Latest U.S. Debt Statistics.{Socialists Beware}

[true_notes]

I found some numbers that are interesting. You don't really have to be that smart to realize how much this matters to you...

U.S. Outstanding Public Debt-$8,102,057,683,460.88- In letters that is

Eight Trillion,One Hundred and Two Billion,Fifty-Seven Million, Six Hundred and Eighty-Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixty Dollars and Eighty-Eight Cents.

America has a tremendous debt, and with our great capitalist society the person held responsible is YOU!

Therefore, in order for us to even break even, you must pay the government $27,202.34.

That doesn't sound so bad does it? Well Lets take a look at our current economic situation in the U.S.

The average working man brought home approximately $21,587.00 according to the last census.

The average family of 3 brought home $50,046.00. Dividing the income you will get $16,682.00 per person (taxes not included).

The average cost of gas is approximately $2.50. The average american drives 26 miles to work each day. The average American's car will consume 28 miles to the gallon (interstate) and 34 (city). Therefore, the American public will spend almost $50.00 a week with no relief in sight.

There are 40,000,000 people below poverty level.

There are about 7,500,000 FAMILIES below poverty level.

Socio-Economic Ladder:

1999 was the last Census. Take a look at the numbers.

INCOME IN 1999



Households
105,539,122


Less than $10,000
10,067,027


$10,000 to $14,999
6,657,228


$15,000 to $24,999
13,536,965


$25,000 to $34,999
13,519,242


$35,000 to $49,999
17,446,272


$50,000 to $74,999
20,540,604


$75,000 to $99,999
10,799,245


$100,000 to $149,999
8,147,826


$150,000 to $199,999
2,322,038


$200,000 or more
2,502,675




Tax Cuts to the Rich, Corporations, and Cronies of the government. I FOR ONE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS.

It's clear these days the government relies on YOU the working man of America to haul the burden, while giving the rich the easy road out.

This is why we as a nation should take action. The numbers are all negative and continue to be negative. As we speak the National Public Debt Increases by 2.82 Billion Dollars a DAY!

The only way is to use this government we have (though it cannot be trusted nor held accountable) and contact your Congressman.

It's your future, not theirs. Let them know they are screwing the common man.
-truenotes

[bullimiami]

1. a) get rid of bushco. b) take back the money they plundered.

c) go back to sensible economic policy.

[true_notes]

6. It's more complicated than that

When we loose our jobs to the countless obstacles out there, it would be impossible to work our kinks out. There has to be some kind of accountablity in our government.

[Cleita]

8. Bulls eye!

I don't know how we will get the money back that they have squandered, but we sure can reverse all those tax breaks for the wealthy who don't need them.

I personally hope that it will be possible to indict and convict BushCo, all of them, from the Prez and VP down through the cabinet. Part of the sentencing should be siezure of their estates that are stll in this country (they probably have offshore accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands that are untouchable) to repay the Treasury.

[HughBeaumont]

2. That's almost the same dollar amount as the economy is worth!!

Unfortunately, Republicant's have put us on a train ride to hell sans brakes. It's to the point where the INTEREST is burying us in a mound of shit over the mound of dirt.

[ProfessorGAC]

45. Nope. It's Not Even 70%

And, it's only about 35% of total U.S. capitalization.
The Professor

[leftstreet]

3. Can't we just declare bankruptcy? That's what our Corp Masters do.

}(

[LSK]

27. no, because no other country would do business with us

Nobody would be there to buy our debt because we are no longer trustworthy. If you loaned money to your friend and he never paid you back, would you continue to loan him money?

[EVDebs]

50. Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips

is a must read right about now. Concentration of wealth in the hands of the richest 1 and 1/2 % is similar to the situation other great economic empires had before they collapsed, Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and now US.

BTW, please read the SF Chronicle articles from last Sunday which I posted at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5467014&mesg_id=5468632

DUers will get a kick out of this since they favor Dems in the '06 elections coming up. Republican economic madness is a greater national security threat than Iraq !

[jseankil]

4. "The average american drives 26 miles to work each day" Really?? /nm

/nm

[true_notes]

7. Yes, According to the 1999 Census. n/m

[MountainLaurel]

18. I could believe it

Many cities are now unaffordable for all but the very richest or those willing to live in 600-square-feet for $300K. As a result, people have to move farther and farther away from their jobs. In the DC area, a study last year showed that, except for a few inner-city neighborhoods, the average middle-class worker (e.g., teacher, police officer, or office worker making $35K/year) would have to move out about 45 miles (about two counties away) to find a 1BR rental that would be affordable. By affordable, I think they're using the rule about spending no more than 30 percent of your income on housing.

