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There Goes The Sequester
Today is the day when, if one listens to Obama whose idea it was in the first place, an unprecedented $85 billion spending cuts will be sequestered, unleashing famine, pestilence, the apocalypse and grizzly bears (as all park rangers will be dead from starvation). Which is why we applaud the administration's desire to preempt this tragic for the nation outcome, by issuing, in one day alone: February 28, $80 billion in Treasurys sending debt to (obviously) what is a new all time high $16,687,289,180,215.37.
In other words, the entire apocalyptic impact of the sequester for 2013 was offset by one day's debt issuance.
Oh, and we didn't label this post Friday humor because it rightfully falls under the Friday grotesque, surreal tragedy category.
From Debt To The Penny:
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She just needed a little recharging...
http://www.mycraby.com/pix/toy20a.jpg
I'm sorry that 170 million Ameikans will be out of work come Monday
A Mathematical impossibilty since we only have 140 Million WORKING now.
Oh, that Maxine, never pass a chance to LIE like the biatch she is.
"I suppose alcoholics must hit rock bottom before they can stand is the moral of this story."
Speaking from a place of just over 21 years of sobriety, experience says the truth is you are exactly right. They have to reach their bottom to realize it is time to change and actually do something about this problem, or perish into an oblivion of darkness that only leads to death. Ignorance is to bliss, like clarity is to golden.
Often this subject of changing and what it takes to happen comes up to the forefront in daily people conversations. The question is often boinkerd out to the convesationee; what does it take to instantly unify, or unite people in a common cause? The answers come in all shapes and sizes, and one answer that is in the higher percentages is Love, but it is not THE answer.
After some time is allowed for the guesses to run out, the answer to the question of, what does it take to instantly unify people around a common cause is sadly, disaster, or an emergency. An example is put forth saying; if your neighbors house is on fire and people are screaming for help, is it not true that no matter how many squabbles have been propagated over time, or how high the self-created fences are between you and your neighbor, aren’t you going to be the first one to rush over there and try to help? A sudden realization comes over the bewildered thinker and they realize right before your eyes, this is true and most times they would admit that yes, it does take an emergency, or a disaster to bring people together. They come to this realization of the Law of Community, then they are told, now try to imagine that on a country/world-wide scale.
The bottom line behooves us to ask, is it going to take an emergency/disaster to bring the world together for a common cause?
usdebtclock.org has the sequester money on there now, how nice.
Only $146,000 of debt per taxpayer. At least there's one buyer dumb enough keep to buying more debt.
OPM jockies. F'n skinless, I tell ya!
Can Cramer help??
He could jump out of a window. That would make my day.
Funny right there.
This is great! Gary Gensler is about to appear on CNBC to complain that enforcement by the CFTC will be negatively impacted by the sequester "cuts". When did CFTC begin enforcing anything? Their job seems to be to burn the trail of incrimination after the crime has been discovered. Case in point: MF Global. What does it take to get Gensler fired anyway?
Its code for "keeping their Honorary Job"
These fux should be looking for public defendents...
I'm willing to fill in as a volunteer, and i think i could find some friends to pitch in.
He would be fired the minute he actually started investigated something. Or maybe suicided. Or both
.
Gensler is worried that a cut in CFTC "enforcement" funding could accidentally lead to prosecution of a guilty party.
i promised my non-sequestered, non-gitmo self not to make any more smart comments - but pasadena phil - you nailed it.
'please brer fox - don't throw me in the briar patch'. mf global? i'm not sure if corzine hired gensler - but do you think they ever had dinner at nobu together?
Fired like Joan of Arc fired, or a different kind of fired?
Please tell me this is a f_king joke!
It's a fucking joke.
on track for 17 Trillion right before 4th of July!!!!
Talking heads really playing down effects of the sequester. Some caution but generally still spewing "buy, buy, buy!"
