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$179,000 Each - In Debt
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Debt and deficits don't matter--until they do. That which is unsustainable will go away.
Longtime contributor B.C. recently shared some eye-opening charts of debt in the U.S.The charts are self-explanatory, but I've added a few notes to highlight some of the key points.
Here is a chart of total government debt, local, state and Federal. For decades we've been assured by the delusional alliance of the Keynesian Cargo Cult and self-serving politicos that "deficits don't matter." Is adding debt while gross domestic product (GDP), wages, etc. are basically flatlined sustainable forever? Deficits don't matter until they do, and that will likely be a Supernova Model event of sudden crisis and implosion. When Escape from a Previously Successful Model Is Impossible (November 29, 2012)
Let's add household debt to the total government debt. This doesn't change the trajectory of rising debt much, but it neatly illustrates the era of financialization and "deficits don't matter" which began in the early 1980s of "financial innovations" such as securitizing the bedrock of middle class wealth, the family home.
Now let's look at this total government/household debt as a share of the nation's GDP.This chart shows when the GDP has grown faster than debt, and when debt has grown faster than GDP.
When debt is truly productive, the economy grows faster than the debt. The brief periods when this has been true are marked in green--the late 1960s-early 1970s, and the dot-com era of 1995-2000.
The eras when adding debt does little to boost GDP, i.e. eras of diminishing return on additional debt, are marked in red. This is known as debt saturation: we keep borrowing and squandering the money on malinvestments, but the spending doesn't boost GDP. Meanwhile the debt we're piling up must be serviced, i.e. interest on the fast-rising debt must be paid, essentially forever.
The last chart shows that government and household debt has reached $179,000 per person in the U.S. For the past several years, we've heard pundits blathering on about the "great deleveraging" that's reduced the household debt burden, freeing up American consumers to borrow more, more, more.
The Great Deleveraging is shown here--yes, it's that thin slice of debt writeoffs. Debt has since resumed its inexorable rise.
That which is unsustainable will go away. That includes debt, malinvestments, currencies, deficits and yes, entire empires.
America No Longer Innovative Driven: This is one of the most important video programs I've done with Gordon Long, as we discuss our obsolete education system, the knowledge economy, risk-taking and the bread-and-circuses mindset that dominates our society:
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Do i make that payable to The Bernake?
Do you accept Credit cards?
yeah... and also fill in your bloodtype and this voluntairy organ donation card....
IOU /signed/ Precious
Shall I just bounce a check now, or can I bounce one later?
"Crushing Debt is the New Prosperity"
Bay of Pigs, June 2013
Ann Barnhardt conducts a scary exercise where she converts our total debt into human labor per person.
Short of doing the actual work to repay the debt (which would be physically impossible), Barnhardt maintains the debt will be extracted in blood and pain.
I love Ann’s perspective. Sobering… and clear as crystal!
http://ann.barnhardt.biz/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFVFJ0iRRA
human labor.... how many wellfare chacks are that?
We're gonna need a bigger boat
I'd be down with working off my share
all they have to do is extend my life long enuf that it is possible
Debt = bank slave. A person can't be mad at the banks on the one hand, then on the other hop into your 2013 Escalade while pulling out of your $600K house (85% mortgaged).
This is why there are no civil uprisings in the US to any large extent. EVERYONE bought the notion that credit and debt is normal. So why fight "normal"?
Once it becomes socially unacceptable to acquire debt, the tide will shift. Until that time, debt = way of life. And when you've acquired many of your assets during previous inflationary bubbles, unloading at a loss is the last thing a person wants to do. They want another bubble to unload at equal to or higher than what they paid. We are in the middle of a huge social problem, as well as financial.
BUILD A BIGGER ARMY AND NAVY AMERICA...AND BRING OUT A BIG CAN A WHOOP ASS WITH IT. I mean give me a break you DORKS. NOBODY IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS. now go buy you're gold and get with all the other dip shit nobodies out there about "woe is me" and "all hope is lost" and "just roll over and die"! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRu6YRr1KtM
Lawd, Lawd, I think I got da vapors. I need a bailout. Somebody help me.
