Tag Archives: debt

A Diller, A Dollar, A Tomahawk Scholar

09 Monday Apr 2018

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Well, seems as if another Tomahawk Slinging Season is once again upon us (or upon those in Syria). Happy Tomahawk Slinging Season from one taxpayer to many others!

Tomahawk, Tomahawk,

Flying off a ship.

Let’s make a really good excuse,

And hope most of ’em hit.

*(Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells or something).

I still can’t find Syria anywhere on or near a map of the USA. Maybe it’s around Alaska? Or one of the little island protectorates? Yet I can easily divine incompetence most rank on the border between Virginia and Maryland.

Trump said he only signed the recent bloated (partial) budget to get funding for the military. Now he wants other parts rescinded. (Thing called a veto. V-E-T-O). The man also recently said it was time to leave Syria to the Syrians and anyone else foolish enough to there thread. It is. But, somewhere along the way, the pullout and the budget seem to have met. Must have been on the road to Damascus…

And, this being Tomahawk Slinging Season and all, maybe a little more expensive foreign meddling is in order before we mind our own business (if ever that is).

All this craziness ain’t cheap: Return of the Trillion Dollar Deficit (Washington Times).

See also: Tax Plan and More Debt (CNBC).

I detected some fuzzy math in the CNBC piece. If the 2016 GDP was $18.5 Trillion (it was), and the on books federal debt is now $21 Trillion (it is), then in the past year+ we must have increased the GDP enormously to be below 96% currently – so as to make the “dire” predictions for 2028 a plausible reality. My calculator may be acting up.

However the numbers settle, I’m still backing my prediction of $40 Trillion in debt by 2024. I see this as being back on track – to oblivion.

Could be worse. You could be in the bull’s eye this Season. Of course, could be better; you might own Raytheon stock.

Bad Numbers

17 Saturday Mar 2018

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Horrible numerical news out of DC. The national debt just hit $21 Trillion.

The national debt exceeded $21 trillion for the first time on Thursday, a little more than six months after it hit first $20 trillion on Sept. 8.

The national debt was $21.031 trillion on Thursday. The government releases total debt figures each business day, but it lags by one day.

Federal borrowing has been on the rise again since February, when Congress passed legislation to suspend the debt ceiling. That move allowed the government to borrow as much as it needs to fund the activities approved by Congress.

I was shocked too. And VERY disappointed. At this rate, the debt bomb will only reach $34 Trillion or so by 2024, far short of my forecast of $40 Trillion. Pathetic. We need a war or a new entitlement or something. And soon. Let’s us try to think of something easy that we can communicate to Congress – slowly and with pictures, of course. Remember, every Trillion printed means Trillions more at the disposal of the Banksters. We need to make them happier.

How about a war to make the world safe for social security? We could start bombing Brazil in an hour or two. That would beat thinking about our own ticking bomb.

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Branco/ARPA News.

Crimes that Ring a Bell

11 Sunday Feb 2018

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An enterprising student-employee at my alma mater faces the state’s wrath. His crime? Dissatisfied with his grade, he merely hacked the professor’s computer and changed it. Forced out of UGA, he now faces EIGHTY! charges – of computer trespass and computer forgery.

These are actual crimes and, if the victim is the government or its agents, then they will be prosecuted.

As with that young Brit who hacked the CIA, there has to be a better “punishment” for this man. How about making him head of the University IT department. Obviously knows what he’s doing.

A far worse pattern of crime is committed daily, hourly by some who have little to no idea what they’re doing. That, or they just don’t give a rat’s behind.

Alarm Bells are Ringing on the Federal Debt

You don’t say? Heck, I’ve tried to ring that one myself a time or two. It’s a little hard since they removed the hammer. Anyway, at least The Hill noticed:

Well, it’s true. Congress is bankrupting the country and robbing future generations of Americans to pay for it. It’s dangerous. A debt crisis, and all the terrible economic effects of that, are looming. Both parties are guilty. Every single congressional leader is to blame.

Okay, so it’s true. But how did it happen, and how are they getting away with it? The events of this week perfectly illustrate how the one-way spending ratchet works, why Congress votes to pass it, and how they’re getting away with it.

