans running for office and we ended up with McCain.
Probably someone who knows Sarah Palin and is in total disbelief that she could have been our vice president.
I'm in, f*ck debt!
I always thought ZeroHedge was one word
Signed. Do not like the idea of setting my children and grandchildren up for failure by burying them under a mountain of debt.
Missing link, you do know that your children and grandchildren and their grandchildren are doomed, don't you?
Do something to save yourself so that your children/etc., might have a fighting chance.
Save yourself and Starve the beast!
Well, yes, I do know that. Comrade Obama has completely and utterly fucked their lives once and for all, and the little bastards haven't even been born yet.
I am just doing everything I can to make sure that I'll have enough cash left so that when the second bank implosion, the swine flu, the zombie invasion, the LA earthquake, the Iranian nuking of Israel and blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and Yellowstone supervolcano eruption (I'm not actually making that one up -- search for it on YouTube) all happen and the world goes into full-out Apocalypse mode, my little brats will at least have some canned food and a gun.
The Nation: "Don't do it! Think of the Children!"
Obama: "Thanks for reminding me." - dials on phone - "Ben? Could you bring some ketchup with you?"
No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part. We're just the guys to do it.
can we like, have a huge bbq and party before this river of shit comes crashing down upon us?
I hope the new detention facilities are comfy.
Better have your own Varykino, because they are coming for you. Sooner or later. Better have a plan. And decide is it, "live free or die a slave?".
It is E. Pluribus Unim's turn in tyranny.
Oiy vay... Like I wasn't paranoid enough about the Gov't watching me.... Had to sign tho
I agree with this post 1000%... but there's something just too disturbing about an anonymous blog asking for names and addresses.
Dis-agree... I E-mail my schmucks in DC about every month or so and get a canned response written by a 15 year staffer that may or may not address my concern. I am not even sure one of the schmucks understand or know what the staffer has written (Stark type moron). F&* them all!!! Dragging our country in to bankruptcy for the short term buying of votes and lobbying dollars.
I have moved 70% of my investment portfolio to overseas stocks and some gold. Let the stupid jerks finish destroying our economy and the dollar!
Deflation is the natural order of things but the inflation is caused by monetary policy. THey are looking for an equalibrium but will over shoot. But they have a hellavu lot more inflating to do to even come close to make up for the pull back in credit currently being extended. It seems as though this notion is not fully understood by everyone.
BTW- screw selling ZH shirts in Euro's, ya gotta sell 'em in SDR's ;);).
How long until there is a SDR currency? I bet someone in some back room has already started designing it. Who's face will be on it?
Again why didn't Japan get inflation? Oh yey no
"excess money chasing to few goods" how is
that going to happen? Although the economists
well they could it wrong again? But we borrowed
all our demand from the future on our ATM homes...
soooo Uh Oh ---Wiley Coyote over the Grand Canyon
Robo Update:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hal-9000-readies-obamas-re-coronation
Any one having timeout issues after hitting the Sign it! button? Did not see my signature so I submitted again and got an error message about multiple signatures. I think my first signature is floating in the ether.
Email me your details and I can add it manually. marla@zh
floated into my in-box and confirmed the details.
Why include Country? Senate has no responsibility to anyone other than US Citizens. How about changing Country to STATE?
I disagree...most of our debt is held outside of the USA by FOREIGN creditors...so to say you shouldn't have a voice is selling yourself short.
It would be nice to see some foreign participation.
I am an outsider. I voted. If America goes down becasue of Ben's arrogance, then we all go down Just one man taking down the humanity. Incredible but true. Goldman sach guys must be having a great laugh.
Darn, we Europeans cant vote - again.