Right, apparently 'seaqwester' only has negative effect to non-central banksters/Wall St or govt car makers, so stawk/bawnd markets should be okey dokey.
somebody whispered in their ears?
That would be about the only time they've ever disagreed with Bernanke on anything.
The market likes sequester because it knows that this will spike unemployment and keep the Fed even further away from its 6.5 % UE benchmark.
Nothing matters except for QE. Once you look at everything through the lens of QE, everything starts making sense.
Would you like a bag with handy carrying handle?
The one nice thing about the farcical sequester is that it introduces "shared sacrifice" (if only just pinch of it) to the world's biggest cost center
We need more than one sequester per month just to offset the QE
If I follow your logic it seems that they need more than one sequester per WEEK at this rate.
Now all they have to do is this daily and we're all RICH! Or something.
Someone please explain....
Govt needs to borrow about $1.2 trillion each year....so USA inc needs to sell $100 billion of new incremental each month. Some of this will be bought by China/Asia to reinvest their surplus....say roughly the deficit (say $300 billion or $25 billion each month).
So that means the Fed has to buy about $75 billion each month (directly or indirectly)....leaving them with only about $10 billion to buy total shit from primary dealers (which they can use to play the market).
So $10 billion is OK, but how are they keeping this stock market afloat? I am just confused on the math....
what math? we're protecting freedom
Its just people klinging to the guns, bible and..math.
Bitter people, you mean.
What's the leverage on that 10 billion? Probably about 30:1
Conceptual explanation: when the Treasury issues debt and the primary dealers (PDs) buy it, and the Fed buys it back with newly created money, the PDs are back where they started. But the Treasury spends the money they got from the debt sale, and it ends up in the pocket of the recipients of government spending. Then these people deposit their government money into the banks, where the banks use customer deposits to prop the market.
This scheme works because the banks don't need to keep 100% of customer deposits on hand, more like 10%, and even less if you take "sweep accounts" into consideration.
O' wasn't lying.
The four hoursemen of apocalypse have been unleashed but had to come on foot as their horses ended up in a Taco's "Where is the Beef" menu.
We are expecting them any year now.
A little Friday Shaw, No public responsibility
“In your dread of dictators you established a state of society in which every ward boss is a dictator, every financier a dictator, every private employer a dictator, all with the livelihood of the workers at their mercy, and no public responsibility. And to symbolize this state of things, this defeat of all government, you have set up in New York Harbour a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to complete this monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by Dante on the gate of Hell ‘All hope abandon, ye who enter here.’”
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Afterwards we used to see Androclus with the lion attached to a slender leash, making the rounds of the tabernae throughout the city; Androclus was given money, the lion was sprinkled with flowers, and everyone who met them anywhere exclaimed, "This is the lion, a man's friend; this is the man, a lion's doctor"
The Obamalypse just like the Bushalypse, is always exagerated by multiples not even seen by the current inflated market P/Es
FEAR sells...
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
Why stop at just $80bn?
Jesus H. Christ is this nation fucked! Rivers of tears over a reducion of 85 billion in budget increases and it all goes to piss in ONE DAY!
Amazing, isn't it?
The majority of the public is most likely just scratching their ass at all of this. Good spending, bad spending, good spending that goes bad, bad spending that is good, lol. Whose on first?
No way, that'd be too insightful. Instead they're all yelling at each other, "Don't take mine!"
A fucking joke !!
This is the matrix, right? Or toy-story in wonderland? Or the blair-oz project? Wizard of steroids? What? We're all doomed!
it amazes me to see how many of you have to refer to media in order to attempt to explain or qualify something.
which is exactly the problem. this is reality. toy-story was fake. (and hopefully intended for children).
so - haager - they really do have you right where they want you, because you believe t.v. and movies are real,
and in order to survive, you react to the world in the ways that toy-story taught you too.
despite attempts, there is still a world outside of what you can watch on t.v. the sooner more people join it,
the more likely we can all start trying to advance our lives, our familys, our world.