The Bipartisan Budget Act is 652 pages long. The bill increases spending by $386 billion over two years and nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years. It also suspends the debt ceiling until after the next election.

Ah! That cool bipartisanship everyone loves. “Gettin’ the people’s business done!”

My (on books) debt projection of $40 Trillion by 2024 may be a little low.

How did this happen? Well, someone elected these cretins. How do they get away with it? Well, I predict most will be re-elected. It’s kind of like the frozen snake: invite a robber into your home and odds are you’ll be robbed. The people’s business must have something to do with naivete and stupidity. Go ring that bell.

So it goes in America: the grade fixer will go to jail; the monsters who deep-sixed the country will escape with perks and pensions.

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Horme.com.

The General Stands Again

08 Thursday Feb 2018

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Sen. Rand Paul, the only sane man left on Capitol Hill, is derisively dubbed “General*Paul” by Lindsey Grahamnesty. Lindsey was himself described recently in Taki’s Mag as “suspiciously swishy.”

Today Dr. Paul, the General (I like that, let’s take it away from them), took a hard stand against the bizarre, if predictable, new budget proposal.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is preventing a two-year budget deal from passing, as the White House advised federal agencies to prepare for the government to start shutting down at midnight.

Congressional negotiators were scrambling earlier Thursday to lock in enough votes in the House, and that was before Paul, a Republican, made public his dissatisfaction with the deal, which would raise government spending, avert a government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling.

A senior administrative official said the White House is instructing agencies to begin shutdown preparations in the event that Congress fails to pass a budget before the midnight deadline.

Paul is pushing for an amendment to maintain budget caps, but Senate sources say leaders have no plan to give Paul such a concession, meaning that he can continue to prevent a vote until after midnight, when government funding runs out.

The colossal bill, which lawmakers have been negotiating for months, would be a game-changing piece of legislation, clearing the decks for Congress in dealing with major spending issues as well as doling out disaster relief money.

The overall deal also does not address the high-profile issue of immigration, a key sticking point for many Democrats; but it does increase spending caps by $300 billion for the Pentagon and domestic priorities, a crucial incentive for getting enough votes from both parties.

The Convertible of State is aimed at the edge of a cliff. The Elephant at the wheel floors the gas pedal. The Donkey passenger shouts, “Go, Man, Go!” This is the bipartisanship the people claim to be all crazy about – “gettin’ the people’s business done!” Most don’t realize they’re in the backseat behind the two dumb animals, headed for the edge at high speed.

I guess Rand is more like a traffic cop than a general. Hey, still a man in uniform, right? Maybe that’s what Grahmnesty meant by the remark; you know, what he digs…

The uniparty hasn’t been able to pass a whole and complete annual budget for about a decade. Stopgap after appropriation after special package after… Now! Now, they’ve got us a twofer in store, doubling down (up) to make up for lost responsibility. Deficits and the debt be damned.

Go ahead. Shut her down. Leave her down.

American history repeats itself: There stands Paul like a stone wall!

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CNN (sightly modified).

*Lindsey ridiculed Dr. Paul for wanting to bring our standing armies home and end the oldest war in US history. (I’ve never used the term “cuck” here, you know). Neocons like Grahamnesty should favor the idea, giving the troops a breather before the next war with Iran and/or North Korea and/or Russia and/or China and/or Whomever it is. You know, the war just after the depression and before the civil…

“Let the Damned Thing Die”

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

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He’s (She’s?, Xir’s??, They’s???) not talking about the Federal Reserve.

Another good reason to be very wary of the college-debt-idiocy complex:

Following a row about a professor-produced play about immigration a new and exciting student group has sprung up at Kenyon College in Ohio: The Whiteness Group seeks to silence whites on campus.

The Good Samaritan’s retraction comes serendipitously at the same moment as the creation of a new student group at Kenyon: “the whiteness group.”

The group was founded by a student, Juniper Cruz, and is notable not just for its name, but for its rules, which state that “no white person can ask a person of color questions; white people must try to answer their questions for themselves. And no spreading rumors about what people say during the meetings.”

