Oct 17, 2012

Few Quotes To Explain Gigantic U.S. Dilemmia

Common Sense Commentary:  I looked for a better word than "dilemma" ... syllogism? No...predicament?No ... impasse? quandary?  black hole?  No, dilemma is best, though weak and understated for the condition described in the link below.
 
"If you’re rich you get a bailout. If you’re poor you get a handout. And if you’re middle class you get left out. " That's not a sustainable way to run the system, exclaims investment strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald. From Peak Prosperity.

 ------------------------------------------------------

US Unfunded Liabilities Top $238 TRILLION!!

In an excellent economic lecture series presented by the BBC, economic historian (& author of the recent Newsweek piece Hit the Road Barack) Niall Ferguson states that the total US unfunded liabilities is a mind-blowing $238 TRILLION- over 16 times the total US debt claimed by the Treasury Department of $16 trillion!!Can you say QE to INFINITY….AND BEYOND!!! ? There is simply no other viable solution.
The rapidly rising quantity of these bonds certainly implies a growing charge on those in employment, now and in the future, since – even if the current low rates of interest enjoyed by the biggest sovereign borrowers persist – the amount of money needed to service the debt must inexorably rise.
But the official debts in the form of bonds do not include the often far larger unfunded liabilities of welfare schemes like – to give the biggest American schemes – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The most recent estimate for the difference between the net present value of federal government liabilities and the net present value of future federal revenues is $200 trillion, nearly thirteen times the debt as stated by the U.S. Treasury.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Looking For A Path That Does Not Exist

This is a quote form Dallas FED Fisher (lifted from Mauldin's Frontline, well worth reading entire piece. I am sure it is on web somewhere too)


"It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I did not argue in favor of additional monetary accommodation during our meetings last week. I have repeatedly made it clear, in internal FOMC deliberations and in public speeches, that I believe that with each program we undertake to venture further in that direction, we are sailing deeper into uncharted waters. We are blessed at the Fed with sophisticated econometric models and superb analysts. We can easily conjure up plausible theories as to what we will do when it comes to our next tack or eventually reversing course. The truth, however, is that nobody on the committee, nor on our staffs at the Board of Governors and the 12 Banks, really knows what is holding back the economy. Nobody really knows what will work to get the economy back on course. And nobody – in fact, no central bank anywhere on the planet – has the experience of successfully navigating a return home from the place in which we now find ourselves. No central bank – not, at least, the Federal Reserve – has ever been on this cruise before."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Simplest, shortest possible explanation of our National Economic
Dilemma ... here....
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/EW5IdwltaAc?rel=0


No comments: