I'll say it again: this talk from Obama of not paying SS checks is ridiculous. Because it's funded via payroll taxes and has a trust fund (which is kind of a joke, but at least has a legal meaning), SS should be one of the last things cut. Unless the Treasury is lying, there's plenty of funds for SS regardless of what happens. Mencken once defined a demagogue as "one who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." This certainly the case with Obama and the U.S. public (including some mental midgets around here.) This should be an opportunity to cut a huge amount of waste. To take just one example, SS/Medicare has a ton of fraud. And almost anyone with a good lawyer can get SSI or SS Disability. Moreover, the age for reduced or full benefits should be grandfathered but aggresively moved up. Age 65 was close to life expectancy when SS began in the 1930s. It's a completely arbitrary number at this point. There are other Fed agencies (and plenty of workers) that should be cut out completely. I won't even start on the Pentagon. This should be a great wake-up for the nation and our bloated gov't and entitlement junkies. It should be the equivalent of the alcoholic/credit card abuser/glutton having a major scare and finally doing something about it. Instead, it will probably be another "kick the can" game as we pretend that a few token spending cuts and "tax the rich!" will be solve the problem. It won't be. Nations that have turned around problems like ours have found at least 85% of their solution coming from spending cuts. But I'm afraid we won't do that until a real crisis (not an arbitrary deadline) forces us to.
Do any of you "elite" traders know how GDP is calculated??? Seriously.... I don't advocate an increase. But please get the facts straight. The US is literally *running* on borrowed money. End that, and we blow past the '08 lows... Enjoy..
i'm the US.. and i'm not running on borrowed money...to be accurate-it's enormous US gvt(that's getting bigger and bigger with planned 7% spending increase every year) that runs on my tax money +borrowed.. and still can't get enough..the "current" model and it's pace is unsustainable why i can have my balance straight(zero debt,never borrow any money or receive any financial help from anyone) and my government can't?
What? Just because you can put together words into a sentence that is grammatically correct, doesn't mean what you said makes sense. Since when do the goals and problems of an individual exactly mirror that of a society? If it did, we wouldn't need governments since we would get no added value from governments at all! We have individual goals, and societal goals. That said, I do understand what you are getting at. Just leave out the last sentence, or at least the comparison of a large complicated entity with an individual.
You know, the sad part is that the US has no competition. Imagine if there were three nearly exact duplicates of the US on Earth, but each distinct in that it was always run by: 1) Republicans 2) Democrats 3) Economists Which one would you live in?
I admit, I thought it was inconceivable that the rating of the US is now probably 75 delta to get downgraded to at best AA. A default would be as much a shock as when I saw the twin towers in NYC on fire - I didn't even realize what I was looking at was real until a good minute into it and thought it must have been some sort of Bruce Willis movie.
A flurry of activity to what is a denouement to this entire chain of consequences. For example: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44056087 I don't get statements like: Well, if people don't understand it, does the blame at least not lay with those that provide the data? Why doesn't the treasury have the same transparency that the FED has shown in recent times? Time for change in the way that this nations finances and books are made public.
This is the when when the powers that be turn on the smoke and mirrors machine full blast, have as many dog and pony shows as possible, and bring out the spin doctors to befuddle the public. Meanwhile the Chinese are directing US policy from the back room and Europeans are saying people in the states are bringing the economic collapse of the world when they are just as guilty. The only region that is not involved is South America. I have been speaking to some people about moving to Brazil. If the US takes on an issue similar to a large corporation then the only thing that will happen will be a couple of band aids will be applied and the just done stamp get placed. Right now there should be a public works project to rebuild the infra structure, there should be an army of auditors for the disability payment system, The space program should be ramped up and the Armed forces should be placed back home. These actions would curtail spending and make the place more efficient. Akuma