Behind closed doors and with no cameras present, President Obama signed into law Friday afternoon the bill raising the public debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.
The current national debt is $12.3 trillion. Check out the National Debt Clock, which tells you your share of that -- roughly $40,000 per citizen, $113,000 per taxpayer.
The bill also establishes a statutory Pay-As-You-Go procedure requiring that new non-emergency legislation affecting tax revenue or mandatory spending not increase the Federal deficit – in other words, that any new spending or tax cuts be paid for with new taxes or spending cuts.
I think it's important to look at the amount now owed by every American, vs the amount to be paid by taxpayers. This means less than half of all Americans are now paying taxes. If that be the case, I fear that we are soon to reach the tipping point and the taxpayers will no longer tolerate the reckless spending and taxation in the USA.
In short, debt sucks. Milton Friedman was awarded the Nobel because of his correlation between loose money and inflation. The only regulatory solution is to make money "tight." This is the reason why the ad...ministration trots out Paul Volcker from time to time. Will Bernanke get the guts to raise interest rates? Upon his confirmation he hinted at it, but the zeitgeist of 2010 is Big Government from the road stimulus dollars really hitting this summer, to raising the debt ceiling, to having to win a reelection in November. Bernanke won't get those numbers up post Fall. Therefore, I'm looking at commodity mutual funds which will rise with inflation, property investments, and low-to-mild stock picks. I'm not made of money, but I'll be damned if what I've got is made cheaper by Washington.
ReplyDeleteMy reccomendation is to buy whatever hard currency you can afford, by which I mean gold and silver. Since silver is currently much more affordable than gold, that may be the way to go. Did you know that under the Coinage Act of 1792, the value of the "dollar" was set at 347 and 1/4 grains of silver. That being said, the value of silver today, should be $14. Makes for a pretty stable dollar, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteNo need telling you that gold and silver and bullets are all commodities. As to the Coinage Act of 1792, them guys were no dummies. My fave monetary story is that of the Hunt Brothers trying to corner the silver market. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Oh wait, yes they do, and they're called Saudi Oil Magnates.
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