“Governments will impose a loss on some of their stakeholders,� reads a new report from Morgan Stanley on sovereign debt. “The question is not whether they will renege on their promises, but rather upon which of their promises they will renege, and what form this default will take.�
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Surviving Social Security
Filed Under: Gold Fundamentals, Stock Market Commentary, U.S. Dollar Tagged With: Addison Wiggin, Banking, Debt and Deficit, Featured, government debt, Government Spending, Investment Strategies, Legislation, Recession, retirement benefits, Social Security bankruptcy, sovereign debt crisis, taxpayer benefits
The State the Welfare State is In
“You can take your loans and shove them,� the Hungarian economic minister, György Matolcsy, did not say. But that's what he was thinking. Watch out. The Hungarians are trendsetters. They ran a budget deficit of 9% of GDP back in 2006. They got a $20 billion bailout in 2008 and have been living with austerity measures ever since. The current budget is only in deficit by 3.8% of GDP – barely a third of the US level.
[Read more...]Filed Under: Gold Fundamentals, Stock Market Commentary, U.S. Dollar Tagged With: Austerity measures, Banking, Bill Bonner, cutting public expenses, Debt and Deficit, Dollar Decline, economic stimulus, Featured, government bailouts, Government Spending, Recession, Social Security bankruptcy, The Daily Reckoning, US benefits, welfare state
Federal Spending Trending Upward
The American writer and satirist, Sam Ewing, once observed that inflation “is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars…back when you still had hair.â€?
All good tragedy has a little comedy in it, and vice-versa. The reader may like to decide which is most applicable to Mr. Ewing's remark.
[Read more...]Filed Under: Gold Fundamentals, Stock Market Commentary, U.S. Dollar Tagged With: Debt and Deficit, Dollar Decline, entitlement programs, Featured, Government Spending, Inflation, Legislation, Medicaid, medicare, Recession, Social Security bankruptcy, The Daily Reckoning, unfunded liabilities, US budget deficit, US economic stimulus
The Day FDR Tore Up The Constitution
With the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Elena Kagan last week, it's time once again to open up our “Pocket Constitutions.�
Kagan has already faced questions on the constitutionality of “Don't Ask, Don't Tellâ€? and the classic “Right to Bear Arms.â€? But the major question that nominees always face during these events is whether the Constitution should be open to interpretation or if it is a literal document. And that got us thinking…
[Read more...]National Income Decline: Time to Put Your Kids to Work?
The fact is that Social Security is seemingly doomed, as, for the first time, this year more money will be paid out to beneficiaries than will be collected from workers.
I am trying not to laugh as I tell you this, but a lot of people are idiotically-unaware that this is a lot of bad news for many reasons, one of which being that the federal government has always spent all those excess Social Security contributions of the last half century or so, by simply taking the money and exchanging some new Treasury bonds for it! Hahahaha!
[Read more...]Social Security Insanity
Wanted: Accountants to oversee government fund. Employer seeks relative accuracy, margin of error +/-30%. GED preferred. Optimism required. Candidates to be compensated at market value plus $50,000. No calls please.
The Congressional Budget Office now predicts the Social Security fund will pay out more than it earns starting this year – as in it’s happening right now.
[Read more...]All Abroad!
For the better part of the last century, the United States led the industrialized nations through an unparalleled period of growth. These days, the only things in the developed world growing with any certainty are bureaucracies and the debts and deficits they invariably inflict upon those they were elected to serve.
[Read more...]Social Security Makes History With Negative Cashflow
The US government is going broke.
An item in The New York Times tells us that for the first time in its history, this year the Social Security program is turning cashflow negative. Social Security “surpluses” were the source of the Clinton administration’s claim to have been running a balanced budget. Well, it was balanced…if you counted the excess Social Security contributions.
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Social Security: The Futile Fight For What’s Been Promised
No discussion of the upcoming collapse of the bond market would be complete without a mention of Social Security.
At least, after they've lost their money in stocks, real estate and bonds, Americans will at least have Social Security to live on, right? Wrong!
You know all that money you pay in Social Security taxes? Where do you think it goes? Into current expenses and US bonds!
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