Who Will Bail Out Uncle Sam?

Reader Comments

Dec 16, 2008

You are a bit arrogant to call all distressed homeowners over the heads.....had the economy not gone south along time ago.....just not last month...i find your comments about distressed homeowners to be a "better than thou" statement.

Dec 16, 2008

The public debt has no constituency in Congress - therefore no one (relevant) complains when it increases. Likewise, telling people you won't be giving them stuff tends to lose votes.

Dec 16, 2008

As a number cruncher in an earlier life, I can assure you that figures lie and liers figure. Peter Peterson and Senator Rudman have made it their life's crusade for many years to tell us that the America's economic sky is falling. God knows they need to be right. What's the point of worrying? All this talk of our granchildren footing the bill is tiresome. Every generation foots the bill for the previous generation's follies and advances. I had to; my children are now do doing likewise; and so will will their children. Meanwhile we advance. Life expectancy has risen 20% in my lifetime, food costs are the lowest in history; my son just bought a decent suit, two shirts, and a tie for $100. PLease lighten up this economic teeth gnashing and look around at your fellow citizens ouside the Beltway. We are an optimistic, creative people who will handle and overcome any adversity.

Dec 16, 2008

Peter Mac Kinnon is correct. He is also not from the beltway mentality We need leaders in DC,we do not have them. They abdicated thei offices Its nowhere as bad a thr great depression, it is just depressing to see people thinking Obama will bring any change. We need a 5 million American march on Washington DC not,one million too celebrate more bad government in an event called an Inaugration !

Dec 16, 2008

Why, China of course. Look for a large real-estate transaction involving an island within the next administration or so.

Dec 16, 2008

Now if we would just change the names and we would change the locations, you would say these men were government contracttors doing their jobs.... What is the difference between so-called organized crime, and crime? answer: Wall St and the U.S. government

Dec 16, 2008

these things are very dicey when you are looking at 75 years (which is usually how they calculate SS etc.) If the current value of the household wealth increases faster than whatever rates the obligations are forecast to grow at, we'll be "fine". But then again, if not, the whole thing will go south.

Dec 16, 2008

Hate to tell you this joseywales1952, but most distressed homeowners are in over their heads - living beyond their means. Funny thing, those of us who tried to live responsibly and below our means will have to pay to bail everybody out now. I guess we are the suckers.

Dec 16, 2008

Hate to tell you this joseywales1952, but most distressed homeowners are in over their heads - living beyond their means. Funny thing, those of us who tried to live responsibly and below our means will have to pay to bail everybody out now. I guess we are the suckers.

Dec 17, 2008

All of this assumes that we will not learn our lessons and behave differently. We have not so far, but let's be optimistic. The Supreme Court has already ruled that entitlements can be changed at any time. Our children will get to decide how much of the obligations we made in their manes they will be willing to keep. The best we can do is to stop piling on new programs while adopting tax and monetary policies that promote real growth. The fact that the Fed today tried to abolish the concept of the time value of money is just another misstep along the road that lead us here.

Dec 17, 2008

MacKinnon whistles past the graveyard. Moreover, that mentality, disguised as a positive outlook, covers up for a multitude of congressional sins: It enables the amazing levels of corruption practiced by our elected "representatives" as a matter of course. Thanks but no thanks. The US is not only bankrupt, it's in denial. The culprit, as Jefferson surmised, was the printing press. Yeah, we'll overcome any adversity ... and wave that flag.

Dec 17, 2008

Peter, the only reason we've made it this far is because other countries have been buying our public debt. If they stop buying, we are in trouble. No amount of optimism will change that.

Dec 17, 2008

Just another attack on social spending. Want to save money? Cut the military budget in half.

Dec 17, 2008

A - hah! Y'all think it's all about you! What you own, what you are worth. In the great distress sale of the future, you may only count for a measly 56.5 Tril, but the creditors will actually go for the fruited plain, the real estate (including mineral rights). The brain resources, though harder to tap for the lucky bidder, are not inconsiderable, either. No, IMHO the politicians still have a ways to go before they have totally blown it. But my, they sure are doing a bang - up job!

Dec 17, 2008

Learn some accounting: you're comparing future *expenditures* against current assets. That's like saying you're bankrupt because your next 30 years of living expenses is more than you house is worth.

Dec 17, 2008

And yes, I saw it was the ex CG. I expect he knows accounting; I *wonder* how he might have made that mistake.

Dec 17, 2008

It has become quite clear that the back is breaking. Trickle down deficit spending, corporate media, deregulation, cooking the reports and no oversight to name a few have ruined America. I don't see any real recovery in 10 years.