Meanwhile, in other areas, people have to travel long distances because there are no jobs in their areas, other than perhaps Wal-Mart or the Quik-E convenience store. Right now, my father drives about 100 miles round trip and my mother 50 miles for work, in north central WV. (The communities to the north and south of theirs have prospered compared to their area, where the same people are running things whose parents were running things 50 years ago.)

[AbbyR]

60. I drive 100 miles round trip...

...and it was the only job I could find, including the minimum wage jobs. I enjoy what I do, but if I can ever move closer to work, I'm going to.

[mike_c]

5. kicked and recommended....

eom

[Warpy]

9. Alas, taxes on the poor will remain as high as they are

for the forseeable future. However, the robbers will have to be taxed at a progressive rate, confiscatory at the top levels of CEO embezzlement, to bring this number down at all.

Raising wages at the bottom will also aid, since that also raises the tax revenue collected from them(us). What can't be sustained is the idiotic dogma of free trade that leaves US citizens with no economic protection at all.

You're right, though, getting rid of Bushco is the first priority. Getting all those neoclassical economists pushed off to the lunatic fringe is another priority. Ending the policy of using disadvantaged currencies worldwide to reduce labor costs is a major priority.

Things won't get better for any of us for a very long time, I'm afraid. There's nothing harder to kill than a bad idea, and our country has been based on bad ideas for the last 40 years.

[true_notes]

10. Good Reply

But with the outset of the Bushco Regime will come one of or greater conservatism into office. Therefore, I believe in my heart the conservative agenda must be conquered PERIOD if we intend on having better economics in this country.

[pitohui]

11. i think the timing of this rant is v. interesting

all of sudden the freeps and wingnuts are screaming abt the debt, i'm not saying the OP is a freep, i think he's just sincere but misguided, but what i AM saying is i've heard this screaming and yelling from the rightwing and it is getting louder and uglier the more the months go on

it is not appropriate at this time to be cutting the budget and crying abt the debt, you are cutting the budget on the backs of innocent victims who never did anything wrong, even if you hate the poor and don't mind their food stamps being cut, how can you hate the disaster victims who have lost several houses per extended family and often jobs and businesses as well?

i don't wanna hear any more abt how if we don't cut the debt that in 40, or 60, or 100 years, maybe the usa will declare bankruptcy

i don't care if we print the damn money, you stand by the working people now or don't pretend to be a progressive, not to my face

look, here's the deal abt the debt -- people seem blissfully unaware that the entire world, even china, is invested in us debt, so the whole world has a stake in our success, we are not going to collapse because of the debt because the folks in japan, china, and europe intend to continue enjoying their current prosperity and if their usa investments go belly-up they're screwed

with *co and a gop congress, there is no way the rich are going to pay more in tax, so when you call for a balanced budget, you are talking abt making cuts that will kill a certain number of the most vulnerable people and permanently impoverish more families

so i'm not real interested in hearing abt the public debt at the moment

worrying abt debt is a luxury prob, get the gop squatters out of public office and get back to me

[true_notes]

12. When you are buying a loaf of bread

with your monthly salary, come with that bullshit. This is an important issue this day in age. Look at it with a personal standpoint. If you are 30,000 dollars in the hole, and only making 25,000 a year, your life will be kinda shitty until you get it paid off. BUT if you refuse to pay it and live the high life for a while, you will FUCKING CRASH, and things won't be so great.

Shunting the debt is like shunting any other important issue. One other thing, it's time to wipe the tear from our eye and pick up the work. We can't continue to make all these tragedies a burden on the nation! We can help the people, rebuild, and produce a profit at the same time (refer to the "Great Deal" ). You have to look past the personal standpoint and realize that the national events will inevitably connect to you, either financially or not.

[Cleita]

13. Well, we could turn back the clock to before Bush's taking of

the office when we had a surplus and started paying back the debt. So it seems a little late now to cry over spilled milk. However, thanks for bringing it up. I think our Democratic candidates in the 2006 election should be pounding this point into the concrete as to what the right wing has done to us, and all the lies about tax cuts, which Al Gore said were going to the top 1% of the wealthy.

