Visualizing The American Taxpayer Relief Act

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/03/2013 23:10 -0400

While our previous visualization of the incredible impact of the ATRA seemed to clarify to many people exactly what 'compromises' had been made, the following infographic perfectly relates the stunning difference such a 'fair and balanced' act will make to both revenues and spending... just remember $1 billion (of $100 bills) would weigh 10 tons.

Source: Demonocracy

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Thu, 01/03/2013 - 22:36 | 3120923 bobert

Perhaps we should revalue the dollar. Kind of like a reverse stock split. Let's say100:1 so that a penny buys what a dollar does today. Then do something radical like implement fiscal responsibility.

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 22:40 | 3120931 pacu44

Sort of like a Gold Standard???

Dolloar to gold and silver unmanipulated??

FreeGold?

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 22:44 | 3120936 bobert

A gold standard bothers me because I feel that it too (the supply of gold) can be manipulated causing spikes and crashes in the economy. However, I may be wrong - just saying.

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 23:02 | 3120993 e_goldstein

Yeah, you are right. The classic gold standard is almost the same fraud the CBs engage in today. Gold and silver allowed to compete as money in a free market is something else entirely.

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 23:19 | 3121021 bobert

There have been good ideas for the control of currency outside of our current system, however, those who purport them seem to be short lived if you know what I mean.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 02:46 | 3121259 NewThor

Fuck the current currencies.

I know what you mean.

Do you know what I mean?

Is Planet X Sedna, Comet ISON or other?

I've got a feeling we will find out this year.

Humanity used to believe planets were Gods.

Now they believe Fiat Currencies are the Gods.

I think we're about to go back to the Old School,

12,000 year Orbitz BITCHEZ!

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 07:54 | 3121445 GetZeeGold

Mother, should I trust the government?

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 10:19 | 3121720 FrankDrakman

Money get back I'm all right Jack Keep your hands off my stack Money, it's a hit Don't give me that Do goody good bullshit

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 12:03 | 3122190 Overfed

NO!

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 10:20 | 3121728 iinthesky

Right, is that when Marduk comes back from Nibiru and the Plaedians show up with Quetzecoatl ?

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 08:39 | 3121488 JonNadler

OK, none of these shills are associated with me

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 08:44 | 3121495 GetZeeGold

We're aware Jon.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 00:39 | 3121143 tmosley

History disagrees with you mightily.

The only crashes under the gold standard came about as a result of government overspending--usually on war.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 01:20 | 3121161 CunnyFunt

While I agree with your sentiment, and forgive me for being so anal, but history can prove nothing. There is no "THE" history of anything. ALL historical surveys, monographs and literature are subjective. The science of economics doesn't need history, only reason.

Heraclitus figured that out a long time ago.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 04:01 | 3121310 NidStyles

Uhh, Economics is the study of past action in anticipation of future action. If you are going to quote someone at least acknowledge that a 2000+ year dead guy may not have been at the pinnacle of rational thought. Mises and Rothbard both went over this in extensive detail.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 16:17 | 3122316 CunnyFunt

Maybe you should read Theory and History again, or even the first two chapters of Human Action. Apparently, you didn't get it the first time around.

Mises insisted that economics, not econometrics, is an a priori science, not an empirical science.

I'm sure he would have ridiculed your definition of economics in a way that only Mises could.

But who cares about epistemology, right?

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 08:30 | 3121477 JPM Hater001

The philosphy lesson about truth being in the eye of the beholder is dandy. The rest is bullshit.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 09:22 | 3121560 Threethreethree

You are correct in many ways. Hericlitus said no man can step in the same river twice, for It is not the same river and he is not the same man.

Likewise, we, as time passes, are ever changing. As such, even economic policy at the personal level is different now for each of us, than it perhaps was even one year ago. Even if outer circumstance has changed little. As I see it, though inflation or deflation is upon us, even if we counter that demon exactly the same as our predecessors, the outcome may not be the same because WE are different.

Thus, the past does not matter. What does indeed matter is the present and the character of the man. In that respect the character of the man decides his fate, not history.

As Hericlitus says, "A man's character is his fate."

333

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 10:28 | 3121765 iinthesky

No man can step into the same river twice? Really?

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 10:25 | 3121753 FrankDrakman

Given your nickname, the fact you cite famous Greek historian Hairyclitoris is unintentionally hilarious to me.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 11:01 | 3121909 MsCreant

Clits don't grow hair, silly!

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 01:10 | 3121172 Harbanger

"An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions."

Gold and Economic Freedom by Alan Greenspan- Interesting to read....

http://constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 06:42 | 3121398 Go Tribe

Or the government buying silver to back the dollar which causes a gold run, which happened in the 1800s.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 10:41 | 3121806 AGuy

"History disagrees with you mightily."

You obviously failed history, or you learned using the books from the "minsistry of re-education" (aka 1984)

"The only crashes under the gold standard came about as a result of government overspending"

Some events that happened while the US was under the gold standard

Panic and Long Depression of 1873 (Down 33%)

Panic of 1907 (Down 30%)

Panic of 1910 (Down 15%)

Creation of the Federal Reserve.

the 1925 Housing Bubble and the 1929 stock market crash (Down 35%)

The little something about a Great Depression from 1932 to 1939.

Dollar devalution in 1933 under FDR (Private ownership of Gold made illegal by FDR)

Crashes happened not just because of war but over-extended credit, technology changes (aka death of the Buggy whip), natural diasters (Earthquakes, droughts, disease), and many other causes.

