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"The US Is Bankrupt," Blasts Biderman, "We Now Await The Cramdown"
Submitted by Chris Hamilton via Charles Biderman TrimTabs' blog,
US is Bankrupt: $89.5 Trillion in US Liabilities vs. $82 Trillion in Household Net Worth & The Gap is Growing. We Now Await the Nature of the Cramdown.
There are many ways to look at the United States government debt, obligations, and assets. Liabilities include Treasury debt held by the public or more broadly total Treasury debt outstanding. There’s unfunded liabilities like Medicare and Social Security. And then the assets of all the real estate, all the equities, all the bonds, all the deposits…all at today’s valuations. But let’s cut straight to the bottom line and add it all up…$89.5 trillion in liabilities and $82 trillion in assets. There. It’s not a secret anymore…and although these are all government numbers, for some strange reason the government never adds them all together or explains them…but we will.
The $89.5 trillion in liabilities include:
- $20.69 trillion
- $12.65 trillion public Treasury debt (interest rate sensitive bonds sold to finance government spending)
- Fyi – $5.35 trillion of “intra-governmental” Treasury debt are not included as they are considered an asset of the particular programs (SS, etc.) and simultaneously a liability of the Treasury
- $12.65 trillion public Treasury debt (interest rate sensitive bonds sold to finance government spending)
- $6.54 trillion civilian and Military Pensions and Benefits payable
- $1.5 trillion in “other” liabilities http://www.fms.treas.gov/finrep13/note_finstmts/fr_notes_fin_stmts_note13.html.
- $69 trillion (present value terms what should be saved now to make up the present and future anticipated tax shortfalls vs. present and future payouts).
- $3.7 trillion SMI (Supplemental Medical Insurance)
- $39.5 trillion Medicare or HI (Hospital Insurance) Part B / D
- $25.8 trillion Social Security or OASDI (Old Age Survivors Disability Insurance)
- Fyi – $5+ trillion of additional unfunded state liabilities not included.
Source: 2013 OASDI and Medicare Trustees’ Reports. (pg. 183), http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/661234.p
These needs can be satisfied only through increased borrowing, higher taxes, reduced program spending, or some combination. But since 1969 Treasury debt has been sold with the intention of paying only the interest (but never repaying the principal) and also in ’69 LBJ instituted the “Unified Budget” putting all social spending into the general budget reaping the gains in the present year absent calculating for the future liabilities. If you don’t know the story of how unfunded liabilities came to be and want to understand how this took place, please stop and read as USA Ponzi explains nicely… http://usaponzi.com/cooking-the-books.html
$81.8 trillion in US Household “net worth”
According to the Federal’s Z.1 balance sheet http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/z1r-5.pdf, the US has a net worth of $81.8 trillion – significantly up from the ’09 low of $55.5 trillion…a $23 trillion increase in five years. Fascinatingly, “household” liabilities are still $500 billion lower now than the peak in ’08 but asset “valuations” are up $22.5 trillion. All while wages have been declining. A cursory glance at the Federal Reserve’s $4 trillion in balance sheet growth in the same time period shows how the lack of growth in “household” liabilities (currently @ $13.7 trillion) has been co-opted by the Fed.
I believe it’s clear when incomes no longer supported credit and debt growth in ’08, consumers tapped out and in stepped the Federal Reserve to bridge the slowdown. But what the Fed may or may not have realized is once they stepped in, there was no stepping out.
(Charles, would be great if you could export this chart from FRED to be included…or if you have a better idea to show this relationship, would be great???)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=GVF
How We Got Here – Growth of Debt vs. GDP
45 years of ever increasing debt loads, social safety net growth, corporate welfare. 45 years of Rep’s and Dem’s in the White House and Congress bought by special interests and politicians buying citizens votes with laws enacted absent the revenue to pay for them. We have a Treasury and Federal Reserve willing to “innovate” and wordsmith to avoid the national recognition of the true difficulties and implications of our present situation. 45 years of intentionally avoiding an honest accounting of our national obligations, mislabeling, and misdirecting to pretend these obligations can and will be honored. 45 years of cornice like debt and promise accumulation simply awaiting the avalanche of claimant redemptions and debt repayments.
