YGTBSM

Posted on 18 March 2013 by eehines

And these guys are serious.

Recall that Cyprus is as bankrupt as Greece. In order to bail out Cyprus (we’ve been over the legitimacy of bailouts elsewhere), the European Central Bank, European Commission, and the IMF have demanded a one-time tax on deposits: 9.9% on deposits over €100,000 ($131,000) and 6.75% on smaller deposits.

Nothing underhanded about any of this, either. Uh, uh. Because depositors, including many of the 3,500 British soldiers stationed in Cyprus, are complicit in the incompetence of the banks’ management. Yeah. That’s it. We’ll go with that.

This is a preview of YGTBSM. Read the full post (381 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Another Sequester Result

Posted on 17 March 2013 by eehines

Here’s another apocalyptic cut from the disastrous sequester:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering buying 400,000 tons of sugar—enough for 142 billion Hershey’s Kisses—to stave off a wave of defaults by sugar processors that borrowed $862 million under a government price-support program.

The action aims to prop up tumbling US sugar prices, which have fallen 18% since the USDA made the nine-month operations-financing loans beginning in October.

As Defending Enterprise puts it, a bailout of a bailout.

Did I say sequester outcome? Oh, wait….

h/t Spirit of Enterprise

This is a preview of Another Sequester Result. Read the full post (148 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

Magical Thinking

Posted on 15 March 2013 by eehines

Well, that didn’t take long. President Barack Obama already has failed his test.

The Progressives’ idea of a budget is out of the Senate Budget Committee, now, and on the Senate floor, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) will do his best to thrust it home with as little debate allowed as he can achieve. Here’s the summary table (and scroll down a bit to this table; sorry you have to crane your neck); the whole thing can be viewed, in piecemeal form, on the Senate’s site:

This is a preview of Magical Thinking. Read the full post (561 words, 2 images, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Out of Touch, or Doesn’t Care?

Posted on 15 March 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama has said about our national debt, “What, me worry?” Actually, that’s not quite what he told Republicans when he deigned visit their caucus earlier this week; what he actually said was that there was no

immediate crisis in terms of debt.

He’s also said he’s not interested in a balanced budget.

He had this exchange with Congressmen Kevin Brady (R, TX) and Dave Camp (R, MI, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman) at that same meeting with the Republican caucus:

This is a preview of Out of Touch, or Doesn’t Care?. Read the full post (210 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

Federal Government’s Current Policies

Posted on 13 March 2013 by eehines

…and our future. David Greenlaw, James D Hamilton, Peter Hooper, and Frederic Mishkin, in an op-ed in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal had some thoughts.

Research we have recently presented at the US Monetary Policy Forum leads us to conclude that, as debt grows relative to GDP, rising interest rates could bring the debt-to-GDP ratio up to 176% in 25 years, and even higher under less favorable assumptions about unemployment and the current-account deficit.

They explain:

This is a preview of Federal Government’s Current Policies. Read the full post (379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Budgets, Deficits, and Debt

Posted on 10 February 2013 by eehines

In his press announcement last week, President Barack Obama made a lot of…interesting…comments. Here are some, with some editorial remarks associated.

We’ve created more than 6 million jobs in the last 35 months.

However, if our economy were undergoing the recovery he promised his stimulus spending would produce, it would have produced 8 million jobs in that time, and we wouldn’t have fewer Americans working today than at the start of that spending. If we were undergoing a normal recovery, we’d have even more jobs “saved or created” by now.

This is a preview of Budgets, Deficits, and Debt. Read the full post (923 words, estimated 3:42 mins reading time)

Americans, Deadbeats, and Bills

Posted on 20 January 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama, the other day, announced that we’re a not a nation of deadbeats; we pay our bills. What are the facts?

Brett Arends, in a recent Wall Street Journal Market Watch article offers some.

Far from paying our bills, the current generation of Americans—or some of them—have set records for default which probably have no parallel in the history of the human race. During the last five years, US individuals have walked away from a staggering $585 billion in mortgages, credit card debts and other personal loans. That works out at about $6,000 per household.

This is a preview of Americans, Deadbeats, and Bills. Read the full post (1313 words, 1 image, estimated 5:15 mins reading time)

Debt Ceiling Negotiations

Posted on 20 January 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama had some thoughts on this in a press conference the other day. Surprise—I have some thoughts on his thoughts.

Obama said this in response to a question from CBS News‘ Major Garrett on how Obama reconciles his refusal to vote to raise the debt ceiling while a Senator (the raise would be a “leadership failure”) with his current refusal, as President, to negotiate his demanded raise of the debt ceiling:

And, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that we have never seen the debt ceiling used in this fashion, where the notion was, you know what, we might default unless we get 100 percent of what we want. That hasn’t happened.

This is a preview of Debt Ceiling Negotiations. Read the full post (660 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Nominations

Posted on 17 January 2013 by eehines

Here are three and their positions on various matters of some import.

Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense: President Barack Obama has put him up to forward Obama’s defense policy of global retrenchment and defense cutbacks.

Hagel thinks it’s appropriate to negotiate with terrorists—Hamas, for instance—and he refused to join a US Senate letter to the EU calling on them to label Hamas a terrorist organization.

In a 2006 op-ed for The Washington Post, he called for a troop withdrawal in Iraq—right before the successful surge, which he also opposed when it came up.

This is a preview of Nominations. Read the full post (963 words, estimated 3:51 mins reading time)

National Default on the National Debt

Posted on 14 January 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama and his Senators keep saying that House RepublicansCongress must raise the debt ceiling or the US will go into default. The latest example of this claim came when Obama, through his White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said in response to the idea that the administration could simply mint a $1 trillion coin and then spend that,

There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or it can fail to act and put the nation into default[.]

This is a preview of National Default on the National Debt. Read the full post (963 words, estimated 3:51 mins reading time)

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Tag Archives: debt

YGTBSM

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Another Sequester Result

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Magical Thinking

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Federal Government’s Current Policies

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Americans, Deadbeats, and Bills

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Debt Ceiling Negotiations

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National Default on the National Debt

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