A sequester a day keeps the....
evils of reality away?
Nah, just reality.
...real fiscal problems from actually being resolved in any meaningful way.
Can kickers...
85 Billion? Hmmmmm whered i see that magic number before?
Seems that meme appears quite often...
Werent we told the Iraq Invas.. Uh, War would cost only, maximum, 85 Billion?
And now Mad Uncle Ben, Mad Sam's Bro, is recycling that number EACH month too...
I'm beginning to think this number is important.
Quick, to the numerology guide!
8, 5, & 13 [sum] are fibonacci numbers but I'm thinking something else...
~~~
It was Cuba Gooding's jersey number in Jerry Maguire... which stands for SHOW ME THE MONEY!... I LOVE BLACK PEOPLE!
85 is 5 times 17
Hail Eris, Bitchez!
Stocks say this is bullish.
Fx too, but bonds say it's bearish.
Hey, each and every American man woman and child owes about $52,000. Next month it will be $55,000.
Forward, fellow travelers! Who wants a jet ski?
Fuck it. I'll take 2.
one for each foot
we need to stop borrowering..easy enough, but with $1T deficits, any slowdown in spending kills the economy...any increase in taxes also kills the economy.
I'm reminded of the final scenes from War Games when the computer realizes that only winning move is not to play. i'm not living in a bunker, but the reality is that this was always the end game the minute a government is formed. it was a good run.
"we need to stop borrowering..."
Go ahead and stop anytime you want, I already have. As for the $16T, well... sorry, I don't see my name on any of that paper anywhere, so it's odius, and therefore reputiated, as I approve of NONE of it.
I "support" (read: pay for) it only under duress.
@ wagthetails
"...but the reality is that this was always the end game the minute a government is formed."
..but the reality is that this was always the end game the minute a CORRUPT government is formed. FIXED it for ya!
As a matter of fact, each and every sovereign nation in the world today has its own government, even the tiny theocracy Vatican City has its own government! Yet many other governments are run much better than the 'Democracy and Freedom Champion' the USSA. The world is way much bigger than the USSA alone. Face the reality!
Otherwise, just tell me the whereabout of the utopian society without such govt in this world today...
From: Mayor Bloomberg
“We are spending money we don’t have,” Mr. Bloomberg explained. “It’s not like your household. In your household, people are saying, ‘Oh, you can’t spend money you don’t have.’ That is true for your household because nobody is going to lend you an infinite amount of money. When it comes to the United States federal government, people do seem willing to lend us an infinite amount of money. … Our debt is so big and so many people own it that it’s preposterous to think that they would stop selling us more. It’s the old story: If you owe the bank $50,000, you got a problem. If you owe the bank $50 million, they got a problem. And that’s a problem for the lenders. They can’t stop lending us more money.”
Rest of Report: http://politicker.com/2013/03/mayor-bloomberg-dont-panic-about-the-seque...
What a dope....the Fed is buying all the debt now.
Should save that quote, one day it will make a great framed quote to hang in your office.
Beside the banker.
You don't need to frame the banker before you hang him.
What Bloomers left out:
“We are spending money we don’t have,” Mr. Bloomberg explained. “It’s not like your household. In your household, people are saying, ‘Oh, you can’t spend money you don’t have.’ That is true for your household because nobody is going to lend you an infinite amount of money. When it comes to the United States federal government, people, my joo bankster friends, do seem willing to lend us an infinite amount of money cause they really want to destroy your country. … Our debt is so big and so many people own it that it’s preposterous to think that they would stop selling us more. It’s the old story: If you owe the bank $50,000, you got a problem. If you owe the bank $50 million, they got a problem. And that’s a problem for the lenders. They can’t stop lending us more money.”
"Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves."
— Israeli Prime Minister Menechem Begin
"Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves." — Israeli Prime Minister Menechem Begin
He was outspoken. The others still think the same way but they don't talk.