If you were going to set out to create a more illiberal student group possible at a college, you would be hard-pressed to do so.

Were I a student at Kenyon, this wouldn’t be much of a problem for me. “STFU” isn’t exactly a question. And censorship and crybaby-ism isn’t much of an academic tradition. At least one (probably older) professor gets it: “’Today is the end of [liberal education at Kenyon College],’ Fred Baumann, a professor of political science at Kenyon, proclaimed last week to a panel and its audience.”

He’s alone:

And as for Baumann’s suggestion that liberal education was finished at Kenyon, he’s certainly on to something. Following the panel where Baumann made his stand, one student took to Facebook, saying that if liberal education “necessitates the silencing of marginalized communities, the protection of racism, and our complicity with both, then let the damned thing die.”

A loaded, fallacious “if, then.” Let it already; there are better and cheaper alternatives. Is this garbage worth $65,840 per year? No.

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No questions asked, okay?! WFDD.

Numerical Lay of America

15 Monday Jan 2018

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One of those days, friends, one of those days. After some six months of success in self-medicating a minor mechanical problem, I wisely decided to check the old covert bug out vehicle into automotive convalescence. Prayers if you will, donations should you have them (only $500 will feed a starving Jeep…).

Anyway, I was all set to shoot a Hawaiian preppers video for FP. Tomorrow! And more collected and so forth – will post here.

I leave you with fond thoughts of the US Debt Clock.

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I consult these numbers from time to time. They sing a song, tell a story, for those willing to listen. Give them a try tonight.

Dobry vecer, priatelia.

Debtonomics

10 Wednesday Jan 2018

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One side says the modern US economy is built upon little more than debt and threat of force.

Another side says things are fine, the Fed knows what its doing, and everything is supported by real value.

(Other sides say things too.)

Of the first two sides, which might be worried about the following headline?

China is reportedly thinking of halting US Treasury purchases and that’s worrying markets

“If China stops buying Treasuries, the market could suffer,” strategists at Jefferies said. “Treasury financing needs are going to rise significantly in 2018 and beyond relative to recent history, so Treasury is going to be looking for as many sources of demand as they can find.”

The news worried markets.

Treasury prices fell, boosting yields. The dollar also dropped against most currencies and gold rose. U.S. equities declined.

Hmmm. How can this be? Things are fine. They know what they’re doing.

One might almost think the debt does matter after all.

The Ryan-McConnell School for Drunk Sailors

20 Friday Oct 2017

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I heard talk of a real budget coming from and for D.C. soon. It’s been a while. In that time, the makeshift measures have done wonders – assuming everyone wants the country bankrupted.

Real federal spending in fiscal 2017, which ended on Sept. 30, was higher than in any year in the history of the United States other than fiscal 2009, which was the year that President Barack Obama’s $840 billion stimulus law was enacted.

Fiscal 2017 also saw the second highest real federal individual income tax totals of any year in U.S. history, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

Total federal tax revenues were the third highest in U.S. history.

While it was collecting the third highest total tax revenues in U.S. history, the federal government ran a deficit $665,712,000,000 because of its high total spending.

Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since 2011, after winning a majority of seats in the 2010 election. They have controlled the Senate since 2015, after winning a majority in the 2014 election. In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, a Congress in which the Republican Party controls both houses was responsible for enacting all federal spending legislation.

Total federal spending in fiscal 2017, according to the Treasury, was $3,980,605,000,000. Total federal tax revenue was $3,314,893,000.

Prior to this year, the highest level of real federal spending was the $4,024,794,600,000 in constant 2017 dollars (adjusted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator) that the Treasury spent in fiscal 2009.

In the years after 2009, real federal spenpding hit its lowest level ($3,633,572,490,000 in constant 2017 dollars) in fiscal 2014. In fiscal years 2015, 2016, and 2017 federal spending has been on the rise again—reaching this year’s $3,980,605,000,000, the second highest spending level in the nation’s history.

On the tax side, federal individual income taxes hit their all-time peak in fiscal 2015, when the Treasury took in $1,598,265,180,000 in constant 2017 dollars in individual income taxes.