First, an historical snapshot for perspective of the last time US Treasury debt was larger than our economy (debt/GDP in excess of 100% in 1946) and subsequent progress of debt vs. GDP…and why anyone suggesting there is a parallel from post WWII to now is simply ill informed.
Post-WWII:
- ’46-’59 (13yrs)
- Debt grew 1.06x’s ($269 B to $285 B)
- GDP grew 2.2x’s ($228 B to $525 B)
- ’60-’75 (15yrs)
- Debt grew 2x’s ($285 B to $533 B)
- GDP grew 3.3x’s ($525 to $1.7 T) Income grew 3.3x’s ($403 B to $1.37 T)
- ’65 Great Society initiated, ’69 unfunded liabilities begin under a “Unified Budget”
Post-Vietnam War:
- ’76 -’04 (28yrs)
- Debt grew 15x’s ($533 B à $7.4 T) Unfunded liability 15x’s ($3 T to $45 T)
- GDP grew 7.3x’s ($1.7 T à $12.4 T) Income grew 7.4x’s ($1.37 T to $10.1 T)
- ’05 -’14 (9yrs)
- Debt grew 2.4x’s or 240% ($7.4 T à $17.5 T) Unfunded liability 1.5x’s ($45 T to $69 T)
- GDP grew 1.4x’s or 140% ($12.4 T à $17 T) Income grew 1.4x’s ($10.1 T to $14.2 T)
- Z1 Household net worth grew 1.25x’s from $65 T to $82 T…
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/2014/pdf/pi0614_hist.pdf
If the trends continue as they have since ’75, Treasury debt will grow 2x’s to 3x’s faster than GDP and income to service it…and the results would look as follows in 10 years:
- ’15 – ‘24
- Treasury debt will grow est. ($17.5 T à $34 T to $44 T)
- GDP* will grow est. ($17 T à $22 T to $24 T)…income growth likely similar to GDP.
* = I won’t even get into the overstatement of economic activity within the GDP #’s…just noting there is an overstatement of activity.
So, while the Treasury debt growth rate skyrocketed from ’05 onward and the GDP growth slumped to its lowest since WWII, the unfunded liabilities grew even faster.
Drumroll Please – Total Debt/Obligation growth vs. Debt
Let’s go back to our ’75-’14 numbers and recalculate based on total Federal Government debt and liabilities:
- ’75-’14
- debt (total government obligations) grew 33x’s 168x’s ($533 B à $17.5 T $89.5 T*)
- GDP grew 10x’s ($1.7 T to 17 T)
- Household net worth grew 15x’s ($5.4 to $82 T) while median household income grew 3x’s (est. $17k to $51k) while Real median household income grew 1.13x’s ($45k to $51k)
*$89.5 T is the 2012 fiscal year end budget number, the 2013 fiscal year end # is likely to be approx. $5+ T higher, or debt grew 180x’s in 40 years vs. 10x’s for GDP / income….but seriously, does it really matter if debt grew at 10x’s, 16x’s, or 18x’s the pace of the underlying economy…all are uncollectable in taxes and unpayable except for QE or like programs.
Why Can’t We Pay Off the Debt or Even Pay it Down?
Take 2013 Federal Government tax revenue and spending as an illustration:
- $16.8 Trillion US economy (gross domestic product)
- $2.8 Trillion Federal tax revenue (taxes in)
- $3.5 Trillion Federal budget (spending out)
- -$680 Billion budget deficit (bridged by sale of Treasury debt spent now and counted as a portion of GDP)
- = $550 Billion economic growth?!?
- PLEASE NOTE – The ’13 GDP “growth” is less than the new debt (although the new debt spent is counted as new GDP) and the interest on the debt will need be serviced indefinitely.