That guy is stupidly arrogant or a pathetic liar, his preceding lines read:
"Furthermore, while saying the federal deficit does indeed need to be curtailed, Mr. Bloomberg argued the United States could owe “an infinite amount of money” and there is no specific amount that would cause the country to default."
"Mayor Bloomberg, if the government can borrow an infinite amount of money, why are we, the Americans, still paying taxes?"
from Brian Boswell at http://politicker.com/2013/03/mayor-bloomberg-dont-panic-about-the-seque...
The American people are really screw to have CROOKS like them as "leaders" in various positions, and since the USSA is the sole Empire today, such pains are spread over into the entire world, causing great miseries and trouble in many places... :-(
Loved the close today...orders to close green on main indices. "Yes sir - we have the HFT machines locked and loaded!!"
Shouldn't the second column read "Public held by the debt"?
Ooow noo AA! Damn... I thought it was a plane.
Now I missed it.
I wonder what the two parties discussed in the sequester meeting? Probably their weekend plans in the hamptons.
Marlboro reds and bourbon for Boehner, Courvoisier & Coke and Newport Menthol's for Obama.
Low information voter and 99% jokes, some Golfing with Tiger smack, couple dirty jokes about political groupies.
I think you got the Newports right, but I would bet he's still a Mogen David 20/20 palate. Takin a trip down easy street with the ole Mad Dog.
What's the word? THUNDERBIRD!
Gimme a brick of Richard's.
Why do I get the feeling like we will pass 18 trillion by the end of the year?
'cuz you are paying attention.
Debt is not debt. In a system that can only survive by adding new debt, debt has never been debt. It's just a promise that you can have a massage with happy ending on Jupiter in the year 2123. Get used to it.
Making it rain.
Even hyperinflation won't take care of this debt, we've crossed the Rubicon.
Default, martial law, brown shirt army, Civilian Shovel Corps, Misery Gardens, Soylent Green.
Pain, lots of pain.....
I am long idealists with guns, hedge it.
The way to get yourself out of debt is to spend more!
Lest anyone think all this theft, lying and greed is the result of incompetence or stupidity I offer these qoutes:
“There is no other agency of government that can over rule the actions that we take”. Alan Greenspan talking about the Federal Reserve private bank.
“Our leaders are not chosen for their intelligence or achievement but rather because they are able to win the peoples’ trust and are willing to betray it. They are chosen by a small satanic cult – cabalistic bankers and Freemasons – that controls the world’s finances and media. Our ‘leaders’ are junior members of this international cult, called the Order of the Illuminati.” Henry Makow, Ph.D, “Illuminati – The cult That Hijacked the World”
Makow is a fucking idiot. The masons are neither a cult nor have they hijacked the world. You look stupid making such ridiculous statements. You might as well be claiming the Boy Scouts control the Rothschild's.
Rothschilds get a boner everytime they see a Boy Scout... so in a way ~ they are controlled by them... [but I could be wrong ~ maybe they've moved on to Cub Scouts by now]...
Personally I don't think the US debt is very high at all.
It's only 1 X GDP.
In my household my mortgage is 2 X our outstanding domestic produce, and I can comfortably cover it.
Also I am mortal which means my creditors demand I must repay the principle before I die.
Sovereigns are not mortal (theoretically), therefore their creditors do not demand return of the principle on anything like a comparable timeframe.
Japan's debt is running at 2.6 X GDP and they are still running it higher. The US could plausibly continue running an ever higher deficit for another 30-40 years!!
I'm not saying the deficit is a good thing or that a country should even have a deficit. But my point is that taking a contrarian position on the debt market of a country is not really a well suited financial position for a mortal entity.
Because there is every chance you will die before you reap any gains.
The 2008 crisis gave people plenty of time to take protective action as it took almost 18 months for the storm to take hold.
So my strategy is simple; make hay whilst the sun shines, but keep your ear close to the ground. Stay smart and agile and check the risks every day, but don't fight the system, learn to run with the system. If the table is tilted play to the tilt.