Unfortunately, Gore's message was drowned out by the "librul" press obsessing on his make-up and anything else they could find to make him look foolish. Oh, I do hope that the freepers enjoyed their $600 tax refund back then, and that they enjoy their increasingly low paying jobs, or no jobs since then.

[true_notes]

14. Yeah

The point is there has to be a threshold. Are we so far in the red bucket that we'll never see black again?

I'm only 21, but shit I know a bad situation when I see one.

[pitohui]

17. .

.

[pitohui]

26. you don't know the difference between reality and a hypothetical

if you are really posting in good faith, which i have reason to doubt, then you need to educate yourself

every hypothetical that you can imagine will not come to pass

when i was 21, people were hollering abt the national debt

when my dad was 21, it was the same

none of the horrors supposedly caused by the national debt have ever come to pass

however, the cuts just passed on food stamps and medicare kill real people, as real as you or me, there are a thousand stories on this board alone of people hurt or killed because they can't afford their medicine

the debt can wait

[pitohui]

15. my people are hungry and homeless TONIGHT

so forgive me if yeah, claims of someone buying a loaf of bread for a month's salary is indeed, in your charming word, "bullshit"

i think the rest of your courteous reply speaks for itself

don't you dare ever put another gallon of gas in your car that comes from the gulf coast, we are not a burden on the nation, how dare you, this is the thanks we get for doing the hard dirty work of the nation, when you drill offshore yr damn atlantic and yr damn pacific ocean then get back to me abt how the gulf coast is a burden, the usa would be a fourth-rate backwater if not for the gulf coast, so you can take your crap about ME being the burden and stick it you know where

yes, i'm offended, and you intended for me to be, i hope you are satisfied, you beat up on a disaster victim who lost three people, i hope it makes you feel like a big man

[true_notes]

19. Once again

You are going to a personal level. This site is to discuss politics, not stories of perished loved ones. I said nothing inflammatory to you or your family. I simply have the notion that we as a nation need to get off of our asses and start generating money instead of losing it.

That is all.

[pitohui]

23. you started with the nasty language

you were first to use the word "bullshit"

i don't accept "that is all" as an apology for your discourtesy

since you're unaware of it, i'll spell it out for you, politics is abt human life

[true_notes]

25. How can you nurture human life

When money is spent destroying it?

And I disagree. The idea of politics is to keep a country, a race of people afloat as long as possible. As soon as the political structure in a country fails, so do the people. That's how I see it, albeit I hate that idea.

[pitohui]

29. what are you talking abt? you don't nurture life by stealing food stamps

it's pretty simple, dude

if you want to live longer, then get more debt, sell more of that debt to china, get our financial affairs so entangled w. those of our enemy that we can never attack ea. other

if that is your goal, debt is your friend

wingnuts fear debt because they're isolationists, frankly, besides they look forward to the "red dawn" scenario, it's the only way they can ever have a free license to go running around shooting their neighbors which is their real fantasy

the reasonable person knows that the wise use of debt is the only way anything major gets done, from a first class education for an individual to a major public works project for the many

[true_notes]

32. Then What Is Your Solution, Pit?

To continue feeding the tiger markets with our precious money, or invest in domestic policies such as social issues and infrastructure.

You are being ambiguous here. On the personal level, you want to help your family, but you agree with screwing the common American over by fueling the Chinese economy vice ours.

My solution would be to deduct our spending overseas, military and in exported jobs to further our domestic income. We as a nation need to work together to bring about change in our economic system (for the better per say)

[conflictgirl]

20. I totally disagree

Look what has happened to the many consumers who had a very high debt/income ratio when the credit card companies raised their minimum payments, or when the credit card company raises their interest rate if they miss a payment or go over their limit. Being in debt makes a person in a very precarious state, dependent on the mercy of their creditors if anything goes wrong.

Our nation is now in that position. We're going around pissing people off all over the world with our foreign policies, and we're in debt up to our eyeballs. What happens if China decides that they want us to pay up? What if they decide they want real estate instead when we can't repay them? Your attitude that worrying about debt is a luxury problem is EXACTLY why it still continues - everyone else thinks the same way. But anyone who's ever been in the grips of the credit card industry knows exactly why it's a problem if the same idea is applied to the fate of our nation.