Frankly my dear I don't give a damn.
Which bankrupt federal institution should I make the check payable to?
"Microsoft is this new type of <business> model" Youtube link is like listening to my grandparents talking about the job scene circa ten years ago.
"You can't start it in a garage anymore" Gawd these guys are confused…
"Who pays for <university> research - students" Umm.. What research is he referring to here?? I know of no one working on doctoral scientific research that is not funded by corporations, donors or large government grants.
The main point of advanced education has been, and should be, research.
http://facts.stanford.edu/administration/finances
^ Learn something
Those guys should stick to talking about things they actually know about.
We can depend upon our new non-English speaking , muslim, cloistered, naturalized, Somali American, Democrat voting citizens to pick up their fair share of the debt load..
And the rest will be picked up by Dianne Feinstein and her rich husband, {ol’ what’s his name.. Blum?} though taxes on the many millions he will make as the exclusive broker for a bunch of shuttered Post offices.
http://lightfromtheright.com/2013/05/31/snopes-misses-larger-story-on-sales-of-post-offices-by-california-sen-feinsteins-husbands-company/?utm_source=feed&utm_campaign=rss-no-more&utm_medium=rss
And of course, all the savings of lowered health care costs by bringing 30,00,00 new uninsured people into the new national health care scheme will be helpful.
Not to worry.. It’s all good.
Seems a bit like that refreshingly positive attitude shared by Winston's neighbor, "They won't shoot me, will they Smith? I'd be really valuable in a labor camp."
How nice to see that wonderful spirit alive and well...
There is no one in the audience...
(and her breath smells like peanut butter)
don't worry, nobody ever downpays the principal.
they'll just take another loan in your name and you'll be free for another 2 terms.
Exactly. The kleptoparasites have almost everyone convinced that this is the only way for economies to function.
Too bad there isn't a way to induce an immune response to this type of thinking.
"BUT WHERE IS THAT INFLATION I WAS PROMISED????!!!! THE ONE THAT WOULD RUIN AMERICA, EUROPE AND JAPAN FOR GOOD??? THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME WE MADE SURE THEY ALL WOULD LOSE!"
LOOK! ALL CAPPS, MAKES ME LOOK IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mine's worth $179,000, may want to hold onto that one!
you guys arnt watching cnbs......the states have just found trillions in the sofa cushions, ....
klinger didnt have this many excuses....
Sofa cusions from the workday man caves auditors just found at the EPA (see link below) How long are we going to sit here and take it up the wazoo????
http://news.yahoo.com/deplorable-conditions-cited-epa-warehouse-maryland...
and in Europe they found Ceasars goldmines so we're good also...
Well, aside from the US $ 27 trillion in funds deposited with the IMF and to be released to Ambassador Leo Wanta when finally pressured to do so ...
These will pay off everything
Great image of the new US $ 1 trillion note with Bernanke's picture
Worthy of Banzai
http://www.jsmineset.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/clip_image001.gif
Not to worry. Obama/Lew are allowing China to cut in front of other central banks and buy Treasuries DIRECT from ... Treasury. How desperate is Obama?
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/treasury-allows-china-to-cut-in-front-of-line-china-to-purchase-treasuries-direct-from-treasury/
very old news...
Can I pay down my portion in Bitcoins?
YOU OWN ME BITCH!!!....
actually....
I OWN YOU!!!
WHOEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
AND SOON!!!! WE'LL TAKE OVER.... THE WORLD!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9rTkVlbTcQ&sns=em
Escape velocity!
Just another $16 Trillion of debt and we'll stimulate recovery! I can feel it!
p.s. - It is 1:59:30 p.m. Eastern - FED Beige Book notes to be leaked to HFT Algo's any millisecond now!
Beige book sucks- derp- blame sequester- derp.
Yeah! Beige because it came out of Bernanke's ass!!!
indeed, so what do we buy/sell.
China has decided to exchange their US debt holdings for US property, at least in part, which is a hard article to locate. I have only been able to find one story on this.
If that is the cast the answer to: What do we do? would be: Move.
government is a ponzi scam.