And as for everybody else? Fuck them.
I agree, Bernanke push the button and destroy the sovereigns, mostly our enemies, that loaned us the money---pay them immediately. If we did this, we might save Argentina...think about it
Remove 8 zeroes and here it is explained...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li0no7O9zmE
BlackMarkets, if the federal government accounted for its true debt the way we account for our personal debt, it would easily be 10X GDP or higher. Government accounting was designed to hide the truth from the taxpayers.
It's a runaway caboose with the wheels loose....
Thank God, Intragovernmental Holdings increased $5 Billion. I can't wait until we start seeing the erosion due to baby boomer demographics! PLEASE SAVE US ASIA.
Muppets we are now requiring that individual retirement accounts hold nol less than 25% UST debt. This is for our own good bitches - your returns suck, so we are taking over for your own good.
Hey Tylers, what happened to the weekly meet your favorite bankster typer person thingy? That didn't last long.
$80 billion in one day? It's just a promise that someone in the future will make it whole. A promise that we can't keep. Furthermore, it's not like they fed paperstock through a machine to produce the dollars. Someone just pressed a few buttons, and POOF, a server somewhere got a few extra 1's and 0's to store.
This is all so incredibly absurd to me. Members of the Federal government pretend to "work" and solve problems, while we pretend to undertake the liability for their decisions (and future debt).
But it's all just a big lie. The government isn't going to stop growing and grabbing power until they can't. And we citizens are never going to pay back this debt that's being incurred.
It's all a lie. An institutionalized lie that's like a social narcotic perpetuating an illusion.
I don't need what the government wants to sell me, therefore, I'm not playing along. Borrow all you want, guys. I can't help you, and I won't help you.
Love,
economessed
LOL
I am in my early 30's and I remember when a "million" dollars was a shit ton, and Garbage Pale Kids.
When will the military do the right thing and line up these fear mongering executive branch slimeballs for the firing squad?
it better be soon if they r gonna do it, or dept of homo security will have all the bullits.
This "debt" stuff is a load of fiscal and monetary "hooey". Since it's all confetti money anyway, and the "Debt" is actually 'bonds' and T-Bills that some fools bought, what will happen is that these bond-holders (mostly the 0.1%, but advertised as the 99%) will take a 'loss'. A paper loss on paper wealth. Like in a board game. The funny money that 'grew' in their IRA and 401k accounts is all imaginary anyway.
When TSHTF, 'bond holders' will have to survive with their own skills and assets, not other people's. The rest will do OK -- once the city zombies die out.
TPTB are only bitching because in a default or the dollar's loss of its precious GRC status, it's the 1% who take the biggest hit, rather than the 99% taking the hit now, while they plunder with their paper games (convert paper into real assets). So...
Screw the 'Debt'. Pump it UP to $100T. Bring it on!
those bits of paper are meant to be a measurement of work done and a store of value that can be accumulated to pay for pensions and/or to stop working. when you can print them without work..the "system" ceases to represent any work done or value stored as "valuable".
fuck you central banks.
You are correct, sir! The inevitable vaporization of trillions of paper scrip or digital entries will, ironically, completely take down the 1% fraudsters. Only a few will survive the tsunami, and they will not be sipping mai tais on the beach, but rather running for their lives desperately disguised as peasants. Squads of bounty hunters will roam the earth making the Nazi hunters look like children on an easter egg hunt. History is really a mean bitch.
It's sad that our leaders are the biggest addicts of them all. We should lock them all in an "Empty Vault" with each other and pipe the smell of the [U.S. Treasury] on full print into them. May they all Jones to death...
Fuck those parasites!
It's all meaningless. Fraud concealing/spawning more fraud, ever expanding in an never ending spiral. It will consume everything.
+100 Uncle Reggie "gets it". The 'Debt' does not matter now. The ONLY thing that matters and will matter -- when the music stops -- is what REAL assets you hold.
