The Dow rose about 40 points yesterday. Gold fell a few bucks. The dollar spent the day treading water. Nothing much to report there…
But what’s this? It appears that a $787 billion stimulus package ain’t what it used to be, at least according to the Congressional Budget Office. The government’s spending watchdog (yes, such a thing exists) estimates that, all in, President Obama’s stimulus package will end up costing $862 billion, a $75 billion blowout. How did this accounting error come to pass, readers want to know? In painfully predictable fashion, the feds drastically underestimated the cost of unemployment compensation.
[Read more...]
US Economic Outlook: Default, Hyperinflation or Both
Bill Bonner here at The Daily Reckoning reports that “Even if America taxed 100% of all household wealth, it would not be enough to put its balance sheet in the black”, which I note seems exactly right to me, and I am able to corroborate Mr. Bonner’s analysis because it seems to me that I seem to remember that just the federal budget deficit – alone! – would consume all federal income taxes paid by people and businesses!
[Read more...]