Posted on 11/18/2005 11:40:48 AM PST by Robert Drobot
According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion. ... "No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years," said Tanner. "If this recklessness is not stopped, I truly believe our economic freedom as American citizens is in great jeopardy." [CNSNews]
I wonder if there are any implications...
"The facts are not partisan, and they're not ideological," said David Walker, the nation's comptroller general. He should know. He's the nation's chief accountant and signs off on the government's balance sheet. America's fiscal future, he said, "is worse than advertised."
When the government next reports these numbers Dec. 15, the total is expected to reach $46 trillion to $50 trillion.
How much is $50 trillion? About $166,000 for each of the almost 300 million Americans. [Seatle Times]
American "wealth" is an illusion based on borrowed funds that will soon be cut off, followed by creditor claims. Are you ready to repay the $166,000 spent on your behalf?
Coincidence?
Interesting map. But I think much of that area is the great basin, and deserts with extreme weather. I've flown over that region many times and much of it has the same features as the surface of Mars. I would imagine, most of it isn't worth much. </p>
Don't worry your head over this. President Hillary can simply do a reverse stock split on the economy and reduce all those big zeros down to $166 per person. Easy math for dumb Americans.
The problem is, it is partly true. I regularly get the annual reports published by the Dallas FRB. Sometimes they make for very interesting reading, as they generally have a topic that they attempt to cover in depth, almost like an article you might see in The Economist. The financial disclosure information for the FRB is intereting as well. All of the FRBs post their annual reports on their websites. I generally request a hardcopy of the ones that look interesting.
The Fed has done good things and bad things over the years. America was "sold" on the Federal Reserve system back in 1917 as a fix for monetary instability. i.e., an end to boom/bust business cycle. Of course, less than 15 years later, we had the worst deflationary depression in the history of the Republic. Cause? Effect? Coincidence? I don't know, but find it all interesting anyway.
Which part is true? The Fed unfairly profiting or the foreign banks keeping the Fed profits?
25% of the federal public debt ($41,500 of the $166,000) is owed to foreigners - that's the true burden of the debt. The rest is simply money some Americans owe to other Americans.
P.S. Is that a boy buffalo?
Don't count on it. There was a lot of California that wasn't worth much until water was brought to it.
Wormholes, my boy, that's where the future is !
Well thanks for that great insight!
To whom.
Just as responsible?...
If the Democrats controlled the house would you say "they are just as responsible"? I didn't think so.
No problem ! It seemed no more ridiculous than the original post on the thread, after all.
Me, I'm buying up stock in every wormhole company I can find !
Thanks to you, too.
To my knowledge, this is accurate. As can be seen in the first table at http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/debt06.html, foreign-owned public debt was $1.0579 trillion in 2000 and $1.8859 trillion in 2004. That's an increase of $0.828 trillion by 2004 so an increase of $1.05 trillion to the present day sounds reasonable. Much of this increase is likely prompted by our exploding trade deficit. Foreign governments invest much of this deficit back into the U.S. public debt. As point 4 on at aforementioned URL states, foreign-held public debt increased more than total public debt in 2004. Hence, in effect, the total increase was borrowed from foreign sources and an additional $48.1 billion of existing debt passed from domestic to foreign hands. Over the past three years, the increase in the foreign-held public debt has been 90.2 percent of the increase in the total public debt.
I wonder if there are any implications...
"The facts are not partisan, and they're not ideological," said David Walker, the nation's comptroller general. He should know. He's the nation's chief accountant and signs off on the government's balance sheet. America's fiscal future, he said, "is worse than advertised."
When the government next reports these numbers Dec. 15, the total is expected to reach $46 trillion to $50 trillion.
How much is $50 trillion? About $166,000 for each of the almost 300 million Americans. [Seatle Times]
American "wealth" is an illusion based on borrowed funds that will soon be cut off, followed by creditor claims. Are you ready to repay the $166,000 spent on your behalf?
Your quotes are accurate and come from the Seattle Times article at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002606771_budget06.html. However, this is the "unfunded liabilities", not the "public debt". Following is a quote from that story:
And that's only the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is that the government's unfunded liabilities — items that include everything from public debt to promised Medicare and Social Security benefits — are growing at staggering rates.
Those liabilities totaled $20.4 trillion in 2000. They reached $43.3 trillion by 2004, after President Bush and Congress increased spending and cut taxes.
This is a very serious problem. I especially agree with the proposal made at the end of the article that we need to return to "Pay-Go". However, you need to properly specify that the article is referring to unfunded liabilities, not public debt.
By the way, I noticed that the CNSNews article is at http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200511/NAT20051104b.html.
It's because, without that critical 100-seat Senate majority they so desperately need, the dumbass Republicans just can't do anything. Except spend lots more money every year.
So, Republicans, how's that "limited government" thingie you've been promising us for decades coming along . . . . hmmmmm?
09/30/1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 4,692,749,910,013.32
09/30/1993 4,411,488,883,139.38
I thought we had a surplus during the Clinton years?sarcasm/off
remember corrected the public reporting as presented at the top of this thread, clarifying the staggering liabilities created by the Bush administration in his gross abuse of his fiduciary responsibility to the every man woman and child in America.
We now hold title -- and shame -- of the greatest debtor nation in the world.
remember corrected the public reporting as presented at the top of this thread, clarifying the staggering liabilities created by the Bush administration in his gross abuse of his fiduciary responsibility to the every man woman and child in America.
We now hold title -- and shame -- of the greatest debtor nation in the world.
Even the welfare recipients/?????????
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