klsolly

I am another Gray-Haired Geezer signing on. I like being left alone to enjoy my life. As luck would have it we aren't going to be left alone to enjoy our twlite years. We are at a turning point in the America and being an old fogey, geezers, senior citizens, "Baby Boomers", and in some cases dinosaur, doesn't give us the excuse to sit back and expect younger Americans to take over the helm. It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress. You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies." Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer's remorse.
With all the education we gave you, you didn't have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the 'Kool-Aid.' Now you're paying the price and complaining about it. No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.

bahmer

Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride. There are many on here that will agree with you and then there are others on here that are still drinking there kool-aid and wondering why we disagree with them. You will find a lot of support here so join in. Please remember to use the quote reply tag when responding to anothers post as that way we will know as to who and what you are responding to. Have a great day and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

Welcome aboard. I couldn't have said it better.

klsolly

Thanks for the Welcome aboard, I have been watching and enjoying your forum boards for several days :)

MarvinSussman

Are you really old enough to remember how great life was after WW II spending put all that money in our pockets so we could buy cars and homes and build all these beautiful suburbs. Why didn't we spend that kind of money in 1933, when FDR was elected?

That would have brought the same prosperity 13 years sooner, the way Hitler brought prosperity to Germany by spending loads of money on the autobahn, the volkswagen, TV, gliders, concentration camps, and ultimately tanks and planes. That's why he became popular.

Heavy spending on infrastructure now would get us out of this depression. Debt is not a problem. Harmful inflation is nowhere in sight.

TeaPartyRon Loc: Tennessee

I to am a Gray-Haired Geezer and I thank you for your input very well said.

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

Earth to Marvin, you need to come back down to earth, because you're on a different planet, pal.

MarvinSussman

You were and remain incapable of contesting a single sentence I wrote. You can't disagree with it but you don't like the conclusion.

Too bad! You will have to grow a brain in order to refute it. All you can do is repeat your slurs and mantras. That's all you know.

Vacaman

Marvin, inflation is just around the corner, not sure where you received your education in economics, war is money too, printing money without GDP or a federal reserve to cover it means cheap money, that will equate to inflation every-time. I doubt all of the Jewish people would agree with your assessment of Hitlers brilliance either. Infrastructure is paramount to a developing Economy but still must be funded by taxes. Until we have true reform in government they do not deserve anymore tax dollars from me.

klsolly

I remember what outhouses were, and had with firsthand experience in there. I remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. But there is no inflation!” Gasoline is over $1.00 a gal. higher than it was 5 yrs. ago and has been much higher than that. The price of food in the grocery store continues to go up. Obamacare cost ? believe whatever is convient for you. Ordinary American end up losing trillions more in home equity. Student loans, which is a new all-time record and, sadly, student loan debt is nearly impossible to get rid of. Once you are committed, it will follow you around for the rest of your life. Median household income, expenses up income down. Get ready to try to do a lot more with a lot less.

MarvinSussman

Q1: Is our so-called “national debt” really a serious debt, an interest-bearing burden that we must repay?
A1: No, It lacks the two essential qualities of a really serious debt. It’s a “Debt In Name Only”, a “DINO” -

1. A really serious debt is a burden. Our DINO is not now and never will be a burden for taxpayers.

Our DINO is the total value of all issued and still maturing treasuries. Who pays for the redemption of mature treasuries? Not the taxpayers! The buyers of newly-issued treasuries pay for the redemption of mature treasuries. It’s equivalent to a simple bond rollover done every day. In every auction, more bonds are demanded than are available from the supply of new issues. Auction winners get the safest, most liquid US dollar instruments; the losers are stuck with bank risk. If it were ever necessary, the Fed could even create an artificial demand for US Treasury bonds by buying large quantities of them in the open market with a few cost-free keystrokes. Where’s the taxpayers’ burden?

Our Treasury does not borrow money like a home-buyer taking a mortgage. It is rather a custodian of funds, like a bank accepting money offered for certificates of deposit. While a bank with too many bad loans can certainly have too many maturing CDs, our non-lending, fiat Treasury cannot have too many maturing bonds unless its deficit spending is causing harmful inflation. And that happens ONLY in a war or emergency requiring rationing. It NEVER happens during a recession. During prosperity, banks are ALWAYS the sole cause of inflation, creating over $6 of credit for every $1 of deficit spending. To curb inflation, don’t restrict infrastructure spending for the future! Regulate the banks!

The Treasury auctions bonds only because Congress requires that the proceeds finance the annual budget deficit. This requirement, now a relic of the former gold standard regime, was suspended during World War II, followed by 35 years of strong economic growth without harmful inflation. Now, under our fiat currency regime, Congress can again finance deficits out of thin air without auctions, the same way your corner bank financed your home mortgage.