Why Cutting Benefits or Raising Taxes Lead to the Same Outcome
While many try to dismiss these liabilities assuming we will continue to only service the debt rather than repay principal and interest; assuming we turn down the SS benefits via means testing, delaying benefits, reducing benefits; assuming we will bend the curve regarding Medicaid, Medicare, and Welfare benefits; assuming we will avoid further far flung wars and military obligations and stop feeding the military industrial complex; assuming no future economic slowdowns or recessions or worse; assuming a cheap and plentiful energy source is found to transition away from oil. But all these debts and liabilities are someone else’s future income they are now reliant upon; someone’s future addition to GDP. If these debts or obligations are curtailed or cancelled to reduce the debt or future liability, the future GDP slows in kind and tax revenues lag and budget deficits grow. Of course I do advocate these debts and liabilities cannot be maintained, but austerity (real austerity) is painful and would set the stage for a likely depression where the nation (world) proceeds with a bankruptcy determining what and how much of the promises made can be honored until wants, needs, and means are all brought back in alignment.
So What’s it All Mean?
Let’s get real, austerity is not going to happen and we aren’t going to balance the budget. We’re never going to pay off our debt or even pay it down. We’re rapidly moving from 4 taxpayers for every social program recipient to 2 per recipient. And ultimately, now we aren’t even really paying the interest on the debt…the Federal Reserve is just printing money (QE1, 2, 3) to buy the bonds and push the interest payments ever lower masking the true cost of these programs. Of course, interest rates (Federal Funds Rates) have edged lower since 1980’s 20% to todays 0% to make the massive increases in debt serviceable.
Politicians and central bankers have shown they are going to print money to fulfill the obligations despite the declining purchasing power of the money. It’s not so much science as religion. A belief that infinite growth will be reality through unknown technologies, innovations, and solutions that in four decades have gone unsolved but somehow in the next decade will not only be solved but implemented. Because it is credit that is undertaken with a belief that the obligation will ultimately allow for future repayment of principal, interest, and a profit. But without the growth, the debt cannot be repaid nor liabilities honored. Without the ability to repay the principal, the debts just grow and must have ever lower rates to avoid interest Armageddon. This knowledge creates moral hazard that ever more debt will be rewarded with ever lower rates and thus ever greater system leverage. The politicians and central bankers will continue stepping in to avoid over indebted individuals, corporations, crony capitalists, cities, states, federal government from failing. It is a fait accompli that a hyper-monetization has/is/will take place…and now it is simply a matter of time until the globe either becomes saturated with dollars and/or reject the currency (so much to discuss here on likely demotion or replacement of the Petro-dollar and more…). Because the earthquake (unpayable debt and obligations) has already taken place, now we are simply waiting for the tsunami. Forget debt repayment or debt reduction…forget means testing or “bending cost curves”…we’re approaching the moment where even at historically low rates we will not be able to pay the interest and maintain government spending…without printing currency as this generation of American’s have never seen. Bad governance and bad policy coupled with disinterested citizens will demand it.
Epilogue – So Where Do you put your Money?
No one can really know what will have value in this politicized crony capitalistic system as the hyper-monetization ramps up…all I can suggest is to hedge your bets with some physical precious metals, some minimal leveraged real estate, but also stocks and bonds and even some cash…because although there are natural forces in favor of the tangible, finite goods…there are also equally determined forces bound to push bond yields down, real estate and particularly stock prices up. Unfortunately, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know…invest and live accordingly.
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I mean it as a general point.
Who did you vote for?
Many voted for Reagan and the Bushes. Same fiscal irresponsiblility. Even go back further.
As a whole, much of the country happily followed the democrats and republicans into the fiscal abyss.
Repubs have a free shit army too.
It appears obvious who you voted for!
Reagan wasn't fiscally irresponsible. He had to turn the economy around from Carter and the DemoRATS..... In doing so, he had to "compromise" with the terrorist Dems to get things accomplished.