"humanity is a ponzi scheme" - fixed. "government" is simply a bad side affect of "advanced civilizations". when fraud becomes the status quo, we all devolve and possession becomes the law.
Government is nothing but THE most organized form of crime, albeit with cheaper suits. Advancing of civilizations has nothing to do with it, as it's the same as it ever was.
"Do as I say and nobody gets hurt!"
Bullshit. Not a lot of "governments" when man was nomadic. Personally, I can respect a bully that tries to steal your shit. You can defend against that. Not so much when it's some fucking paper-pusher hiding behind an army. Keep the list of bilderbergs close at hand when the guillotines role.
Wake the fuck up moron.
One should understamd the root of the word "government." Mente = Mind in latin.
Since our $ is devaluing at an exponential rate, obviously, we need a logarithmic scale. It's sustainable until it's not. The collapse will happen gradually, then all at once.
You know what, if $179K was actually it - if it bought freedom from all the bullshit, from having to sponsor the welfare state, from being an unwilling participant in resource wars, from being under the microscope of the TSA, IRS and every acronym agency - I'd pay it... but then, who am I kidding. The government will collect many times more than that throughout my life. If freedom had a price trag, it would be worth at least 101% lifetime income (individually adjusted, of course).
That's the thing- it's never enough with these cocksucking leeches.
the $179k doesn't even start to talk about your share of the unfunded liabilities...
Okay two things:
1) Can we stop calling it GDP? We don't produce anything except debt and waste, all we do is consume. Therefore we have GDC...Gross domestic consumption.
2) I don't have any debt, I didn't sign up for any debt ,therefore I don't owe any debt. The freeloaders on both ends of the spectrum (corporate welfare and social welfare) owe the freaking debt.
"The freeloaders on both ends of the spectrum (corporate welfare and social welfare) owe the freaking debt."
Likewise Doc, but look around, one will use the other as muscle. Get your tribe in order.
When collapse comes, its going to be Divide and Conquer, same as it is now.
They will pit the middle class against the poor. I wanted to say "against the working class" but middle class and working class are now one and the same. So it will be net tax payers pitted against net tax beneficiaries.
I really hope people don't fall for the trap, of blaming it on Chinese and Mexicans, and the poor, but the propaganda machine is quite effective, and isn't restrained by the necessity to use logical appeals. Appeals to emotion ("they took errrr jobs!"), and appeals to authority will be used ("trust the experts when they say...")
What will all the fat obese worthless AnAmericans do when the EBT cards don't work? It will be funny seeing all these fat fucks starving. Take away their tv, processed food, and their pills and it will strengthen human DNA somewhere between 50%-500% in a very short amount of time. Yes Eugenics is good. If you are a fat, worthless, pill addicted, tv watching, brainwashed, waste of resources and space, humanity and the world would be better off without you. These individuals both white and black consume without regard while degrading and polluting everything in site. There was once a time according to the Old Testament whether one agrees with it or not, where one acted in accordance with decency and respect so as not to disgrace a tribe who carried the stain of ones acts through generations. That time has long since passed. What we have now is fat, slothly, gay-TV watchers that have a voice and a vote in this "democracy." They prefer to be enslaved and ruled by an inbred elite as long as the normal, upright, industrious, and beautiful, are cornored and weighed down so as not to make things logical, lawful, and in accordance with natural rights and laws. I pray a hindu form of karma awaits these AnAmerican fat fucks, inbreds, and blood sucking banker scum upon their meeting with death.
I think I get what you're saying, but I'm not quite sure. Care to elaborate?
What isn't clear Dr. ? The only sarcasm is "AnAmeicans" - per the Maoist Chinese goy that posts from time to time. The rest are statements and observations.
GDP is a perfectly fine descriptor, assuming you realize it stands for Government Destruction of Production.
GDP = C + I + G + (X-M)
...but mostly it's C & G.
"Deficits don't matter" and "a chosen few can NEVER go bankrupt" (even if they make bad choices).
Roll the motherfucking guillotines already.
I remain long black markets and sharecropping.
i'm trying potatos this year. along with all of last year's staples. peas, carrots, squash, spinach, tomatos. FU government.
potatoes are easy.
