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Yesterday, in my post about the latest jobs report, I said that “our massive looming government debt bubble” will “precipitate the biggest economic disaster of them all.” A commenter here at RedState asked what I meant by a “government debt bubble.” I have talked about this before, but it is an important enough topic that it is worth revisiting. In short, we’re in a bus speeding towards a cliff. We’re probably already past the point of no return. The bus is going over the side. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. About the only thing...

The warnings are getting louder. Is anybody listening? For months, I have been documenting on my website how the global financial system is absolutely primed for a crisis, and now some of the most important financial institutions in the entire world are warning about the exact same thing. For example, this week I was stunned to see that the Telegraph had published an article with the following ominous headline: “$3 trillion corporate credit crunch looms as debtors face day of reckoning, says IMF“. And actually what we are heading for would more accurately be described as a “credit freeze” or...

[Excerp is Note 3 on page 59, commenting on the line Investments (which total over $916 billion dollars), under Assets on the balance sheet shown on page 45 of the report]... All of OPM investments are in securities issued by other Federal entities and are therefore classified as intragovernmental. See Note 1J for further explanation, including the amortization method. All of OPM’s investments are in U.S. Treasury and Federal Financing Bank securities held by earmarked funds—the Retirement, Health Insurance, and Life Insurance Programs. The Federal Government does not set aside assets to pay future benefits or other expenditures associated with...

China's Hayman declaration 30 Aug 2010 In most years something very memorable occurs at the Australian Leadership Retreat on Hayman Island. Last year the Chinese were stopped from attending because China discovered that the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would be in attendance. Rudd had fallen out with the Chinese leadership (Building bridges with China, September 1 2009). In 2010 Rudd was not there and the Chinese came in force and some of their messages are still ringing in my ears. By far the most dramatic was the declaration that China did not plan to buy any more US treasury...

"Kick the can" "Quantitative easing" "Bail 'em out" "The system needs the taxpayer to help it" The Greeks have rendered their verdict on this sort of thing with molotov cocktails, murder and mayhem. Let's take a critical view of this: Was it murder and mayhem, or was it justified violence? Wait a second: All violence is not justified, right? Well, no. If someone kicks your door in at 3:00 AM intending to rape your wife, and you shoot them, that's certainly violence. But most people would call it justified violence - that is, lawful self-defense. On the other hand if...