You tell that Bernanke and Obama that they better keep on printing. I have a lot more women at college that I still have to meet. At least 8 more years. Keep it coming.
Hahaha, I just heard NPR refer to "this regime of austerity."
Tell this 'Regime of Austerity' to stop tapping the brakes. It's bad for the brakes and the car. Need to crash and write off the whole car. In a few years.
But, Captain, the brakes are glazed; I canny hold her together much longer!
You can say that again
.
We have arrived....arrived at the gates of Hell
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" (words inscribed over the gates of hell)
" (words inscribed over the gates of hell)"
Thanks, haven't been yet.
The words over the " Gates of Hell" will read... "We only accept GOLD!" Bitchez
we're already there man :)
I am fine. What I am noticing around me is that folks who were poor but dependable are starting to fall apart and need my "help" more. This is indirectly starting to drain me. It's everywhere I turn, I'm not the one with the tragedy, but others tragedies affect me any way.
Another way to say this is while I think this is all theater, there is something very real in the air.
There is a light bulb going on out there.....51% of the sheep are awakening to the fact that a masterful fraudster has somehow conned them into getting re-elected for 4 more years. Reality sucks.
governments, deficits, debt = corruption.. corruption is real..so is the antithesis of corruption..do the right thing..do what you can..being right is not a crime...be a rock..things can change for the better..
it may not work for you..but i use the emotions contained within passages such as the below when the weight increases (the english struggle just as much):
KING HENRY V
"i am spartacus"
National Debt: $16,687,289,180,215.37
That's only 10,588,381,459 Gold Eagles at today's prices. I'm sure they have twice that many sitting in Fort Knox.
We ain't seen nothing yet.
Can anyone imagine the US paying off this debt and the unfunded debt?
Think about it, the US has no intention on paying off the debt. Before long it will double. There is no sincerity in Washington DC to cut the deficit.
It's "CHARGE" until a currency crisis.
Bernanke and the fed are just enabling it.
I don't get why Bernanke always excludes the intergovernmental debt when discussing the national debt. Almost all of that money is owed to Social Security, Medicare and various retirement funds, which are supposedly loaning their "surpluses" to the Treasury. First of all, the funds are not "surplus" because each of these funds is underfunded. That money does not belong to the government. It belongs to the beneficiaries of those funds (mostly us taxpayers). Secondly, that money should be sitting in those fund earning interest and other investment income. Does anyone know if the general fund accrues interest payable on these "intergovernmental borrowings"? And if so, is the interest accrued at a rate to make up for lost investment income?
And if the stupid MSM would get over the political sequester BS and exercise their brains (unfortunately they appear to be mostly brain doners), then the sheeple might realize that, even with the sequester, the government is still spending more money than last year. And this is called a "budget cut"?!
" Secondly, that money should be sitting in those fund earning interest and other investment income. Does anyone know if the general fund accrues interest payable on these "intergovernmental borrowings"? And if so, is the interest accrued at a rate to make up for lost investment income?"
Dear Heart, there is no money in those funds. It was spent as it was collected, as part of the general revenues. The money was sent to the Treasury (to fund every government program that exists, and then some) and replaced with IOUs. Those IOUs can ONLY be redeemed by the Treasury - out of tax money - and we've been borrowing / printing $1.3 Trillion per year since 2009. This is projected to continue for several more years, as the tax revenue is not enough to pay for what Congress has authorized in spending.
Given that, the answer is YES - the general fund accrues interest payable on these "intergovernmental holdings", at a rate set by the Treasury Secretary in consultation with the Federal Reserve, not to exceed .......
Sorry, I have no idea, I'm lying on that last sentence. It would make NO DIFFERENCE if those "intergovernmental holdings" earned interest at 1%, 5%, 10% or 100,000% APR; that money will never be paid back, because we're not covering our bills with tax revenue NOW, there's no prospect for that happening in the foreseeable future, and by the time "organic growth" ever caught up to the need for tax money, we'd all be 500 years old. Basically, the whole house of LIES will collapse before any of those IOUs is redeemed, so charge any interest rate you want, IMAGINARY INTEREST is never going to be repaid in REAL MONEY.
