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Friday, October 18, 2013

$17 Trillion Debt In the Rear View Mirror

Do you remember the story hanging around from mid-July, just under the surface, about how the Fed.gov never let the official federal debt increase?  No one ever talked about it except a few of us crazy bloggers.
That entire three paragraphs from CNN is a lie.  Utter bull crap.  Because we would have hit the [debt] ceiling in May, the 18th to be precise, if the Department of the Treasury was telling the truth.  You see, they haven't adjusted their "debt clock" since the end of the day on May 16.  The reported debt has remained the same for 75 days so far. 
Anyone except the most devoted Obama groupies knew this was fake; they were moving assets around like a New York thug's shell game.  Today, with new authority to borrow like the spending addicts they are, the Treasury reported the total debt exceeded $17 trillion for the first time in recorded history.   
U.S. debt jumped a record $328 billion on Thursday, the first day the federal government was able to borrow money under the deal President Obama and Congress sealed this week.

The debt now equals $17.075 trillion, according to figures the Treasury Department posted online on Friday.
While I don't particularly trust the new number either, it was pretty plain that the numbers they were handing out since May were bogus.  In fact, they tell us as much:
The giant jump comes because the government was replenishing its stock of “extraordinary measures” — the federal funds it borrowed from over the last five months as it tried to avoid bumping into the debt ceiling.
Wait... they borrowed money to keep from raising the debt?  What?  How can borrowing money not increase debt?  What planet does that work on?  Let's let our friends at Demonocracy.Info show us what the debt ceiling we just crossed looks like, as pallets of $100 bills.
Just remember, the president said (only a few weeks ago) that raising the debt ceiling "does not somehow promote profligacy".  It doesn't increase debt. Then showed up minutes after the debt ceiling was raised with a list of things to spend money on

I'm torn between wanting to retreat into the bunker o' doom and hide until the zombie raids stop and a morbid interest in how long it can keep going before everything collapses into a pile of poop.

6 comments:

  1. If you spent a million dollars each day since the day Jesus was born, you would not have spent ONE trillion dollars yet.

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    1. A trillion seconds ago was 31,688 years, 279 days 6.69 ours ago. Whether you're a "strict evolutionist or strict creationist", modern man didn't exist. Neanderthals roamed what will become Europe.

      More fun facts.

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  2. "I'm torn between wanting to retreat into the bunker o' doom and hide until the zombie raids stop and a morbid interest in how long it can keep going before everything collapses into a pile of poop."

    My sentiments exactly.
    I fear we've already reached the latter - yet still a way to go on the slide to the 9th level.

    Rats in a maze and the flames are beginning to singe our tails - and it may not be that long a slide anymore.

    Once upon a time, America was the place to escape to ...

    Q

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  3. Anyone can do the math it is basically 8th grade level. $17 trillion right now and likely $20-22 trillion by the time Obama leaves office. We cannot pay it off and we don't intend to pay it off. The debt we accumulated will be with us "forever" unless we declare bankruptcy (or the equivalent allowing us to write it off and start over). As bad as that is there are two (maybe three) additional levels of disaster hanging over our heads. The next one is we cannot pay the interest either. Sure we are paying today but that is only because the Fed is keeping interest ratesaround 2%. Not very realistic. A realistic interest rate for the fed in good times is 6% and the times I see ahead of us it will be 12% - 20%. Do the math. Even at 6% the interest alone on $20 trillion is $1.2 trillion. Does anyone believe we can or will pay that? The next big problem hanging over our heads is our spending. We are hooked on borrowing. We cannot even balance the budget with the highest federal revenues in history. We are still borrowing in excess of a trillion a year. To even stop borrowing, never mind pay the interest or begin paying down the debt, we have to cut spending by $1 trillion plus. We aren't going to do it our congress would allow a total collapse before they would cut spending by that much. The last big sword hanging over our necks is that we are printing about a trillion a year. This is kind of like off budget money but it will bite us in the butt. It will cause inflation (as will our other fiscal policies). Inflation will cause the interest rates to soar. Higher interest rates will mean potential/inevitable default. The math is irrefutable, the only unknowns are when does this house of cards collapse and what (exactly) will it look like. Fasten yur seatbelts this is going to be a wild ride.

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    1. Anyone can do the math it is basically 8th grade level I think basically excludes most congress critters, who are lawyers after all - it's about two grades higher math than most seem to do. I'm sure some can, and for those it's criminal fraud.

      In general, interest rates should be equal to the inflation rate. As anyone who shops can tell you, and Shadowstats documents well, the true inflation rate is closer to 10%. Therefore, the interest rates the Fed is charging should be closer to 9 or 10% than 2%. 10% would crash us instantly. The fed is finding that law of diminishing returns is running and they need to do progressively more and more to keep the rates where they want them. That game is going to fail sometime in the near future.

      The intent has always appeared to me to be to inflate our way out of it. Devalue the currency. We're well on the way. If they can just keep the country from collapsing, 10% inflation over a long enough time period would do. It would kill off all savers, and all the retirees, but, eggs and omelets, you know.

      The first sign is likely to be an unexpected "bank holiday". It would be just like having your first sign of heart disease be sudden death.

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  4. Guys this IS NOT A MISTAKE, This is a plan to systematically destroy the United States as a constitutional republic-- FOREVER. The members of the government know this for the most part and are willing and enthusiastic participants. The goal is and allways has been a dynastic "Royal Family" ,complete with hereditary fiefdoms. We are the serf's- at least the ones chosen to survive whatever "reeducation" they have in store for us. "The fall of the republic" will only be the second act of a VERY grim play that has already begun. Too bad that most won't even try to stop it before it is far to late.

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