Dec 17, 2008

Yes, but the good news is that it does not matter that the Chinese hold $500 bil in US debt. That is a now a rounding error. Threaten to sell it? Get in line...Paulson will sell that in one day, as a real "zero coupon bond". Now you see the evil genius in the meltdown....

Dec 17, 2008

When socialized medicine is dropped on top of this entitlement sundae, the wheels are going to come off the roller coaster and the plunge will swoop us off the tracks and into the concrete beyond. This is "change" you can feel as your head compresses your ankle bones. The Keynesians are in full trick or treat mode and they are going to tax and spend our way into prosperity. Start saving your change, because it is all the hope you have left.

Dec 17, 2008

On the other hand, that leaves all the government assets untouched. The Feds own 1/3 of US real property and state and local governments own lots more. Consider that government realty and personalty is mostly unencumbered and includes a lo of valuable parcels. What would the interstate highway system be worth on the open market? All those oil and gas reserves out to the 200 mile limit or the edge of the continental shelf. All the buildings. All the waterfront property. A fair chunk of change.

Dec 17, 2008

Pathetic how our law makers have allowed this to happen. All my life I have worked, paid taxes, been loyal and patriotic to this great country and been a good citizen. For what? There should be a LOT of people locked up for their deep pocketed greed---the demise of our nation. It makes me sick.

Dec 17, 2008

Does that bankruptcy include all the resources the US has that don't show up in the national operating budget? Like many millions of acres of land, all the physical resources on and below the surface of those acres, buildings, equipment, less tangible resources like radio spectrum and so on? If you looked at my operating budget and promises but didn't include the value of my house and cars and such I'd look like I was bankrupt, too. I would prefer a more 'conservative' approach to the national budget, but let's take care in what, exactly, we're talking about.

Dec 17, 2008

Since we have become a nation of expected entitlements, this was bound to happen. It was impossible to go on like this forever.

Dec 17, 2008

Duncan Frissell has it right. In some states, the government owns 90% of the land. National assets are almost never considered when talking about the national debt. The sky is not falling.

Dec 17, 2008

I own both of my home outright, so I guess I'm not part of the sadistic. (spelled that way on purpose) Since this downturn is world wide, I guess I'll be able to see if my gold standard v. oil dollars argument has merit. In times of crisis, nobody "needs" gold. The US SPR will be the new Fort Knox.

Dec 17, 2008

China will bail out Uncle Sam. For a price, of course.

Dec 17, 2008

Worried sick about your mortgage, are ya, joseywales1952?

Dec 17, 2008

Perhaps Hollywood needs to remake 'Americathon.'

Dec 17, 2008

@Peter MacKinnon, "Every generation foots the bill for the previous generation's follies and advances." I take your larger point about each generation inheriting that which is left to it by its predecessors, but with respect to the national debt, what you are saying is not really true. There was no national debt for many years (not counting various war years). There was no income tax and the government ran surpluses. It is only since the New Deal/Great Society and related programs have started to spin out of control that we have left mountains of debt to our successors.

Dec 17, 2008

Excuse me Horatio Parker: "Cut the military budget in half."? Hey, what a great idea. The military protects us and their performance in Iraq and Afghanistan at least produced freedom for the people of those countries. (including the ingrate who threw his shoes at President Bush) I'd like to see what would have happened to him if he tried that with Saddam. Meanwhile the "War on Poverty" has spent untold dollars and has produced nothing but more poor. Of course, when you start giving money away should anyone be surprised that the line gets longer?

Dec 17, 2008

b - couldn't agree more. It's what worries me about Obama's position on social programs. And let's not talk of deregulation causing this. There is more government regulation in more areas than ever before. And look what we have to show for it.

Dec 17, 2008

Well, the Democrats got Congress back 2 years ago and bankrupted us!!!!

Dec 17, 2008

My comment is really a question. Why is no one trying to hold accountable those in the Congress who are really responsible for this ecconomic class. Those like Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and that clown congressman from Maine. It was those irresponsible people who let us get into this mess.

Dec 17, 2008

Remember 9-11? I think we might have pulled out gradually from the DOtCom burst if we hadn't had such an attack, right in the financial heart of the world. We may see the solid gold loaf of bread soon enough. Isn't it a real shame our dollar isn't still backed by silver, that nice steady standard? At least then the nation could get a loan to recover with. We are such fools...