Of course, it might be repaid in BERNANKE BUCKS, valued at $0.0000000000000001 (1913 dollars), but the recipients of SS won't get much for them......
"And if the stupid MSM would get over the political sequester BS and exercise their brains (unfortunately they appear to be mostly brain doners), then the sheeple might realize that, even with the sequester, the government is still spending more money than last year. And this is called a "budget cut"?!"
And why, exactly, should the media stop lying NOW? And why just about this?
Thanks for playing!
edit: "borrowing" --> "borrowing / printing"
I agree with all your comments except that I see the problem not as lack-of-tax-revenue problem, but a reckless-corrupt-overspending-fiscal-irresponsibility problem. I was venting out of frustration of the corruption of our elected officials and the stupidity of the taxpayers. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that it is not just a problem of ignorance, but mostly downright stupidity. I try to educate as many as I can, though it is like trying to talk to a wall. I find that, not only is "common sense" not common, but analytic and comprehension skills are also severly lacking. I used to audit a large government in California so I understand government corruption and accounting (how deceptive it is) all too well. Not only was the annual CAFR a large book, but so was our internal controls/findings letter. If only I could write a book on what I saw. It made my blood boil on a regular basis, particularly as a taxpayer. Alas, I am beholden to ethics rules.
"lack-of-tax-revenue problem, but a reckless-corrupt-overspending-fiscal-irresponsibility problem. "
I can agree with this; what is the solution?
"If only I could write a book on what I saw. It made my blood boil on a regular basis, particularly as a taxpayer. Alas, I am beholden to ethics rules. "
Huh? You're a financial type, and your ethics rules forbid you from exposing financial fraud? Who exactly is qualified / expected to do so?
Tell you what; I have ethics rules too, as an engineer, but mine don't forbid me from exposing financial fraud. WRITE YOUR BOOK, and send it to ME. I'll scrub your name, any identifying details, and publish it. You violate no ethics rules, the public finds out what is being done behind closed doors / fine print to steal from them, and I'll send you 80% of any royalties earned (keeping 20% as your agent, in this instance). Deal?
You have to pass the CPA ethics rules exams and part of becoming a CPA. Didn't write them but required to follow them. Client confidentiality. Our controls/finding report was issued to and discussed with the Board of Supervisors, not to the news papers and public. Rules were a bit different back then than today.
Maybe someday I'll write a book with anonymous examples. obviously can't use my real name either.
My father and two of my brothers are engineers. They were not required to pass ethics exams and cannot have a license/certification revoked, be sanctioned and/or fined for violating a set of written engineering ethics rules.
Lack of ethics is not exactly one of my shortcomings. Got a partner canned while working as a manager at one of the Big CPA firms and got several to resign from engagements (due to unethical client activities), not an easy to do. Investigate executives during my post-auditing, corporate career and got several fired. Worked with police to successfully prosecute embezzlers, and even had armed guards and blacked out windows at one job for a month (due to threats), among countless other examples. The career of a bean counter is not always as boring and uneventful as most people seem to think, especially when you stand up for laws and ethics..
In response to your question "what is the solution?" The answer is too long to explain in this forum. Nothing any elected government official has attempted as far as I know. If I were elected President (an impossibility because ethical people cannot be elected), TPTB would make sure I was dead within a month. So clearly there is no viable solution if you are not allowed to live long enough to implement it. I thought that is why we all bitch and moan on Zerohedge.
You can lose a P.E. license for acting unethically. It's rare, but it happens.
Write the book anyway, NOW, while it's still on your mind and fresh in memory. Publish it after you retire, if necessary; but get the word out, if for no other reason than for new auditors to see what the tricks are.