What talking points are you spouting from? Sugar Daddy Soros (aka Sorass)
Between the banksters, the CIA, and the imbecilic ebonic plague, we are doomed.
NO.
"We" don't deserve this Collectivist, thieving, racist shit.
Over the decades, I and millions of other Americans, never voted for this crap at the national, state or local levels.
I thought the Chinese already owned the White House. They can paint it red and turn DC into China Town.
We owe it to ourselves - Keynes
Today we owe it to everyone else, not paying is their problem.
Having taken their money and bought military they cant get it back.
We ain't bankrupt. The credit cards still work.
What the Bundy Ranch tyranny and standoff revealed was that the pols and crats are selling off their "portfolio" of lands and other to the highest bidders.
So when the DC US goes poof, the American people will have to deal with the claims of the Rothschild debt holders, the tyranny of the DC US trying to hold on to power at all costs and foreign powers scrambling to snag what they claim is theirs.
"Got guillotines?!"
To All Americans: Do fucking not get lead by your nose down the path of "Social Security and Medicare must be reduced, or means tested, or you will have to fucking wait longer to get your money back."
Your fucking retirement money was fucking stolen by a bunch of mother fucking politicians and their mother fucking cronies. All the shit they bought and all of their real estate and art and fine wine collections and investments must be confiscated just like Bernie Madoff's shit was taken back. It wasn't his in the first place because he fucking stole it.
Fuckin' A...
Not to mention boomers contributed dollars from their income when a dollar was worth quite a bit more than it is now. Saying you "get back more than you paid in" is silly; you damn well should they way they have debased the currency.
What is worse is that the assest are all inflated with mark to magic valuations.
The real fun begins when they try to collect.
Biderman?
What the fuck?
Tell us something WE DON'T KNOW.... most of us HAVE KNOWN THIS SHIT FOR YEARS...
Fuck all these charts and graphs.....it's simple math.
NOTE TO THE TYLERS: Using "click bait" type verbiage "..is kinda....cheesy....
"The US Is Bankrupt," Blasts Biderman, "We Now Await The Cramdown"I mean....knock it off.
How about "BIDERMAN: The US is bankrupt......."
Fuck this blasting shit....sounds and reads...Yahooie....HuffyDouchy....
Tighten up.........
'Chuckles' Biderman is an old beancounter from way back who thinks numbers should mean something. He'll never be comfortable in the house of mirrors, mirth and madness.
If one does not live accordingly then one surely will die deservedly.
What a bunch of bull-shit. Everyone knows that the entire stock market is rigged and a fraud. What makes anyone think that the GNP is not a fraud?
USA Gross Domestic Product is a bankster FRAUD, PONZI (are you surprised). We are not a wealthy nation with grand industry, we have been de-industrialized remember? The GDP graphs do not reflect deindustrization but instead show growth. 50% of our claimed GDP is not in production but in fraudulent debt posing as a product i, e, a fraud.
Oh, and our real debt ratio is now WHAT? To the Moon?
Oh, never mind, focus on the GDP bogus chart and watch for CHANGE. ha. ha.
The 800 trillion (over a gazillion really) in bankster derivatives is not even mentioned. Funny is it not, that there is not 800 trillion in assets on the entire earth. Ha. Ha.
"They" consider these derivatives as "assets", capice ? Without those, the financial world would have already stopped years ago... Thanks to the shadow banking system, they can - thanks printing presses - double down if they'd lose... Folly, it's folly of crazy folks that won't last.
Funny how the BUdget Deficit is around the size of the Defence Budget
OT: But can anyone else tell me how weird they find this....
Googling - Turkey resigns from NATO (In the News Tab)
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=turkey+resigns+from+NATO&oq=turkey+re...
This story comes up
Turkish Leader Hopes Berlin Will Support EU Bid Qantara.de-8 hours ago The arms export ban, which has stopped Berlin supplying its NATO partner Turkey with battle tanks, is believed to refer in particular to a request ...8 hours ago??? Actually - that story is from 2003!!!! Are they updating articles from 2003 now? Why on Earth would a notionally German website be doing that????
