US Debt May Soar By $2 Trillion In 2009

Washington Post:

With President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats considering a massive spending package aimed at pulling the nation out of recession, the national debt is projected to jump by as much as $2 trillion this year, an unprecedented increase that could test the world's appetite for financing U.S. government spending.

For now, investors are frantically stuffing money into the relative safety of the U.S. Treasury, which has come to serve as the world's mattress in troubled times. Interest rates on Treasury bills have plummeted to historic lows, with some short-term investors literally giving the government money for free.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[darker]

All of Bush's Policies are an "Utter Failure".

BUSH & republicans proved they SUCCEED AT FAILURE.

If those Republicans who gave us the present disaster are going to be vicious,
we will beat them with hoses and waterboard them!

[KoolAidAmerica]

Britain is going to seek IMF bailout in 2009 thanks to both corporate welfare and welfare queens. We are also halfway down that road with corporate welfare. Keynesian economics can only work if there are surpluses in boom years .
theres no alternative to cutting spending we have at least 50 trillion in debt
medicare social security medicaid and the big elephant in the room universal health care
the sooner we realize it the better
else we will end up like Argentina where the govt has seized even private pensions just to run its bureaucracy.

[Anciano]

Educated people know that we need to abolish the" Federal"" Reserve". Some pretend not to know, others are not really that educated.

"total debt of the fed, state and local governments, corporations, farmers, home buyers, and consumers was in excess of $15 trillion. If the total money supply is $4 trillion, where is the other $11 trillion of borrowed money?...The explanation for these anomalies is that the missing money never existed. We never borrowed it, in the normal sense that it was turned over to us and spent. Most debt is not the result of people borrowing money; it is the result of people not being able to repay what they owed at some earlier time. Instead of declaring them bankrupt, creditors just add more to their debt." http://prorev.com/moneyreform.htm

[opusprime]

The Fed is spending US Taxpayer dollars without any appropriations from Congress.

This is taxation without representation pure and simple.

Our Congress has abdicated their Constitutional role with regard to money policy. Abolish the Fed and hold our elected officials accountable.

Ben Bernake belongs in an 8 x 6 cell.

[InauguralBall]

along with all the J bankers.

[opusprime]

Oh, and I just noticed your quotes around 'Federal' and 'Reserve'. Nice touch.

The Fed is neither 'Federal' nor is it a 'Reserve'. Its is actually a private banking cartel that controls prices across the banking monopoly. It is a fraud.

Everyone should read 'Creature from Jekyll Island'.

[any67ways]

and yet people still have a work ethic - i don't get it
what's the point of working and saving if the cheaters and borrowers are the ones rewarded

[Anciano]

Where did all the money go? It was never there to begin with. It's interest accumulated on the previous debt that we owe to the moneylenders:
http://prorev.com/moneyreform.htm

"Today it's still the bankers versus the society. At base, the battle remains private money vs. public money. The outcome determines whether the money system operates to serve the few in control, or the whole society. . .

Mankind can live under various forms of government from dictatorship to republic, but the best systems are those in harmony with human nature. Likewise many things can be made into money, but the best will be the ones in harmony with the nature of money.

Remember: don't confuse money with tangible wealth. Yes, commodities can be improperly monetized by law. The result will make the money system hostage to the commodities situation; hostage to the people, companies, countries that control the commodity. Ultimately it removes the monetary power from society and places it into the hands of the wealthy.

And don't confuse money with credit - either private or public credit. Yes private credits can be improperly monetized by law. But that gives great privilege to those whose credits have been monetized, to the detriment of the whole society. The money system then becomes an engine of injustice - as it is now. . ."

[ChristianEcon.com]

Time for the ultrarich to **pay it back.**

[iDonkey]

did they say

stimulus or

stimulants

heh...

[iDonkey]

let the drug addicts

out of jail

to make some room

for the bankers

heh...

[Chillinout]

If we were to let all of the people out of prison that have been convicted of nonviolent dr_ug offenses, we could lower the prison population in this country by about 30%.

Plenty enough room for all of the Wall Street thieves.

[myangeldog1]

You betcha!!

