Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
Posts tagged deficit
Ron Paul on “The Libertarian Future” – Mises Institute
03 months ago
Published on Jan 26, 2013 by Eduardo89rp
Ron Paul giving the Carl Davis Distinguished Lecture on “The Libertarian Future”
Senior Obama Official: “We Are Going To Kill The Dollar”
33 months ago
in Finance
Source: http://www.alt-market.com
Credit: http://www.alt-market.com
This article was originally published at The Daily Sheeple
Kyle Bass, who knows a thing or two about economics and finance, recently spoke to a senior member of the Obama administration about their planned solutions for fixing the U.S. economy and trade deficit.
The answer shouldn’t surprise you.
When I asked a senior member of the Obama administration last week, ‘How are we going to grow exports if we won’t allow nominal wage deflation?’
He says, ‘we’re just going to kill the dollar.’
That worried me.
So, that the only answer.
It’s a dead answer.
But, that’s where we’re headed.
Video via Before It’s News:
U.S. poised to go over ‘fiscal cliff,’ Harry Reid says
0Source: http://www.cbc.ca
By CBC News
‘It looks like that’s where we’re headed,’ the Senate majority leader says
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says lawmakers are running out of time to reach a deal. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
U.S. President Barack Obama cut short his holiday and returned to Washington to try to hammer out a deal with congressional legislators to avoid a series of higher taxes and deep spending cuts that could spin the still-fragile economy back into a recession.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid said the government appears headed over the so-called fiscal cliff because of a lack of bipartisan co-operation.
“It looks like that’s where we’re headed,” the Nevada Democrat said.
Time is running out for legislators to come together on a comprehensive plan to address tax hikes and spending cuts slated to go into effect within a matter of days.
A series of tax cuts that have been extended several times are about to expire, resulting in an extra $536 billion for American taxpayers. At the same time, military and other spending budgets are slated to be cut by $110 billion.
The combination of those two moves, it’s feared, will send the American economy tumbling back into recession. But the two sides can’t agree on concessions to avoid that prospect.
Congress is not expected to return to sitting until Friday, and the Senate is supposed to meet Thursday evening. But some legislators are already back in Washington beseeching each other to strike a balance.
In recent days, Obama’s aides have been consulting with Reid’s office, but Republicans have not been part of the discussions, suggesting that much still needs to be done to strike and pass a deal, even a small one, by Monday.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent a letter to congressional leaders warning that the government was on track to hit its borrowing limit on Monday, Dec. 31., unless a law is passed to extend the ceiling by another $200 billion or so to get through the next few months.
Geithner has said he would take “extraordinary measures as authorized by law” to postpone a government default, but he said uncertainty over the outcome of the fiscal cliff negotiations made it difficult to determine how much time those measures would buy.
Major challenge
Jan. 1 is not a hard and fast deadline. Congress could still act in January in time to retroactively counter the effects on most taxpayers and government agencies, but chances for a large deficit reduction package would likely be put off.
Taxes are a major stumbling block. Obama says he wants to come up with a way of extending some of the tax cuts to most Americans while letting taxes go higher for the wealthiest ones.
House Republican leaders on Wednesday urged the Democratic-controlled Senate to consider or amend a House-passed bill that extends all existing tax rates. “The Senate first must act,” they said.
But Reid’s office insisted that the Republican-controlled House act on Senate legislation passed in July that would raise tax rates only on incomes above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Meanwhile, Obama has been pushing for a variant of that Senate bill that would include an extension of jobless aid and some spending reductions to prevent the steeper, broader spending cuts from kicking in.
Even if the Senate acts, House Speaker Boehner would have to let the bill get to the House floor for a vote. The chances of accomplishing that by Dec. 31 seem slim.
Whenever the debt ceiling hits, however, it is likely to set up yet another deadline for one more budget fight between the White House and congressional Republicans.
With files from The Associated Press
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[CIM]
Republished with permission.