1) get trash can.
2) put about eight inches of soil in it along with potato.
3) water
4) as potato plant grows add more soil
5) go to #3 and repeat until trash can is full.
you will have a can full of potatos.
Some questions if you don't mind...
1. Does this require sunlight?
2. Do you just drop one potato on top of the 8" of soil or more than one potato?
3. Any particular type of soil better than another?
4. Is there any kind of drainage so excess water can run off?
5. Can one use a metal pail?
6. How long will it take to have a can full of potatoes?
7. How do you add soil when the pail is close to full with potatoes?
8. Is there a particular potato or will any potato do?
Thanks.
To answer your questions;
1) - don't be stupid, they are plants.
2) - the potato should be buried in the 8'' of soil
3) - not really, but adding composte or a generic garden fertilizer is good, something like 12-6-6 (nitrogen-phosphate-magnesium)
4) - drainage is good, but potatoes are pretty resilient, if it rains, tip the can over and drain any standing water off (they thrive in Maine and Canada for christ's sake)
5) - yes.
6) - 2-3 months
7) - you add the soil as the plant grows, duh. As the plant grows, pack more soil around it. The potatoes are under the soil, the plant is above.
8) - just about any potato will work but russets from Maine or Idaho are the best (an old one from your kitchen is best)
Thanks, will give this a try. I have two four foot by six foot raised beds but figured potatoes take too much room. This sounds interesting...
Here is a helpful link;
http://www.almanac.com/video/growing-potatoes-trash-can
Regarding #3 -- +2 for compost and fertilizer. I've had good luck with the original 8" being 1/3 each of peat, vermiculite. and mult-source compost.
Also good for 4x4 boxes, for more info start here:
http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/mels-mix/
The monetary system is based on debt, not assets, so everyone is bankrupt already. Some people are just moar bankrupt.
Just get some 6x3" strips of nice paper, a couple of green crayons, and off you go!
Quick, spend and print more!!
It's been the policy of the government and the Fed for the last several year.
Curly: Just drill more holes in the boat to let the water out.
An interesting thing about that debt/GDP chart. It stopped going up in 2009, after nearly doubling from 2000 to 2009.
That's total debt.... not just government debt. Oh, and it has started to climb again. It only dropped during the recession... er depression.
The point of the post appears to be that it's all effectively private debt. And it is not apparent from the chart that it has started to climb again.
Fuck You Bernanke!
So, something like $180k of 'new' debt per person since I was born. What a minute, where did all that money come from? (That is a rhetorical question.) A few just create it from thin air then charge the rest for it. They even get to call it 'legal tender'. What a scam. What really gets me is that most folks refuse to see this rip off for what it is. (Folks here are not most folks.) I have NPR in my ear while I sit here and work. When Adam Davidson comes on with his meek little stories about the over complex economy, all I see is an evil man the lives in the pocket of bankers...
http://www.google.com/#x&q=total+credit+market+debt
Get the truth at www.truthinaccounting.org
Keynes idea was that Deficts don't matter IN THE SHORT TERM as once a recovery set in the goverment was supposed to taper its spending and begin paying off its debt. The three fatal flaw of this idea is that
A. Once cheap money enters the economy it quickly becomes addicitive making the economy dependent upon it.
B Politicans begin to see spending as a way to keep getting elected.
C. Malinvestments made with goverment money/encouragement lead to larger bubbles than would otherwise be made by the private sector.
When the Bubbles encouraged by Goverment and made Possible by cheap money burst. The outcry is then for even more cheap money and goverment spending to fix the problem. This cycle repeats unitil the structural problems within the economy lead to total debt collapse.
yup. nice name to go with it this time though. Quantitative...is it EASING they call it? Hmmm. Where is all this EASY money? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTyh5ZQAAF0. always loved this girl...she really always had that "thing." here's one of my fav's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JkT3p6H4Ws
Really, $180K isn't so much. You take $18 and multiply it by hundreds% of inflation over a few years and like magic...no more debt.