Calling our DINO “unsustainable”, Wall Street con artists have panicked the public and many ignorant journalists and politicians in Congress and in the White House. It’s a hoax meant to yield a fortune in commissions by privatizing Social Security and Medicare. And, by bribing Congress into austerity, the Wall Street charlatans are nursing a huge army of unemployed labor to suppress middle class wages and working conditions. As our rotting infrastructure renders our industry incompetent, it is that growing army of unemployed labor that will become “unsustainable”.

2. A really serious debt must be repaid. Our DINO will never be repaid and should never be repaid.

Only a budget surplus can reduce our DINO. Since dropping the gold standard in1971, we have rarely had even a modest budget surplus. None is now in sight. To supply enough treasuries, the ONLY risk-free instruments used for trade collateral, insurance, pensions, bank reserves, etc., our Dino must continue to grow along with our economy. In fact, deflation and then depression will hit us hard unless big budget deficits replace the cash now flowing into China.

Q2: Could savers make a “run” on Treasury bonds?
A2: Yes, when savers can get risk-free returns from the Wall Street casino or from GM bonds, Illinois bonds, or Detroit bonds. Safety is not everything. Safety is the ONLY thing! That’s why the whole world relies on US bonds.

Q3. Could savers stop buying Treasury bonds?
A3. Sure, when nobody needs risk-free interest for insurance, pensions, trade collateral, bank reserves, etc., etc.

Q4: Could savers prefer foreign sovereign bonds?
A4: Yes, indeed! So far, almost two thirds of the world’s reserve currencies are in US dollars and half of all US Treasury bonds are held by foreigners. But if China’s infrastructure (and so, its productivity) becomes better than ours, its sovereign bonds could become safer than ours. But that could happen only if US voters worry more about our DINO than they worry about our falling bridges, failing schools, leaking sewers, aging power grids, etc., etc.
Q5: Won’t we need higher tax rates to pay for infrastructure?
A5: Congress does not use or need our taxes for spending. The IRS repossesses most federal spending ONLY to prevent harmful inflation and then destroys every cent of it. (Cash payments are shred and sold). For spending, Congress creates new money out of thin air, deposits it in the Treasury, writes checks, and makes the Treasury auction bonds to finance the deficit, which is limited ONLY by Congress and NEVER by the availability of revenue.

Every dollar spent and not repossessed by the IRS is saved by the private sector. Our annual budget deficit is exactly equal to the annual increase in private sector savings. YES! DEFICITS = SAVINGS! No deficits, no savings! A tax deficit is a savings surplus. It is money left on the table for the savers by Uncle Sam because he didn’t need it to prevent harmful inflation and because consumers need it to consume. We do not have a “national debt”. We have a “national savings”. The bad “Debt Clock” is really the good “Savings Clock”. How can we have too much savings?

Since bank loans must be repaid with interest and hard cash is moving to China, budget deficits (surpluses!) are the ONLY savings source that can sustain our economy. We need to DOUBLE our DINO / savings to return it to the World War II level that was followed by 35 years of prosperity without harmful inflation, even with very high tax rates. Our (DINO + total bank deposits) / GDP ratio is less than half of the comparable figure for China. Our M2 (money supply) / GDP ratio is half of Switzerland’s ratio and one quarter of Hong Kong’s ratio. Too much savings?

MarvinSussman

Energy, so far, is the only item in short supply. That's not inflation. That's cost. All your other complaints are about debt, not inflation.

Anyway, you have to distinguish between 2% inflation and 4% and higher inflation. The former is what we have and what we must live with to avoid deflation. The latter is what we have to avoid. It comes only during prosperity and is due only to bank lending, not government deficit spending, which is minimal during prosperity, when bank lending is 6X deficit spending.

LAwrence

To Marvin: My wife was a teen ager in Germany at the end of the war. The german people were starving as a result of Hitler's genious When our army came into Germany as liberators the first thing they did was to feed the starving children. The Marshal plan saved millions from starving to death.

klsolly

Your arguments about debt/inflation, national debt/public debt, are just background noise.I don't have answers, only observations of how the Obama Administration is beginning to show their true progressive left wing agenda. It is becomming increasingly harder for Americans to control their assets that they have worked for all their lives. Given the far-left lurch since Obama has been in office,we have seen a speed up of America’s decline. And remember Obama’s words to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev — that he would have “more flexibility” when he never had to face voters again. The danger to American prosperity and liberty is not economic inequality or unfettered markets but a rights-violating government.

alex Loc: michigan now imperial beach californa

I'll just say welcome aboard!