Because the government has been overpromising, overcommitting and overspending for decades, it is hurtling toward a fiscal train wreck. The numbers have stopped adding up. Looking out, there’s NO WAY that most Western governments can ever pay their ongoing obligations or pay off past debt.
July 27th, 2010 | Byron King | 0 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "budget"
The State the Welfare State is In
“You can take your loans and shove them,” the Hungarian economic minister, György Matolcsy, did not say. But that’s what he was thinking. Watch out. The Hungarians are trendsetters. They ran a budget deficit of 9% of GDP back in 2006. They got a $20 billion bailout in 2008 and have been living with austerity measures ever since…
July 26th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 50 comments | Continued
Money for Nothing and Cheques from Centre Link
High taxes are the main one. Low employment rates are another. Who works when you get your money for nothing and your cheques for free from Centre Link? Wait a minute. Low employment in Australia? Yup, “Australia’s employment rate – the percentage of the population with a job – ranks only 20th of the 27 rich OECD countries for prime-age workers” reports Tim Colebatch at The Age.
July 17th, 2010 | Nickolai Hubble | 3 comments | Continued
Iron Bulls and Budget Fudges
You can’t have steel without iron ore. And you can’t have a resource boom without an iron ore boom. Just ask the government. It’s counting on soaring prices for iron ore and coal (along with soaring volumes) to deliver an extra $6 billion windfall to Federal coffers, according to today’s Australian Financial Review. The government cutting its deficit next year and returning the nation’s finances to surplus by 2012-2013 when the new bill of attainder becomes the law of the land.
July 15th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 10 comments | Continued
Shouldn’t Do It; Couldn’t Do It Anyway
The US government disappeared almost a million jobseekers from the unemployment lists in the last two months to try to make the numbers look better. Still, fewer people have jobs now than when the stimulus began. Those workers with jobs earn less than they did then. And those who lose their jobs wait longer than ever to find a new one. Housing is sinking again, too.
July 12th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 10 comments | Continued
You’re the Voice, But Don’t Understand It
Daily Reckoning editors have written endlessly about how such stimulus will merely “pull forward demand”, causing a slump once the stimulus is withdrawn. They have been proven right in textbook fashion. But Schiff points out a further crucial consequence of this economic mismanagement. In addition to pulling forward demand, there is the interest on the debt used to pull this demand forward.
July 10th, 2010 | Nickolai Hubble | 1 comment | Continued
Krugman and His Hoover History
Without technically lying, Krugman perpetuates the myth that Herbert Hoover insisted on budget austerity in the midst of the Great Depression.
March 26th, 2010 | Robert P. Murphy | 0 comments | Continued
It’s the Little Economies that Have Trouble
So far, the big economies don’t have a problem. Lenders think they are good for the money. Almost miraculously…or supernaturally…the USA – the world’s biggest borrower – is able to obtain financing…
February 11th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
We’re in a Depression, Stocks Gotta Get With the Program
Either the last phase of the bear market has begun. Or it won’t be long before it does. Stocks can go any which way they want in the short run – depending on investors’ delusions.
February 5th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Obama and the $3.8 Trillion Budget
The amount of the budget itself is staggering. That’s a lot of money. But even more staggering is the glaring omission: the Obama administration is planning to spend $1.6 trillion it doesn’t have.
February 3rd, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Cash for Clunkers Cars
This is a subject which is very interesting to me because I happen to be a guy who owned a whole series of clunker cars and trucks over the years because I couldn’t justify the expense of a new vehicle/a good vehicle/a better vehicle/a vehicle…
September 8th, 2009 | Mogambo Guru | 4 comments | Continued
Madoff Astonished SEC Didn’t Verify His Claims
In response, the SEC says it “doesn’t have the resources” necessary to keep an eye on “the exploding number of financial firms.”
September 7th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
RIP Robert S. McNamara and California’s Holes in its Budget
Robert McNamara must have been in a hurry too. He never had time to wonder why he was sending 500,000 American boys to fight a war when Lyndon Johnson was “publicly promising in campaign speeches not to ‘go North,’ not to send American boys to fight wars Asian boys ought to fight for themselves,”…
July 8th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Geithner’s Trip to China Was, At Best, a Draw
His goal was to bluff and bamboozle the world’s investors – notably China – into believing that the US had its finances under control. Once we’re out of this mess, he told China’s top man, we’re going straight.
June 5th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