Time to apply for Bankruptcy BITCHEZZZZ!!!!
I wish I could have spent that on something good..instead of Obamaphones and such...I could have used that money better than the government....
I hope the US credit card at least has a good cashback rewards program.
ZIRP causes large Co. to invest in automation eliminating jobs and creating low paying part time jobs. This creates the super billionaire class and break down in social order as more people are left w/o hope and essentially debt slaves. This is serious and there is no solution.
Instead of "there is no solution" I would say "this is the plan".
Owe $1700 and you have a problem. Owe $170,000 and Bernanke has a problem.
What's it matter? It's all bullshit anyway. The great fear is when everything simply stops trading and it takes not just the bulls or the bears down; it takes EVERYONE in the financial arena down.No markets, no trading, no CNBS, no Kramer, no Buffett. Just silence.
And Gold smiles , just a little.
Obvious you and I need a divorce.
I have no debt, so you have a problem.
try to collect from me, bitches
Bernanke, Evans, Dudley and Yellen continue to insanely print until a currency crisis,
I had to run book to the toilet. It came out runny and beige...I thought it would never end....oh woe is me....
The level of debt is so great that the little people can rest easy in the knowledge that it will never be paid.
At some point the armies of the world will step in and the only question will be, " on whose side?"
If they can still afford weps and juice. I'm hoping for 'no'.
A pity this is where we find ourselves though. Can you imagine life after a great reset and some solid reforms? The human race would advance in leaps and bounds. But there I go, daydreaming again, I know, I know....
It'll be paid off very easily when the Dollar is worth less than a cent.
Another three years of Kenyanomics and we'll have that shit doubled likity split.
Hey Tylers why would you delete the story about IMF? Go cover it, you lazy sons of a gun :p
It's a fucking bombshell, making IMF and EC look like clowns about what they did with Greece.
IMF to Admit Mistakes on Greece Bailouthttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324299104578527202781667088.html
BRUSSELS—The International Monetary Fund is set to admit to major missteps over the past three years in its handling of the bailout of Greece, the first spark in a debt crisis that spread across Europe.
In an internal document marked "strictly confidential," the IMF said it badly underestimated the damage that its prescriptions of austerity would do to Greece's economy, which has been mired in recession for years.
But the fund also stressed that the response to the crisis, coordinated with the European Union, bought time to limit the fallout for the rest of the 17-nation euro area.
The IMF said that it bent its own rules to make Greece's burgeoning debt seem sustainable and that, in retrospect, the country failed on three of the four IMF criteria to qualify for assistance.
A version of the document, prepared by IMF staff and seen by The Wall Street Journal, was expected to be released publicly by the Washington-based fund on Thursday.
Over the last three years, a number of senior IMF figures, including the current managing director Christine Lagarde, have repeatedly said that the country's debt level was "sustainable"—likely to be repaid in full and on time.
But the document described the uncertainties around the Greek rescue as "so significant that staff was unable to vouch that public debt was sustainable with a high probability."
Someone needs to go to jail. How stupid do these people think we are or will this 'mistake' be swept away once again? It's complete bs to think the IMF didn't know. Bring out the guilotines for these liars. This is all about saving German and EU banks and has very little to do with anything else.
Greece it's time to tell the IMF and troika to go to hell and move on like a sovereign should.
Well, in this world, debt is wealth, so I'm flipping rolling in it! Who needs the lottery when they've got the government debt-wealth.
It's worse, really...more like $358k each, since only half of us actually pay taxes and are responsible for the debt.
Unfunded liabilities per taxpayer is $1,082,000
National debt per taxpayer is $148,000
source: usdebtclock.org
The debt represents future labour owed. They don't care how many generations it takes to pay it off.
Meh. If you die in debt you've made a profit.
True. Die penniless so to speak.
"Roger, go at throttle up."
debt is somebodies worth. dont you get it? so if you want to reduce the debt you have to reduce the worth of assets. i dont think you guys like that. so you keep on blablaing about the huge debt problem and about cyprus style on the other hand. because you dont get it. every dollar of debt is the asset of somebody. take that fucking asset away and the debt problem is solved.