Is the US bankrupt?

I can't follow his math but I'm taking the other side anyway. Even using that dictionary definition as he does - we aren't.

If someone thinks we are at the - end of our resources, stripped bear (that mispelled?), bereft, wanting in property... - do a better job showing it than he does. Using his definition, the closest thing to any definition of bankruptcy I know of is the part about not paying creditors - and we are generally paying our debts as they become due and have been for years.

Show me a US default or how one is likely. Worst case is we buy back the debt, isn't it?

Wasn't it the great John Connally that said to the world - - "it's our currency but it's your problem."

 

The dollar is tanking but that will gap down the trade deficit. the US wont be broke by that.
Now with the democrats taking over, its another story. If the US is going for bankruptcy it will be through democrats measures to 'help the elderly and needy'

 

As an individual, if you owe $10,000 to the bank, then it is your problem. But, it you owe the bank $100,000,000 then it’s the bank’s problem.

Same goes for the US as a country.

The US debt is so huge now it's everyone else’s problem.

Enjoy!

 

A message to some of the idiots on this thread: One glance at not only the inverted U.S. Treasury yield curve but also at the historically low yield on the long end, shows any non-moron that the U.S. is hardly "bankrupt." And as someone who has traded a few MILLION T-Bond futures I can assure you that Asian Central Banks are not "propping up" our credit markets. Are they huge buyers/holders? Of course. It's because they outbid under invested pension funds and insurance companies (who strip long bonds into zero's) at every auction. Would yields be higher without Asia. Certainly. Would yields be precipitously higher? No. Further it's safe to assume that Asia will be Treasury sellers only on dollar strength rather than dollar weakness.

BTW: Japanese government debt is more than twice the per capita amount of U.S. debt.

 

how can the US go bankrupt when they can always print?

You just don't want to touch the dollar, that's hpw the adjustment will occur, not through bankruptcy

 

"The US Trade Deficit is Unsustainable"

http://www.safehaven.com/article-3162.htm


Pa(b)stPrime, the thinking from a bond trader could likely bankrupt the US economy. From a business point of view, you want to be a seller not a buyer; and you would rather be a producer not a consumer.

Trade imbalance won't be good for the economy period, huge trade imbalance will
have detrimental affects in the future. Japan can get out of its temporary trade deficit because of high exports, meanwhile the US is teh other way around hardly comparable to Japan.

 

that make no sense to me. Dollar weakness means less dollars into Asia hence less buying (more selling) of Treasuries. The reason why they were buyers recently is not because the dollar is weakening but because it is still strong (from an equilibrium perspective).
By the way I do not get why you brag with your experience in ZBs when the short term is really what matters for this kind of discussion.

 

Here's another thing - - all my life I've seen that debt clock in NYC and stories about it but I've never seen an accounting of assets of the United States -e.g. land, buildings, personal property, intangibles, mineral rights, etc..

What I have in mind here is whether it can even be said that our liabilities exceed our assets which is among the ways insolvency was once defined.

 

The trade imbalance is a different story. Just the same though it's not an issue predicated on solvency. IOW's we could choose to produce low priced goods made by low wage Mexicans and sold domestically in a "protected" market. Obviously the American marketplace (of which we're each full members) chooses not to follow those methods.

 

plus the assets held abroad. the US has a lot of bullets to burn in terms of trade deficit