[true_notes]

30. Amen Sister n/m

[pitohui]

31. if china decides to panic sell treasury bonds china will collapse

so they are not going to decide they want us to pay up under any but the originally agreed upon terms

i can't be the only person here who has ever bought a bond, sheesh

you don't buy a bond because you want real estate, if you want real estate, you buy real estate

take a look at a map of china sometime, i'll give you a clue, they have plenty of real estate

what they want is usa dollars

like it or not, if you want world peace, since human nature ain't gonna change, the way to get it is to buy it, selling treasuries to china is not this crazy wicked deal, it invests china in our continued success

why is this so hard to understand?

and, yeah, i know what dean says but on this issue he's pandering frankly, president dean would not have refused to sell debt to china any more than president clinton did

[conflictgirl]

37. So how much leverage does our indebtedness give us

when it comes to China's human rights problems?

[LSK]

22. Howard Dean has been screaming about the Debt for a long time

You can stop the bleeding by ending this stupid war and repealing the Bush tax cuts. It would be a start. I agree that cutting social programs is not the answer. But it is a serious problem and the solution lies in reducing military spending and raising taxes on the rich.

[CrispyQ]

49. We should also look at closing the loopholes that

allow corporations to shirk their fair share of taxes. These behemoths covet their personhood status but shirk their responsibilities, with the help of corrupt public officials who have sold their souls to the corporate masters.


http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/tax/taxbreif.php


snip...

Most studies indicate that corporate taxes are at their lowest levels in decades. Although the statutory corporate income tax rate is up to 35%, according to Robert McIntyre of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the top 250 companies paid what amounts to only a 20.1 % rate in income taxes in 1998, down from 22.9% in 1996 and well below the 26.5 percent that a similar group paid in 1988 (3). McIntyre estimates that currently, big corporations pay only about 15% of their pretax U.S. profits in federal income taxes. (4)

Looked at from the perspective of who pays what portion of the nation's overall taxes, the decline in corporate taxation is even more stark. In a recent special investigation on corporate taxes, Business Week reported that in 1940, companies and individuals split the federal income tax bill equally. Corporations now pay only 13.7% of the federal income tax bill and individuals pay 86.3%. (5)

According to the Congressional Budget Office, corporate income taxes in 2002 contributed less than one-tenth of overall revenues (down from 15 % in the 1970s and 25% in the 1950s and 1960s) and represent approximately 1.5 percent of GDP, down from 4.1 percent in 1965. (6)

[rman]

39. he's entirely correct about the income distribution

which to me seems to be the real issue.

[dcfirefighter]

16. Debt is required for money supply

Most of our money is backed by debt papers, eliminating the debt would eliminate 90% of our money supply.

It's basically a sneaky way to shift value from the public money to the private banks.

In the space of one year, we could pay off the public debt, eliminate the annual cost of debt service, and generate $300B worth of new money for the public good (reducing the need for taxation or improving public goods and services).

We'd need to outlaw fractional reserve banking, destroying ~$8T worth of bank-created money.
We then need to print $8B worth of new money in order to maintain a stable supply of money and avoid drastic deflation.
We'd then need to buy back our debt with that $8B worth of new money.
We'd then need to cease borrowing money.
We'd then need to annually increase the money supply to avoid slow deflation. This would be to the tune of $300B a year of new money, printed and spent into circulation.

[pitohui]

21. if you can't borrow money you can't invest in the future

debt is not bad, the fact that you can become indebted is a measure of other's trust in you, for example, if china buys our treasury notes it is because they have full faith in usa money as one of the best currencies in the world, when you don't have any debt and you don't have any of your rivals invested in your continued success...that would be the time to worry

why would china ever bomb us now, why would russia ever bomb us now, it would be destroying their own pocketbook because they have bought our notes and become entwined with us financially

debt is also an expression of faith in the future by the debtor, when you buy a house or an education on time, it is because you are confident you will be able to earn enough over time to pay back the debt while enjoying the benefits of home or education, similarly, without debt, usa gov't could not take on huge public works projects that can only pay off over time, in the future

the example i gave in the other thread tells how the dutch explained how their $18 billion investment in levees, with $500 million in maintanence, has paid off such that their investment is only "pennies on the dollar," without debt and faith in the future, you can't build such a levee system

and indeed, the whole focus of the debt argument suddenly being raised by the GOP at this time is pure-dee to stop any funding from going to the repair and reinforcement of new orleans levees

that's the entire motive, they are cheap and don't care abt the monumental savings to the taxpayer by having an efficient port, good access to oil and gas drilling & refineries, etc.

all they care abt is not letting any money go to a democratic, majority black city or parish

the motive is not really debt, as they'll blow the money in iraq anyway

the motive is they don't want to accidentally put a dollar in a black man's pocket or a vote in a black man's ballot box

my take on it anyway

[dcfirefighter]

28. Sure you can

you just can't let banks lend money they don't have, which is how most of our money is created.