Record taxes and they still run record deficits and debt. We can call 2017 the year of the Beast’s Billion…

Check this graph (in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars):

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CNS.

Now, imagine an overlay of the debt doubling about every 8 to 10 years. Next up! $40 Trillion!!!

The Swamp drains the Country.

Just Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment

13 Wednesday Sep 2017

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Barring a return to the majority of our history, income tax-free, a tax cut (any tax cut) still sounds good.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the Trump administration is considering backdating tax reform to the start of this year to boost the economy.

Backdating “is still something we are considering and it would be a big boon for the economy,” he said at the Delivering Alpha conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor.

Republicans aim to overhaul the American tax code but have faced various hurdles in their goal of passing a tax reform bill this year. Congress and the White House have not yet released a plan but are working this month to prepare legislation. Mnuchin heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss tax policy with GOP congressional leaders, the latest in a series of meetings.

Earlier Tuesday, Mnuchin insisted that a tax overhaul would happen this year.

“We’re going to get this done by the end of the year,” Mnuchin told CNBC, adding that the administration is “super focused” on the goal following the three-month debt limit and government funding extension passed last week.

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday on individual tax reform. Sen. Orrin Hatch, the committee’s chairman and one of the six primary tax negotiators, said he expects to share the plan with other lawmakers after that and other hearings.

President Donald Trump urged lawmakers last week to push forward with tax legislation “ASAP,” telling them not to wait until the end of September. Tax reform is one of the key planks of the agenda he pitched as a candidate, and he has made two recent speeches touting the benefits of changes to the tax system without offering new details.

Great. I think the biggest of those various GOP hurdles this year has been the hurdle of the GOP itself. Maybe Trump should enlist the Dems’ help. Whatever works.

I like my idea the best – big government proponents should too. By killing the 16A, the entire tax code, and the IRS, no money will be lost at all. In fact, we may be approaching the magical point of unlimited (free) government budgets! This is because Congress will soon remove any pretense of a debt “ceiling.” The whole bunch (D’s and R’s and the President) call for essentially endless and limitless debt.

And why not? Why not fund the government completely with IOUs? They’re never going to be repaid anyway. It makes perverse sense. Everyone, every single big government lover of any stripe, could get his pet project funded to the moon. And everyone else would keep their cash!

No … that game would not last forever. None does.

Okay, okay. Cut this year. Repeal next year. Forever never comes.

Money, Debt, and … Questions

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

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First, median incomes in 2016 set an all time record. Rather, they beat out (or caught up to) those from 1999. Hooray! We’ve only lost two decades of growth. And incomes, recall, are usually the last thing to catch up – before a new correction.

One of the first things to go up and one which goes up fastest … is new government debt. See: the Instantaneous manufacture of $317,645,000,000 worth of new debt in one day! It’s a miracle! Thanks to Congress and the Prez. for the temporary spending boost on the way to infinite and perpetual indebtedness.

For the latter story you can thank the government and their pet, the Federal Reserve. The Fed was one of three marvels foisted on the formerly free people in 1913.

Speaking of foisting – yesterday was the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I was a little busy and, therefore, this will likely be my only remembrance note this year. (Unlike last year – see Sept. 2016 archives).

Just in time for the anniversary, engineering expert Dr. Leroy Hulsey and his research team released a study of the collapse of WTC Tower 7.  It’s kind of part one of the study anyway. He (they) have some questions about the official narrative.

You may recall that the ninth plane (from Toronto) hit WTC 7. The impact and resulting conflagration caused substantial weakening of the steel frame inside the tower (much like WTC 1 and 2), which caused a complete (and VERY neat and self-contained) collapse.

I completely made that last paragraph up. No plane hit No. 7. There was only a small, office-material-fueled fire (with temperatures insufficient to melt or weaken steel). And the fire almost burned out long before the collapse – maybe around the time the media was parroting that the tower had collapsed, even as it stood in the background of their live broadcasts.

Not many believe the “official” story about No. 7 or anything else that day, not even members of the Commission impaneled to investigate it. This study sheds a little light with more to come. See if you will.

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Ken Doc.