Related Post:
I’m Just So Scared of the Fiscal Cliff
I’m Just So Scared of the Fiscal Cliff
0Source: http://www.tomwoods.com
Thomas E. Woods, Jr., is the New York Times bestselling author of 11 books. A senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Woods holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and his master’s, M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
By Tom Woods
I hope you’re sitting down for this: coverage of the “fiscal cliff” is a lot of hype.
Bob Murphy looks at the numbers and concludes that if the government goes over the “cliff,” then some $9 billion in cuts will take place. That’s three-tenths of one percent of government spending. By 2014 U.S. government spending will be above where it was this year.
The deficit will go down by $487 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, if nothing is done to avert the cliff. Of that $487 billion, the aforementioned $9 billion will be due to spending cuts. The other $478 billion will occur thanks to increased tax revenues.
So 1.8 percent of the deficit cuts will come from spending reductions, while the other 98.2 percent will come from increased tax revenues. When the economy fails to revive, this will be blamed on the alleged “austerity” program of the federal government, without noting that the laughable “spending cuts” were vastly exceeded by the tax increases.
Daniel Kuehn, Bob’s nemesis, crunches the numbers a bit differently, but still finds a vast imbalance between spending cuts and tax increases, and agrees with Bob that the panicked talk is overblown.
TN Comptroller: County debt increasing, revenue decreasing
0Source: http://tennessee.watchdog.org
By CHRISTOPHER BUTLER
County and local officials throughout Tennessee will have to find a way to fund more government services with less taxpayer money in the near future, according to a new report from the state Comptroller’s Office.
In many instances, these county officials do not have the option of making budget cuts in services such as education, health, and public safety — that is because state and federal officials mandate that they provide such services. This happens at the same time demand for these services are on the rise, according to State Comptroller Justin Wilson.
In a new report that focuses on the current financial condition of county governments, Wilson said county officials throughout Tennessee ran up a combined deficit of approximately $490 million during the most recent fiscal year.
Justin Wilson
Meanwhile, total county-related debt in Tennessee increased $1.4 billion between 2007 and 2011 — even as county officials continue to put off their responsibilities toward paying their debts.
“This debt indicates that many county governments are deferring debt principal payments and other obligations to future years,” Wilson wrote.
Many of these counties received federal stimulus money in 2009.
Making matters worse, health insurance premiums and other liabilities are growing for employees who have already left public service.
“In addition, new accounting standards will require the recognition of significant long-term pension costs. These costs, which previously have not been recorded on the financial statements when they were incurred, will dramatically impact large and small governments alike.”
Furthermore, many county governments do not have staff members who know how to properly handle such complicated financial issues, Wilson wrote.
Christopher Butler is the editor of Tennessee Watchdog and the Director of Government Accountability for the Beacon Center of Tennessee. Contact him at chris@beacontn.org
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Actual U.S. debt lies hidden, exceeds $86.8 trillion
0Source: http://times247.com
by: Chris Cox and Bill Archer
Actual U.S. debt lies hidden, exceeds $86.8 trillion
The U.S. Treasury “balance sheet” does list liabilities such as Treasury debt issued to the public, federal employee pensions, and post-retirement health benefits. But it does not include the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Social Security and other outsized and very real obligations. Photo Credit:AP
The full extent of the [debt] problem has remained hidden from policy makers and the public because of less than transparent government financial statements. How else could responsible officials claim that Medicare and Social Security have the resources they need to fulfill their commitments for years to come? …
The U.S. Treasury “balance sheet” does list liabilities such as Treasury debt issued to the public, federal employee pensions, and post-retirement health benefits. But it does not include the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Social Security and other outsized and very real obligations. …
The actual liabilities of the federal government — including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits — already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure. Read the original article at The Wall Street Journal
55 Reasons Why You Should Buy Products That Are Made In America This Holiday Season
16 months ago
Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
By Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse Blog
Credit: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
This is the time of the year when Americans run out to their favorite retail stores and fill up their shopping carts with lots of cheap plastic crap made by workers in foreign countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. By doing this, the American people are actively participating in the destruction of the U.S. economy. You see, buying products that are made in America is not just a matter of national pride. It is a matter of national survival. If we do not support American workers, they are going to continue to see their jobs shipped out of the country.
