Posted on 03/31/2010 1:36:13 PM PDT by AtlasStalled
A longtime budget hawk and currently CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, David Walker says America's growing long-term debt is dangerously close to passing a "tipping point" that could trigger soaring interest rates and a plummeting dollar. In a worst case scenario, that could trigger a "global depression," he says, warning: "Nobody's going to bail out America."
With the U.S. facing $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities and around $62 trillion in total long-term debt, what worries Walker most is what happens after the recession dissipates, as detailed here. "I'm less concerned with the short-term deficits than I am the fact that we're not doing anything about those structural deficits that people used to call long-term," says Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office. "But the long-term is here."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
. . behind every blade of grass. "
LOL
“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”
~~ Slow Joe Biden
We ignored and made up excuses to mitigate those warning signs too when we were in power. I saw it right her at free republic even. When we are back in power tomorrow, we need to be prepared to stand on the platform that we’re building today and a big plank in that platform is fiscal conservatism. No more excuses. Balance the budget.
Yet if he told these same politicians that the trace gas CO2 increasing from 0.03% to 0.04% of the atmosphere will cause the sky to fall, they would be all over it.
Doesn't surprise me. Before King Obama was elected I felt 2/3 of Americans were brain dead. Result of a liberal corrupt educational system. Now we still see at least 1/3 still have not learned anything and millions of others were just lazy and bought off. Next we can add to the mix the illegals. America is in deep trouble.
I just watched a bunch of people on Fox Business paint a rosy picture of the future! So, this can’t be true! ;)
I don't know. The best strategy would depend on the nature of the melt down. To be sure, in a 1930's U.S. style depression, money would come in handy. But if there is run away inflation as occurred in Germany, and seems likely to occur here, owning things would be better than having money. In that situation land, guns and tools will go further.
Just a thought. They may know this is not sustainable, but be confident they can blame it on Republicans, so ultimately they will say, “We TRIED to help you, but the Republicans ruined the economy, so there you go! But, it’s ok, we’ll fix it for you. We just have to have a lot more control over your lives!” Or something like that.
They say people vote their pocketbook, so a real crash would most certainly be the end of the current reign of terror in Washington. Also, hard times seem to improve character; it’s where the Greatest Generation came from. Maybe it’s just what we need.
It amazes me how many Americans abandoned their children to socialist schools (public education, particularly in urban areas and universities/colleges) and television programs/movies because they were too busy making money to teach their children the principles and responsibiities of a free society.
And unfortunately the "Pauls" outnumber the "Peters" among American voters these days.
A good start would be to stop bringing in 1.2 million poor and uneducated legal immigrants every year.
I stopped and looked and all around me, I saw people who looked pretty happy and pretty darn prosperous! They were driving their SUV's into Starbucks to get a latte, probably on their way to a meeting with their granite guy or to the vet to get shots for their new pedigreed puppy!
We enjoyed the highest standard of living any country has ever seen. All a person had to do to make their way was work hard! But the Dems would would never admit that things were good in our country. They were determined to demonize the very prosperity that made this country great.
Now, I wonder how many thirty-somethings look back and wonder what happened to the "good-ol-days"! You know, the ones we enjoyed just three short years ago!
If you look it up, the debt per person run up by the various levels of government in the USA is far higher than the average individual’s debt. That means that it is mostly not the standard of living we enjoy, but the spending of the government which is the larger part of the problem.
In my case, as I am debt-free, all my share of total debt is equivalent to my share of government debt.
If all this debt were to be liquidated by a big inflationary crash, the debtors come out ahead. The creditors (like China) would not be very happy, but that’s the way the almond-cookie crumbles.
Of course, the chaos would hurt everyone. My savings would probably be wiped out, and as I am retired, I would be left selling pencils on the sidewalk.
Walker lists four key problems which must be addressed:
Impose tough budget limits
Reform Social Security
Cut health-care costs
Reform the U.S. tax system
Take them one at a time. No one is imposing tough budget limits. When Bush tried very modestly to try to reform Social Security, he was demonized by the Democrats: scoffed at, and called stupid.
The new Health Bill will raise health costs. The claim that it will cut costs is a joke. Check the predictions of costs when Medicare came in: the predictions were way short of the actually expenses (by afcator of 10!!). Same with the Bush drug program, which also has cost much more than all the estimates, including that by the famous CBO. The Massachusetts health program is costing over forty times the estimate. We see a pattern here: government gives a guaranteed benefit, and the recipients spend it wastefully and exravagantly, just as one would expect, when they are enjoying other people’s money.
Reform US tax system? No, the Obama administration is allowing the Bush cust to lapse, which raises taxes severely at all levels. In fact, the increase is worst for the lowest bracket. Check the numbers! All the talk about the Bush cuts helping the rich is just a big, fat lie. Now that the Bush breaks are set to lapse, it is people in the lowest bracket who will have the biggest unpleasant surprise.
The DOW peaked at around 14000 in October 2007 (close to the middle of Bush's second term) and began a decline that bottomed at about 6600 in May 3009. The current recession officially began in December 2007.
“...we need to be prepared to stand on the platform that we’re building today and a big plank in that platform is fiscal conservatism...”
Bingo...and, we’d better be prepared to yell, scream and demonstrate just as vehemently outside the offices of “our” leaders (should they get back into office), if THEY forget the lesson we’ve all had to learn.
I hope I’m wrong about May 3009.
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