interest

Market Returns

What market returns can novice investors expect? This article will show broad market returns for stock and bond investments. Two previous topics in this series… Read More »Market Returns

Jim Grant On Interest Rates

Jim Grant opines on the Libor scandal and central bank interest rate manipulations: H/T here and also another link.

Government Is Dead Man Walking

This response is from a regular reader sent directly to me. I blocked out his name only because I don’t know whether he wants it to be revealed. I am in complete agreement with what he says. It is precisely this reason that I believe the situation is hopeless.

As I have said on other occasions, the situation might be resolvable with a hard-nosed turnaround specialist in charge. Even here, the emphasis is on “might!” In a political context where citizens have been conditioned to believe they are entitled to live at the expense of government (read that to mean other citizens because government has nothing that it first does not take from someone else), the situation is beyond hopeless.

Instead, our politicians pretend and lie about the true economic condition, which is equivalent to dead man walking.

Monty,

Today the CBO released “The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022”.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/126xx/doc12699/01-31-2012_Outlook.pdf

It is ridiculously long…but make sure to look at pages 14 & 67… They are the 2 most important pages in the report…in my opinion. 

The CBO is projecting a $1.079 Trillion deficit in 2012.

And they are projecting Spending to skyrocket to $5.520 Trillion in 2022 (from $3.598 Trillion in 2011).

Congressional Budget Office reports another $1 trillion deficit
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72205.html

“The government faces a fourth year of trillion-plus deficits in 2012, according to new projections released Tuesday—numbers which also show little relief in the future unless Washington comes to grips with needed changes in its tax and spending policies.

The $1.079 trillion deficit now projected for this fiscal year ending Sept. 30…”

CBO: Taxes Will ‘Shoot Up by More Than 30 Percent’ Over Next 2 Years
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cbo-taxes-will-shoot-more-30-percent-over-next-2-years

“According to the CBO report, federal tax revenues equaled $2.302 trillion in fiscal 2011, and will increase to $2,523 trillion in fiscal 2012, $2,988 trillion in fiscal in 2013, and $3,313 trillion in 2014.

As a percentage of GDP, according to CBO, federal tax revenues were 15.4 percent in fiscal 2011, and will be 16.3 percent in 2012, 18.8 percent in 2013, and 20.0 percent in fiscal 2014.”

America already has a $15+ Trillion National Debt — 100% of GDP (and rising).

The U.S. fiscal crisis can be simply summarized. Since 2009, the federal governmentRead More »Government Is Dead Man Walking