We bitch and moan on Zerohedge for lots of reasons; sometimes to find a kindred soul, sometimes to vent, sometimes to look for help, and sometimes to educate the unaware. But if everyone who witnesses fraud is bound by confidentiality, how will fraud ever be discovered and prosecuted? Eric Holder won't be AG forever, and once a more legitimate lawyer gets in there, he'll need help in knowing where to look.
If there still are AGs in a few years....
Good to hear from you, hang around and keep it up!
Cut moar....and moar again...Don't pay ANYTHING to ANYBODY....If I can't afford $12.99 for spaghetti at Olive Garden (when I can make the same at home for 50 cents) then why should all those gubbermint aprasites be able to enjoy fine OG dining.....
I'm a Cheap Bastard.
If gold backed the debt,I'd wager that the price would be very high (understatement of the year).8,800 tons you say?
... just like taking a cash advance on your credit card to pay for ongoing expenses.
actually.. looking on numbers they must have been really tempted to do it by 60.. not 80!
That makes the national debt equal to about 312,000 TONS of gold. For perspective, a Nemitz class aircraft carrier displaces (i.e. weighs) 97,000 tons. Its anchor weighs 30 tons. Fun with math means that we could have 3 solid gold aircraft carriers, and a fully stocked fort Knox with gold left over. Math is so much fun. Unfunded future US obligations and derivatives are each separately over 10 times this.
This message presented by the friends of reality.
I like the way you are thinking Mr Thereyet but, wouldn't it be much easier to go with three of the Trillion Dollar coins? We do need to start cutting back after all.
I'll wrestle those grizzly bears, brotha.
George Bush Hatred Index Discontinued
General George Armstrong Custer Bernanke - CHARGE!!!
Whenever I hear that word, "sequester," I keep thinking its a great name for a race horse.
"There goes Sequester!"
F'em. The idiots have ruined a Republic founded by genius.
Let the two faced lying shilling CONgress meet its maker: the ignoranti of entitlement grabbing voters.
Good.
The USA was founded as a Republic, not a democracy.
When CONgress discovered that it could cheat people with the people's money - the people became slaves, and most people seem to be ok with that. Cowards. Willing slaves...like Obama, paid well and entertaining himself with crumbs from the rich man's table, and betraying the nation. The House slave is no better than the field slave, morally.
But the House slave O'bomba is happy to run off with the cash and kudos, like a Nigerian fraudster. Never thought I would write that, but it is true now. I pray that Michelle and the girls are kept safe.
Let the austerity for no one proceed to commence.
Don't sequester me bro'
U MAD BRO?
Here's the basis for the parody song:
http://vimeo.com/27412827
Crap on crap crime, "Crisis" upon "crisis" will continue until the real crisis is upon us. Why would it stop if every crisis is an opportunity to be taken advantage of.
Folks, we are screwed but , as longs as gold, silver, and oil keep going down in dollar terms the FED can keep on printing to debase our way out of trouble. Debasement will continue to work great as long as all G7/G20 countries all are in the same sinking boat with us. With DX at 82.5, it would appear that this is the currently chosen route to 'solvency'.
Print money ... use some of it to buy Treasury bonds, some of it to short silver, gold, and oil. Use some of it to 'loan' to others (i.e. 238 Billion in 01/2013 to Europe) and buy worthless assets from insolvent banks.
This can go on until the House of Saud falls and the Wasabi's won't sell to us, the Chinese decide to take over the world or French bond rates go to 12%.
The Black Swan is waiting in the wings, as it were.
As if we didn't see this coming. Jeesh.
They have been stealing everything that isn't bolted down and then some, for years.
They are are in on the demise.
And regardless of the politics, this whole thing is planned and as to the PUBLIC debt,
I dont owe you a gadammed dime. You did this to us. You pay for it.
I didn't ask for this so fuck off.
Perpwalk in orange and bracelets. Thats what I want to see.
Obama's strategy starting to backfire?