Seems very strange. If they are updating and changing one article (Regarding Turkey/ Germany), most likely they are updataing more.
Anyone know who/ what Qantara is does?????
There is a possible out . See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2013/11/creating-and-destroying-money_9208...
we still have the same number of guns and nukes.
OK, so the situation is that expectatins outweight the means and the situation is further complicated by waste, theft and demographics. So in short, each of these five factors need attention:
1) Expectations
2) Means
3) Waste
4) Theft
5) Demographics
I am sure there are others, but in any case it is our responsibility to make our contribution to dealing with each of the above fiive factors rather than waiting for government to come up with the handouts.
Yeah, but will any of this play out within our lifetimes...? What's the point of preparing for a financial armageddon which will either take place at glacial speed or will collapse after we are safely dead and gone...?
Timing is, unfortunately, everything.
I forgot, nobody at Kreditanstalt has kids (that they can remember anyway).
Yeah I'm a little tired of hearing how gen xyz are a bunch of losers because they can't get jobs and live in their parents basement. Their parents generations fucked this country up literally beyond recognition but its their kids that are paying the price.
Hey, I'm a late Boomer, and I know I won't receive a dime's worth of anything the Gov promised me and raped my paycheck all my life for. Same as Gen X,Y or Z. The only difference I see between our generations is that they have an info weapon that my generation didn't have. It's called the Interenet. My generation created the first tools (PCs) and the communications (primitive internet so the MIC can launch their nukes thru command and control). Then we let the public have it and today it is a powerful weapon in the hands of everyone. If we had this kind of info-power in the 1970's, things wouldn't be as bad today. The MSM would have been put out to pasture 20 years ago and gov would be radically different.
The point being, is that all things are subject to change over time. The quicker that information is disseminated and ingested, the better the chance for true and positive change. People, we are reaching a point of no return. The war of a lifetime is about to come to a head between the Globalists/Crony Capitalists and what's left of the Republic. It can't be stopped, nor should it be stopped. Let those who are blind (85% of this country) to what is going on open their eyes to see and ears to hear, before they are engulfed by the coming flames.
Never before in history has so much information been at the hands of the people. It is a shame that only 15% of the population is educating themselves, but it should be enough. Out of 330 million citizens, about 30 million adults now understand what is going on and probably half that number is armed. Bring on the Globalists. At 0.1%, they are not all that big of a threat. They may be better armed, but the odds are 150:1 against them.
Information is only as good as the source. Remember "Garbage in equals Garbage out"? Well, the MIC / Dot.Gov has highjacked the internet. Their buddies in Silcon valley (Facebook, google, et al) allow them free reign to: manipulate users with fake stories; search through their posts, accounts, emails; and wage cyber warfare.
In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We have an out of control government. And, the people can only vote out 536 of them. There are 100's of thousands of un-elected rulers.
Unless you are like 90 something is gonna happen in your lifetime. Don't forget we already had 2008 when the whole system crashed and every central bank in the world is debasing their currency. I would say the shit has already hit the fan, and there is more coming.
What really matters is the flow of oil guarded by the US military. If that's out of control, the Empire is as dead as lead. Until then, you can safely ignore the warnings.
The GREAT DEFLATION cometh.
& GOD damn is it pissed.
( insert godzilla/asteroid strike pic here )
I think you need to start a new war.. a big messy one to survive
What if the US gov decided to solve all debt problems in 1 time by printing the entire debt overnight and paying everybody off the next day. The Chinese get a trillion, the Japanese another trillion. Everybody gets their promised pension, so everybody can shut and stop complaining about what the US gov owes them.
What would the value of the dollar be then, compared to the current value?
10%, 20, 50?
Why not just do it?
Ebola isn't going to fix this.
Massive tax revolt will easily force a reset.