If we do not support American businesses, they are going to continue to die off at a staggering rate. Last year, the United States had a trade deficit with the rest of the world of 558 billion dollars. More than half a trillion dollars that could have gone into the pockets of U.S. workers and U.S. businesses went overseas instead. If that money had stayed in the country, taxes would have been paid on that mountain of cash and our local, state and federal government debt problems would not be as severe.
As a result of our massive trade imbalance, we have lost tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of national wealth. Both major political parties have sold us out on these issues, and we are getting poorer as a nation with each passing day. We desperately need a resurgence of economic patriotism in the United States before it is too late.
Yes, I know that it is very tempting to buy foreign-made products. After all, they are almost always cheaper.
But most people don’t often think about why they are cheaper.
Unfortunately, in the name of “free trade” American workers have been merged into a global labor pool where they have to compete directly for jobs with workers on the other side of the globe that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. This makes employing American workers a tremendous liability.
If a company hires you and pays you 10 to 15 dollars an hour with benefits, how is it going to compete with another company that pays workers a dollar an hour with no benefits on the other side of the planet?
Both major political parties are pushing this emerging “one world economic system“, but it is absolutely killing American jobs. We have already seen a mass exodus of jobs and businesses out of this country, and wages for the jobs that remain in the United States are being forced down because there are hordes of unemployed workers that are willing to take just about any decent job they can find.
It has become painfully obvious that our politicians are not going to do anything to help us on these issues, so what we need is a mass awakening among the American people.
We need to educate people that buying things that are made in America is good for the economy and that buying things that are made elsewhere is bad for the economy.
But for now, most Americans are clueless. They will line up on Black Friday morning and trample one another in a desperate attempt to save a few bucks on cheap plastic devices that were made on the other side of the planet.
And they will pay for much of this “shopping” with credit cards.
Credit card debt is on the rise once again. In fact, average credit card debt per borrower was 4.9 percent higher in the third quarter of 2012 than it was in the third quarter of 2011. It looks like most of us didn’t learn our lessons from the last financial crisis.
But not all Americans enjoy the shopping that is typically involved with this time of the year. One recent survey found that approximately 45 percent of all Americans think that there is so much financial pressure associated with the holidays that they wouldn’t mind skipping them completely.
Ron Paul: US Is Collapsing
1
Ron Paul explains why he does not have anything positive to say about the US economy and future for Americans.
Montana State Rep. Asks to Be Paid in Gold, Cites Threat of Dollar Collapse By Federal Reserve
16 months ago
Source: http://libertycrier.com
Ron Paul’s stance on sound money and the gold standard is resonating more and more among Americans. In a recent interview with Fox Business, State Rep. Jerry O’Neil, (R-Mont.), explains why he wants the state legislature to pay him in gold coins.
Looking Back – Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson On the Issues
17 months ago
Following the Free and Equal 3rd Party Debate held on October 24th I was asked about my thoughts on the candidates outside of the scope of topics covered. As all my support and efforts in these last two presidential election cycles have been devoted to promoting Dr. Ron Paul my history on these third party candidates is limited. For a bit of historical perspective I did remember an excellent Gary Franchi interview with former NM Gov. Gary Johnson that I had watched early on in March 2011.
Below is the Gary Franchi interview mentioned above to offer a deeper look into Gary Johnson for those that inquired. I am sure with simple efforts interviews with the other 3rd party candidates is available.
A reminder for those interested, the second Presidential Debate of 3rd Party Candidates by Free and Equal will be held on October 30th from Washington D.C.
Remember, NO vote is a wasted vote when cast for who you truly believe in!
Uploaded by lonelantern on Mar 24, 2011
If you want to know where Gary Johnson stands on the issues, this is the interview to watch. Gary Franchi sits down with the former New Mexico Governor to discuss Libya, Obama, 2012, Abortion, the United Nations, Small Government, the Federal Reserve, the deficit, Militias, the Second Amendment, Immigration, the Border, Drugs, Civil Liberties and the Constitution. Join the discussion at RTR.org.
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