As for government borrowing, it's not necessary, because 1) they could print new money, up to a certain amount and 2) they can raise taxes to pay for public goods and services.

If they choose choice 2, and the spending is good and justified, it will create more wealth than is taken through taxation. E.G. as a government, I could raise $1B for a transit system and create $2B in property values. The trick is to recapture the wealth created by public investment. (the same goes for investment in education, public safety, parks, etc.)

[pitohui]

33. this sounds scary deflationary

i'm not seeing any way your plan would not kill the economy stone.cold.dead.

there is not a thing wrong w. banks creating money thru lending, something is not automatically bad just because it's an abstraction

[dcfirefighter]

35. It wouldn't have to be

As long as the money supply is increased at the same rate as the demand for money grows, prices, in aggregate stay the same. Removing bank created money and replacing it with government created money is neither inflationary nor deflationary.

Historically, the demand for money has grown at between 2-3%. It is probably in our best interest to have a very slight inflation to 1) take care of old debtors, generally the poorer half, who were disadvantaged under the old system, and 2) to account for price stickiness - the price of goods should decrease with advances in production, and producers are generally loathe to lower prices. I specifically favor legislating a fixed amount of new money to be printed: a fixed amount could be slightly inflationary at the beginning, neutral, and then slightly deflationary at some point in the future.

The wrong thing about banks creating money through lending is that the financial benefit of a social good is captured by private interests rather than public interests.

Furthermore, creating money through lending leaves us with the problem of having enough money to pay the principal, but not enough to pay the interest. Literally, the money to pay the interest hasn't been created yet.

[rman]

42. You just have to balance the amount of currency in circulation

with the total value of the economy. More is needed as the economy grows. Printing more money when it's needed is in essence what a central bank is doing, or at least is supposed to do.
We have smart people, real good economists and such; we can do that balancing trick ourselves. By means of our government, that is.
Of course there won't be paying any interest to ourselves.

[ProfessorGAC]

46. Do You Have Any Numbers To Back That Up?

I'm on the board of directors of a small bank. It is AGAINST THE LAW to have more loan value than total assets. We CANNOT loan out money that is not backed by the operational asset base. Again, IT'S AGAINST THE LAW!
The Professor

[dcfirefighter]

55. You can count loans as assets, no? And deposits as obligations?

YOu have reserve requirements or a Reserve ratio?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking

Read that article and comment, I'd love to hear your take on it.

[rman]

40. We should control our own currency

Which isn't a new idea - in fact it used to be like that in the colonial era when the "colonial scrip" was the currency.

If you think about it, isn't it kind of strange for a nation-state to have to borrow money from some bank (which apparently in some way supersedes that nation-state), to be payed back at interest?


Here's what president Jackson had to say on the matter:

"You (the Bankers) are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the eternal God, I will rout you out."
"If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations."
-- US President Andrew Jackson, 1829

[Greyhound]

43. This is the key to their scheme to enslave us. The founders

were very explicit in their desire to rid us of the European Banking families. It was (surprise) the re:puke:s that pushed the Federal Reserve Act through on the last day before the Xmas break, after most of the Dems had left D.C. for the holidays, kind of like that episode of West Wing.

[druidity33]

58. not so sure...

this would work. Maybe in conjunction with the implementation of regional currencies... bioregional scale? Check out EF Schumacher for details on local currencies.

http://www.schumachersociety.org/

IMO it would be better for people to be as autonomous as possible... regional renewable energy grids, local TimeBanks systems, plentiful CSAs, emphasis on SUSTAINABLE communities, GOOD public transit, and more...

[dcfirefighter]

59. I agree with bioregional government, disagree with bioregional currencies

I do believe that trade improves employment, and using a common currency facilitates trade.

I am somewhat interested in LETS, and as they are voluntary, don't think that they should be prohibited (they aren't). Making them mandatory would allow individuals to game the system.

What I propose is pretty much what the US Constitution prescribes.

[druidity33]

61. disagree?

I'm not proposing local currencies take the place of the federal dollar. Rather that they supplement it. Supporting local and regional economies is paramount. The whole "eggs in one basket" thing. I'm also not suggesting that anything be mandatory, but that there be incentives to investigate working alternatives. anyway, imo we ought to work on election integrity first, Food and Water security second, then maybe we can worry about banking. Lots of imperatives to work on...
...to peaceful resolutions!
and if you are a firefighter, bless you and thank you for your service!