So simple that eventually an ambitious Millennial politician will figure this out and lead the charge.
How can anyone be bankrupt when they can print unlimited money? /s
What would satoshi do? :)
Since 1969 there has only been wealth decline in the US....
http://www.dirkdijksma.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/USA-wealth2.png
I subscribe to shadow stats and it is a great resource. Fantastic article and very educational. If the authoris reading these comments, however, I would only ask that you start referring to cronyism as crony communism and not crony capitalism. To say we have a form of capitalism is simply not correct. That's like saying Bernie Madoff was a money manager.
Also, the ONLY solution is to claw the stolen money back and place it in investments for the people that have been required to pay in to both SS and Medicare. There is a long line of politicians, government employees and their cronies that were part of the theft so start with them. Next, a wealth and age based tax. Simply convert ownership over to the SS and Medicare trust funds, the investments and property wouldn't even need to be sold until needed. And then convert over to a new system where individuals can contribute to their own private accounts so the money can never be stolen by politicians again.
obituary
bye bye american pie
"We’re never going to pay off our debt or even pay it down."
Correct. The USG will default on its debt just as soon as it can.
It won't be called "default". But it'll be given some other name, "war" is the most likely at this point. But the USD could be replaced by (say) the SDR and the conversion rate will be fixed to essentially write down vast quantities of USD debt. The losers will be holders of USD currency.
austerity is on its way as rates move higher
rates should move up soon as Fed prints less (taper) to buy US gov bonds
bonds will still be issued, but to generate demand, rates likely heading up
which in turn causes equities and lower grade bonds to sell off which causes treasury rates to go lower once more as gubbermint borrowing crowds out speculation. you are assuming the fed will actually allow the market to work (or more importantly, fail) which i highly doubt. it is all a ruse. their mission hasn't changed one bit. everything they are doing is all for show. pump and dump bitchez.
This lie needs to be confronted every time it is mentioned:
NO ONE DOES THIS. NO PERSON, NO COMPANY, NO BUSINESS SAVES 100% OF FUTURE EXPENSES DECADES BEFORE THEY WILL BE NEEDED.
By this logic, you all should have saved everything that you will need to spend during your lifetime, BEFORE you move out.
This notion is, obviously, insane.
You need to read more carefully. He didn't refer to saving all future expenses, he referred to the amount needed to cover all future shortfalls, ie the difference between future expenses and revenues.
You are right no business does it, for the simple reason that any business contemplating a future of perpetual shortfalls between revenue and expenses, as well as current negative net assets, would be out of business immediately.
A once spurned lover of mine, now back to torment me once again, Budgie Twitters, says that she has devised a new pair-o-dime on how to think about the multil quadrillions of debts and assets thrown around like so much spaghettini.
She has taken a play (football season is Budgie's favorite time of year) from the John Madden playbook and extended it as overlay on the macro economy. (for non-economists and affickianandos, this is known in pedestrian terms as the Big Picture).
The play is cryptically known as, T B T F.
Budgie says it is a no-brainer (she talks dirty all the time, part of her magnetism) to understand that if a coupla Jewish Mafia banks in New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Beijing can have bestowed upon them eternal life, then it is axiomatic (told ya she talks dirty) that a country at 1,000,000 times the size of those black-eyed banksters', is really really T B T F.
And there you have it from arguably the most accurate source on the planet.
So stop worrying about deficits (she says that word always makes her think of bowel movements) and be happy.
IF Goldman Sucks and Lord Blankfein, Joe Cassano and Dick Fuld can survive and prosper, anyone can and will.
During ancient times, If a King spends too much on opulence and military, while the people go starving, in a short period of time, there would be riots and dethrone of the king. And a new visionary king would take his place.
During modern times, if a President spends too much on opulence and military, while the people go starving, there still wont be any change for the lobbist are now in charge. Whoever runs the country, and wears the royal crown would listen to the lobbist.
Eliminate everything except what is SPECIFICALLY CALLED FOR IN THE CONSTITUTION.
