Comments on: The Dynamics Of US Government Debt (& Bankruptcy)

By: james huggins

james huggins — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:35:07 +0000

Myron Pauli sounds like me only with a better education. Well said Ilana and well said Myron.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:02:29 +0000

Does their comparison of assets and liabilities also include intangible assets? I would imagine sharing a border with Canada would tend to increase the intangible asset ‘Goodwill’ while sharing one with Mexico would tend to decrease it.

By: Roger Chaillet

Roger Chaillet — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:48:43 +0000

It’s the last overdose that kills a drug addict.

And so it will be with this debt binge.

At some point it will be repudiated.

By: Stephen Browne

Stephen Browne — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:47:12 +0000

I don’t have a comment so much as a question for the economists among the readership.

What happens when the bubble bursts?

I mean what happens to the world economy the day the Fed announces a full or partial default, or decides to start paying off the debt with highly inflated currency? (And are there alternatives I’ve missed?)

It seems to me were’re set up for an economic collapse of unprecedented magnitude. The world system just has’t seen anything like this before so we’re kind of whistling in the dark. All we know is, it can’t be good…

By: Michael Scott

Michael Scott — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:30:54 +0000

Although Europe’s economic outlook may be troubling, I admire their sniveling from afar approach to national defense.

The American pathological busy-body approach would indicate that it’s maybe not all bad in Europe.

By: MYRON PAULI

MYRON PAULI — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:07:40 +0000

There is much to be concerned about. This isn’t because our current authoritarian pseudo-fascist statist system deserves to survive intact but because it is likely to be replaced by something even worse. Also, debt and malinvestment is never healthy.

I was talking to some Ph.D. economists about the previous bubbles (dot-coms and housing) and how the government is one big bubble. I mentioned that while I did not see a gold standard as a panacea, it at least has more basis in reality than the present debt-addicted credit/printing-press. When I said that the government and the overall economy were merely floating on a sea of bullsh–t, they essentially agreed but said it has always been this way. That may even be so but the malinvestment is likely to cause us to choke on our own excrement. Examples:

1. Agribusiness / ethanol subsidies

2. Added hyperregulations on small business in the guise of loophole enforcement

3. Wasteful nation building with no return on the money lost

4. Small class sizes in dumbed-down schools for pseudo-illiterates

5. Extra inefficient medication (and paperwork) for terminally ill care recipients

6. A million imprisoned from the War on Drugs