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The 21st Century Monolith
ZeroHedge ^ | 10/14/12 | William Buckler

Posted on 10/14/2012 10:50:12 AM PDT by RobertClark

For all intents and purposes, there have been two US Presidents thus far in the 21st century - George Bush (the younger) and Barack Obama. If we take Mr Bush’s two terms to cover fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2008, the total rise in official Treasury funded debt over that period was $US 4.350 TRILLION. If we take Mr Obama’s first term to cover fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the rise over four years was $US 6.050 TRILLION. Add the two together and you get a grand total of $US 10.4 TRILLION. That’s almost two thirds (65 percent) of the total funded debt of $US 16.066 TRILLION as of September 28, 2012.

An American celebrating his or her 100th birthday this year - and quite a few will be - was born at a time when the TOTAL debt of the US Treasury was $US 2.8 Billion. In fiscal 2012, the US Treasury borrowed that amount in about 19 hours. An American celebrating his or her 50th birthday was born at a time when the funded debt of the US Treasury was $US 300 Billion. In fiscal 2012, the Treasury borrowed that amount in less than three months. An American celebrating his or her 12th birthday today was born at the beginning of the 21st century. That person doesn’t have much to celebrate, given the fact that almost twothirds (65 percent) of the total funded debt of the US Treasury has been amassed in their lifetime.

Here is a very simple observation which goes to the root of the entire global monetary morass of the 21st century. An American celebrating their centenary in 2012 was born into a nation of just over 95 million people. A newborn American is being born into a nation of just under 313 million people. One hundred years ago, the US had a bit less than one-third of its current population. How did it function with a TOTAL government debt of $US 2.8 Billion? Today, that same government is running a funded “tab” of more than $US 16,000 Billion and a total “tab” (including UNFUNDED liabilities) of well over $US 200,000 Billion? In fiscal 1912, total Treasury debt increased by $US 10 million or a bit less than ten cents per capita. In fiscal 2012, funded Treasury debt alone increased by $US 1,276,000 million or a bit less than $4,100 per capita. The unfunded debt increased much more than that. These numbers are grotesque.

Forget any questions about how is this possible. The relevant question is why is this deemed “necessary”. The US and every other government in the world has been building its “fiscal cliff” for 100 years. Its face has been steadily steepening all that time. But in the 21st century, what was a mere mountain has become a monolith of almost incalculable proportions. In less than three presidential terms of office, $US 10.4 TRILLION has been added to the Treasury’s funded “tab”. At the rate of expansion over the 12 years since the turn of the century, another 12 years would see the funded debt blow out to $US 26.5 TRILLION by 2024. If we project the rate of expansion over Mr Obama’s one term as president for the next 12 years, the total by 2024 would be $US 34.2 TRILLION.

The Privateer Via ZeroHedge.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; History; Society
KEYWORDS: 18thcenturymorons; banzerohedge; budget; bush; debt; ibtz; ntsa; obama; partisanmediashills; stfu
The debt and current levels of government spending will be the ruin of this nation.
1 posted on 10/14/2012 10:50:15 AM PDT by RobertClark
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To: RobertClark
If we take Mr Bush’s two terms to cover fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2008, the total rise in official Treasury funded debt over that period was $US 4.350 TRILLION.

Note that nearly half of that $4.3 trillion occured in the last two years of his presidency, when the Demonrats had taken over Congress.

2 posted on 10/14/2012 10:54:29 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: RobertClark

Bad start to a new century. Makes you wonder what the beginning of the 22th century will be like. Of course, we’ll all be long gone by then.


3 posted on 10/14/2012 11:03:22 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: RobertClark
How Dramatically Did Women's Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?

JOHN R. LOTT Jr.
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) (download links for whole document at bottom of page)

September 1998

University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 60
Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 107, Number 6, Part 1, pp. 1163-1198, December 1999

Abstract:
This paper examines the growth of government during this century as a result of giving women the right to vote. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 1870 to 1940, we examine state government expenditures and revenue as well as voting by U.S. House and Senate state delegations and the passage of a wide range of different state laws. Suffrage coincided with immediate increases in state government expenditures and revenue and more liberal voting patterns for federal representatives, and these effects continued growing over time as more women took advantage of the franchise. Contrary to many recent suggestions, the gender gap is not something that has arisen since the 1970s, and it helps explain why American government started growing when it did.


4 posted on 10/14/2012 11:04:41 AM PDT by familyop ("Wanna cigarette? You're never too young to start." --Deacon, "Waterworld")
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To: RobertClark

One word: TAXES!. “The power to tax is the power to destroy”. When people realized that they had the ability to take your money away from you to enrich themselves, and promote their personal wants and goals, through the use of government force, to use the government as a tax collecting sherriff who can take everything and anything away from you at the risk of life and limb, solely to profit someone else who dictates the sherriffs actions for their own enrichment, without fight, protest, or retaliation, do you know that you have become just another slave or serf, bound to heed your master’s call.


5 posted on 10/14/2012 11:20:19 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: familyop
I read this paper years ago and tried to disseminate its import, to no avail. The logic of the author's surmise is stark and cold blooded; suffrage just might well be the death knell of any civilization.

Ann Coulter herself remarked on the ineluctable conclusion that for a country to remain strong, viable and well defended, it needs the harsh and self serving interests of conservative men to rule the day. Socialism, and its many variations, is the providence of women and those who seek the succor of women (or who want to be womanlike.)

I endorse this view only to a point. I believe that suffrage must be the final option of any civilization or empire so as to implode and make way for the next great idea in governance.

6 posted on 10/14/2012 12:09:10 PM PDT by Thommas (The snout of the camel is in the tent..)
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To: RobertClark

If we take Mr Obama’s first term to cover fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the rise over fouryears was $US 6.050 TRILLION.

The Obama debt and current levels of government spending will be the ruin of this nation . Hope Romney says this in the debate.


7 posted on 10/14/2012 12:11:21 PM PDT by Democrat_media (limit government to 5000 words of laws. how to limit gov Quantify limited government ...)
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