Yep.
The key concept is "proscibed powers".
The intent of our Founders towards government: If it ain't in there, you can't do it.
"But without the growth, the debt cannot be repaid nor liabilities honored. Without the ability to repay the principal, the debts just grow and must have ever lower rates to avoid interest Armageddon. This knowledge creates moral hazard that ever more debt will be rewarded with ever lower rates and thus ever greater system leverage."
Brialliant. My light just turned on. Thank you.
Plan accordingly.
all debt worries and fake L vs fake R spending, blah blah.. always seem to ignore.. Central Banks are in business to support the generation of debt. the global monetary system is in place specifically to overwhelm everything with debt.
regardless of this policy or that, austerity or spending.. as long as we have a central bank.. we will always increase the debt.
My question: Why do foreigners still buy US Treasuries? Even though the dollar is used to denominate payment terms this does not mean it has to be used to complete the transaction. In otehr words the do-called demand for dollars is misunderstood.
So why do they keep buying this crap?
On the day the shit hits the fan, who will be the poor soul who will have to tell the people of America that money isn't really money anymore. :/
I believe it will be the people who will tell government
Another reason to use bitcoin :)
The simple fact is we have greedy, petulant children with no overriding control and no morals running our government. They will always, always cry 'MOAR'.
the american dream has now passed
though the last forty years were a blast
seems greed has bought the votes
with its freshly printed $100 notes
and wealth based on debt can not possibly last...
The answer is simple: for every 1,000 professional engineer jobs you send overseas you bring in 100,000 illegal aliens who will always be on the dole. Just keep them off of Marthas Vineyard, OK.?
I believe it’s clear when incomes no longer supported credit and debt growth in ’08, consumers tapped out and in stepped the Federal Reserve to bridge the slowdown. But what the Fed may or may not have realized is once they stepped in, there was no stepping out.
BINGO!!! Carol, show the man what's behind the curtain! A shiny +1000
No way out, thanks mr helper!
Let's calm down folks, I'm sure Yellen would tell us if she thought spending was getting out of control.
The US government is morally bankrupt too.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0a1kb5zg61naf7/AADTGmppEAwCIh3wsRF8txVya
I'm not sure where to put this, but it's JFC Fuller's (concise) analysis of the buildup to WW2. It's quite an interesting perspective, especially the points he makes from about p.368.
I can also upload his chapter on WW1, which is equally if not more interesting, and I will do so if this receives some positive feedback.
What's he on about minimal leveraged real estate?
What you want to do is IMMEDIATELY locate a small piece of farm land that has not been farmed using petrochemicals (good luck with that...) and buy it with as much leverage as possible.
Then you will want to max out your credit buying every sort of hand tool in duplicate - wheelbarrows, shovels, etc etc etc... everything you need for running an organic farm. Then install a solar powered bore pump for irrigation (assuming you are not in California - in which case you are fucked because bore water will be gone soon).
Then start making as much compost as possible - getting the ground ready - and storing as much as you can.
Run your bills up and make the smallest payments possible - then wait for the collapse. That's when your bills will disappear and food will be the new gold
Too-BIG-not-to-go-BANKRUPT = Too-BIG-to-fail = Up-SHIT-creek-without-a-paddle = USA
"Too big to fail" is so 2008, now too big to BAIL. That will be interesting.
Instead of blaming social programs, why aren't you going after the big corporations that pay little or no taxes because they've bribed the politicians? A few years ago ExxonMobil earned $5 billion in profit but paid no Federal income tax. This year they made even more money--wanna bet they pay nothing again? Wanna bet that Congress still does nothing about corporations that outsource?
Some rich asshole just announced he was doing his bit to help the economy trickle down by buying a 140-foot yacht. Maybe he means the boat workers, when they go to lunch at the local diner and tip the waitress, might leave enough for her to pay her rent someday or buy her kid food. No wonder most Americans are talking about guillotines.