Dec 17, 2008

The Red 'menace' is alive and well....right here in the U S of A. The journalists have abdicated their responsibilities and become a cog of the 'Pravda' machine. Get ready for the complete nationalisation of all American industry....Americans wake the F up!! Demand term limits ..two years then out..no life time jobs for the beltway bozo's

Dec 17, 2008

END THE FED. STOP FIAT BANKING SUPPORT HR 2755! www.endthefed.us/

Dec 17, 2008

So lets put it in Chapter 11, stop paying all employees, including elected representatives, except the military and start over. They can be true public servants and work voluntarily-or they can go out in private industry and find a real job. We the people can fix it as we always have

Dec 17, 2008

Horatio is part of the problem. His knee jerk reaction is to offer a ineffective answer to the issue at hand. The miltary budget for 2009,rose to $515.4 billion, with a total of US$651.2 billion when emergency discretionary spending and supplemental spending are included. There are some other costs that can be added to this number. That is just over 20% of the 2009 budget of 3.1 trillion dollars. So where does all the rest of the just under 80%. Most of it goes to social programs. Until 51% of America realizes that you can not give out money indefinitely to people that are not contributing to the bottom line, or bankruptcy is inevitable (true whether it is a business or a country's bottom line). The media has put forth a perception that Bush and his a administration is to blame, but go to youtube and search Democrats Covering up the Economic Crisis there is a CSPAN video of the democrats in their own words.

Dec 17, 2008

Want to cut the budget? Eliminate everything not allowed by the constitution.

Dec 17, 2008

Moishe, I TOTALLY agree with you. Term limits on these politicians who have come to 'rule' us. No lifetime guaranteed income for the scoundrels either. We would the still have to deal with the political 'machine'. How do we get away from that? Time for a new American Revolution, for sure, and I feel it coming. If you like the welfare state, move to Canada!

Dec 17, 2008

Not to worry, severe inflation is on the way to bailout debtors who borrowed dear and who will pay back cheap. This is what governments do when they find themselves in this pickle.

Dec 18, 2008

Everything is a system. What the U.S. is witnessing is the result of aborting 30 million potential consumers over the last 35 years, consumers whose potential descendants were also never born, further aggravating the problem. When two people produce three more, the economy grows out of necessity. When they produce two, it stagnates. And if they produce zero or one, the economy declines. This should not be a surprise to anyone--it's a cultural consequence that the U.S. and the rest of the world must learn to live with. Even if abortions stopped immediately, it would take at least a generation for the economy to recover.

Dec 18, 2008

joseywales1952: "Distressed homeowner" = "Idiot who paid nothing down and has a bill $2,500 a month." "regular homeowner" = put half down and pay the rest off in 15, 20, 30 years, whatever YOU can afford. Put you down? How can you use the truth to pretend regular people who bought houses we can afford are not idiots? Better still, how can you use that same truth to say you who can no longer afford the house you've been renting for the last 2 years are NOT idiots? (Yeah, I guess I am "better than thou" as well...)

Dec 18, 2008

When are we REALLY going to be tired of the way CONGRESS manipulates our taxes and spends unwisely? When will we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! NOW GET OUT! to these mealy mouth fluffs?

Dec 18, 2008

I've been saying this for years, and everyone just dismissed me as a raving lunatic. "Never happen, impossible", they'd say. So now who's crazy? Oooh, look, something shiny!

Dec 18, 2008

How does it go: Democracy fails when the citizens realize they can vote themselves bread and ciruses... or something like that?

Dec 18, 2008

I agree with Amir Fazahd, and a heap of the rest of you. If you don't need it, don't buy it. I learned early to not carry a credit card in my wallet. If you don't have the dollars in your pocket, you can't spend them (ok, I got a couple ex-wives who found out about revolving charge store accounts...but I fired 'em both). Bottom line is what my father always said, "Once a fellow learns the difference between his needs and his wants, life gets a whole lot simpler." The guy never got past 6th grade, lived through the depression, fought in WWII, worked every day of his life after his return, supported his wife 'til death do they part, and left each of his 5 kids everything he ever owned...and that was enough. Mom did all of the same. When will the rest of us americans learn what is enough?......oooooh...how SHINEY...where's my credit card?

Jan 28, 2009

That's right the FED is broke and in debt just like me. Yes, it is a depression. Economists are holding back by saying it is a recession. With bailouts of 350 Billion in 2008 and a projected bailout of 1.2 Trillion in 2009. Home foreclosures and joblosses at record highs. Bank failures, business failures and retailers closing their doors. The bailout of 2008 leaving Wall Street propped up with government money. Investment banks that still have toxic debt. Million of uncounted unempoyed in addition to the 6 month figures of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It can only be a Depression.

Feb 1, 2009

Like Dave Walker, I've been warning of a retirement crisis for half a decade. To all who accuse me of worrying about nothing, I ask this, "what if I'm right?" This current economic situation is nothing compared to what we will soon face.

Post a comment