As it stands, the US can never return to a gold standard. It owns too little gold and owns too much debt. Its also very dependant on Foriegn imports to run its economy. Before America can return to a gold standard, the US gov't must cease to exists. If the US did return to a gold standard, every foriegn gov't would convert thier FRNS for physical gold in the first hour of trading. Recall when the IMF sold. it was sold to China and India before the ink was even dry. FWIW: IMF only source of its gold originated from the US. The IMF really didn't even own that gold, it was lend to the IMF to give it creditablity. the IMF gold sale was technically illegal.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 08:05 | 3121455 Sudden Debt

Why would you think politicians and banks would manipulate the economy?....

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 09:06 | 3121522 Jeff Lebowski

Plus, gold isn't backed by anything.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 13:36 | 3122652 post turtle saver

dollar to tungsten

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 22:45 | 3120944 Buckaroo Banzai

"Relief", my ass. What those cocksuckers do to the language is obscene.

Their contempt for the people they serve is monumental.

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 22:52 | 3120960 Al Huxley

They all read 1984. Unfortunately, instead of taking it as a warning, they decided to use it as a playbook.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 08:54 | 3121485 TwoShortPlanks

'Wall Street' was financial porn and 'Eyes Wide Shut' became an upper-middle class Play Book.

As for the graphic; I bet you're glad the Fed owns all that worthless shit.

Thu, 01/03/2013 - 23:13 | 3121010 ball-and-chain

What we need to do is get the ticks (Wall Street, London) off our backs.

We do this by raising interest rates.

However, nobody has the courage.

So we're all slaves to a corrupt banking cartel.

http://www.angrysinner.blogspot.kr/2013/01/yesterday-dragon-lady-served-beef-and.html

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 00:27 | 3121124 GoNavy

That is effectively what we are doing with QE and what is happening with the PIGS in Europe.

Face it: the ugly truth is that the only resolution to the world's overarching debt is default by one means or another. Either creditors will get nothing (formal default); they'll get only part of what they expect (partial default); or they'll get devalation of the currency of the principal amount (effective default). That goes not only for bondholder, but for retirees and other recipients of entitlements.

There is not the political will to pay down the debt, reduce the entitlements, or raise the taxes to pay the bills all coming due. That leaves either default or unprecedented levels of growth and productivity to pay the obligations (and we all know the latter ain't happenin').

The only thing keeing the ECB from printing even more of its way to an effective default of the Euro is the German history of hyper-inflation in the Weimar Republic. And as the children of that generation die off (they're in their 70's and 80's now), so too will the fear of hyper-inflation. Germany, too, will concede to the demands of the deadbeat nations.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 04:57 | 3121340 Seer

"Face it: the ugly truth is that the only resolution to the world's overarching debt is default by one means or another."

This is, unfortunately (or, depending on one's views, fortunately), is not the inner-most layer to the onion.

TPTB don't want to peel this debt layer because there's yet one more underneath. And That layer concerns the entire notion of growth, of limited/depleting PHYSICAL resources. TPTB live off of growth, which is why the System is so ingrained with the growth meme. If there was a clearcut means for going forward, such that TPTB would continue to preside, we'd have been there. As it is now, however, they can only keep tossing the balls up in the air while the natural force of gravity continues to pick them off one at a time until it is clear that the entire gig is up. Another ball is dropping:

Germany’s Downward Trend

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/opinion/global/germanys-downward-trend...

[excerpt:]

Germany in 2013 is also a country whose banks are in notoriously risky condition; whose population is expected to lose 17 million inhabitants by 2060; and whose domestic automobile industry is reported to have produced 500,000 fewer cars in 2012 than the previous year.

In the short term, the Bundesbank asserts real G.D.P. growth will top out at 0.7 percent in 2012 and 0.4 percent in 2013. Not good. After a return to levels of around 1.5 percent, the O.E.C.D. said in another assessment that, without significant reform programs, Germany’s rate of expansion would dip under 1 percent from 2020.

Doubting voices are becoming louder. Alain Minc, a former economic adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, now describes Deutsche Bank as a “world problem” and said, “I’m convinced Germany will be worse off in five years. Its demography is bad. It has no significant gains in competitiveness. It’s at its apogee and will start to decline.”

Minc misses the all-to-critical point that Germany is a heavy importer of natural resources (energy being key). I also don't believe that any of these folks are understanding how severe "economies of scale in reverse" will/can be. BUT... the BIG POINT here is that the grow-or-die meme is starting to tear apart.

[Now] Where are the ZH folks who were stating that Germany's economy was strong and that it would be fine if it dumped the Euro and or left the EU?

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 05:16 | 3121351 GoNavy

Actually, Germany's growth would probably be even less if it were to leave the Euro and return to the GDM. It wouldn't be catastrophic (look at the GBP), but it would hurt the German export market.

Hiding inside the rubric of the Euro is the German economy's version of currency manipulation to the downside and Germany is probably second behind China (or maybe third behind Japan, these days). That's why its always funny to hear their finance minister, Schauble, bemoan currency manipulation by other economies. (Pot, meet kettle; Kettle, meet pot.)

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 09:14 | 3121538 trav777

Germany's demography is horrible (and iceland and several others) only IF growth is the future.

Under a state of contraction, they are in great shape. But, the end trend goes toward Children of Men, where you have to lock out refugees/immigrants who come to siphon off a share of the pie.

A resurgence of nationalism should be expected going forward.

Fri, 01/04/2013 - 01:18 | 3121177 yogibear