[dcfirefighter]

62. OK then, i misunderstood

Some things are important, some things are urgent, and some things are both urgent and important. There are a lot of us, and we can work on more than one thing at a time.

You are correct, election integrity is both very urgent and very important, but that wouldn't keep me from discussing proportional representation.

As for food & water security, I do not believe they are disconnected from banking. The effects of people chasing interest money that hasn't been created yet certainly adversely affects our food and water.

[vw.tech]

24. Hmmm

I was told in high, years ago, that in reality we actually owed that money to our selves. I can't remeber how he came up with that, but I do remember him telling us that.

[CabalPowered]

34. Has anyone worked out the debt-to-GDP ratio ..

with these new numbers? Just curious and TIA.

[BigBearJohn]

36. Break up all the corporations like they did with Ma Bell... start with

Walmart. Bring back the small businessman. Take back ALL
the tax breaks for the rich. Take over ALL the oil companies
and let the government run them as utilities.

[stepnw1f]

41. Yup Yup!

I say we go further than that. We take back the money stolen from the system by these corporatists. I'm sure there is a mighty paper trail: Start with Haliburton.

[mikelgb]

38. I'll chip in the 88 cents... n/t

[izzybeans]

44. I wish that a change of admins was enough to fix this problem

A system built for inequality and debt well...

edited to add: nice compilation.

[Inland]

47. First Rule of Holes....Stop Digging. nt

[Festivito]

48. Think of Clinton's SS saving idea.

The idea that Dems are told that Dems don't have. ;-)

We each owe about 30-40K$ per person. We have this house called a country and so we pay the mortgage at, say, $1000 a month for about 15 years.

At 15 years our folks will need a little retirement boost, a little help for a few years. Geepers, how about I just continue paying the grand a month when my mortgage is finished. I'll just send the money to the folks instead of the mortgage company.

Problem solved. SS(the folks) are saved and it's hardly any extra sweat.

I guess that works. But, still, why do I hear CONs saying we have no plan. COULD CONS BE LYING????????

[LiberalPersona]

51. Where did you get

the $2.50 gas average? My source says that it is currently $2.14 and $2.50 was last month's average.

[redqueen]

52. What are the interest payments alone, and how often are they paid?

Borrow-and-spend repukelicans are burying our grandchildren in debt.

God damn them.

[hvn_nbr_2]

53. I've got a theory about this

Anyone remember the news a week or so ago that the Fed will soon stop publishing the M3 money supply numbers? M3 is the broadest measure of money supply.

Here's my theory: They know we can never pay off the debt now that Georgie doubled it and stopped collecting taxes from the rich. They also know that the only thing currently propping up the economy is housing, which is at least overpriced, maybe in a bubble. If housing prices drop significantly, the economy will crash. But no real economic recovery that benefits the people who buy most housing is possible, with jobs and production being sent abroad.

So what to do? Inflation! Or probably more accurately, hyper-inflation. Bingo. Both problems solved. With a hyper-inflation, housing prices won't drop, so homeowners won't default in droves. And when $1000 buys what $1 buys today, we'll pay off the 8 trillion debt with a couple wheelbarrowsfull of freshly minted ten-billion-dollar greenbacks.

After they stop reporting M3, if you start seeing prices rise faster, easy credit, etc., then the plan should be clear. But it will take awhile for everyone to catch on. Meanwhile, the insiders who know what's coming will make yet another killing at everyone else's expense.

[true_notes]

54. great analysis n/m

[lovuian]

56. We need to tax the corporations more and more!!!

and get rid of CEO salaries and give to the workers!!! will fix that deficit!!!

[wadestock]

57. The facts you need to know

1. This coming year the payment on INTEREST on the debt will exceed any single outlay....perhaps close to 500B.

2. What EACH AND EVERY TAX PAYER will pay out of next years tax payment (oh....you didn't know YOU pay every year on the interest on the debt?) will be perhaps up to 12 to 15% of your total tax payment.

3. The funding of the national debt is now controlled by foreign investment. As the US demonstrates it cannot develop vital new industries....it cannot support the lifestyle of its people...it cannot provide even basic services to its people....

Will America become a good long term investment?

Foreigners will demand higher interest rates...
Which in turn will drive higher payments on the interest on the debt each year.

Bye Bye Miss American Pie