[HappyIdiot2008]

They are all prisoners of their own mind. Peace.

[Episcopagan]

cheneyhasawarmachine
its called 9 eleven not 9 one one.
Posted 02:07 PM on 01/03/2009
.
Actually, winger, it is called September 11. Rove was the one pushing for calling it "nine eleven." Wanted the association with 9-1-1.

FDR did not deliver an address beginning, "Yesterday, 12/7, ..."

[opusprime]

Where are the investigations?

Where is the media?

Where are the arrests?

What are we doing to ensure these mistakes dont happen again?

Who are we holding accountable?

Why do I feel like we really have no true leadership in this country?

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

see: Barney Frank

[Pennsanic]

George W Bush did three things to grow the nation's debt from $5.7 trillion to $10 trillion:

1. He lowered taxes on the very, very rich.
2. He invaded Iraq instead of focusing on winning in Afghan (another $600 B). Plus no Bin Laden.
3. He deregulated Wall Street speculators. That bailout has now cost US tax payers $1Trillion.

I feel sorry for Obama, inheriting Bush's mess.

[MakeAWish]

What America needs and desperately wants and prays for, is an honest elected governance by the people and for the people. The American people are sick and tired of being used and abused by bought politicians who serve and enrich corporate America and themselves.

The Democratic majority now in office, better take heed of the under current that is brewing across America. I truly do not think you understand the anger of America. You are not and do not listen to the people who put you into power. We have had enough of the corruption that is rampant in government.

News flash for the Democratic party. Now that you are in control of Washington, don't squander, nor take for granted this gift. In four years, you will again be judged for what you have or have not accomplished. I have no alligence to you, only my family and country and will vote against you in a blind of an eye if you do not measure up.

[Viper]

Unfortunately it took 30 years of a failed economic policy (trickle down, supply side, laisez faire capitalism, mindless free trade, outsourcing) the Repugs touted to get us here and it will take that long to undo it and dig us out of this huge hole... and no one really knows how to do it...

It starts with single payer healthcare and an Industrial policy like every other country we compete with and tarrifs as high as China charges us and a military that cost not 52 percent of the worlds militray spending, but one that matches our % of world GDP.. down around 25% or a 50% cut...thats hwat happens when your economy goes down hill... so does your ability to support a large military... thank the Repugs for that....

Regards

[opusprime]

Amen Brother! I'm not holding my breath though. There is something about our political system that changes people.

I'm really hoping Al Franken shakes things up some, and doesnt just join the cacophony.

[Mogamboguru]

...while you can add another THREE TRILLION Dollars of debt over the next few years, too: These are the still-outstanding, aggregated residual costs for George W. Bush's "N.o.n.s.e.n.s.e.-.Wa.r.s." in Iraq and Afghanistan.

See "The Tree Trillion Dollar-War" -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3419840.ece

[yappnmutt]

i always said i probably wouldn't quit smoking cigarettes until they were 100 dollars/pack. looks like i'll be quitting soon.

[iDonkey]

1) make texas a country

2) put bush and fiscal conservatives in charge

3) send all the wingnutts like TiredOfLiars there

4) then they can wait for the trikle down to begin

heh...

[Chillinout]

Good luck finding a "fiscal conservative," that term seems to have become an oxymoron.

Or maybe they are just mor_ons.

[rubygreen]

Texas is too close - I'm thinking Alaska!

[Anciano]

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/message/117503

"Everything that I have read in economic history leads me to believe
that we are entering a nightmare transition era. The business cycle is
essentially a financial cycle. Upswings tend to become economy-wide
Ponzi schemes as banks and other creditors, savers and investors
receive interest and plow it back into new loans, accruing yet more
interest as debt levels rise. This is the "magic of compound interest"
in a nutshell. No "real" economy in history has grown at a rate able
to keep up with this financial dynamic. Indeed, payment of this
interest by households and businesses leaves less to spend on goods
and services, causing markets to shrink and investment and employment
to be cut back.
Banks cannot make money ad infinitum by selling more and more credit –
that is, indebting the non-financial economy more and more. Government
officials such as Treasury Secretary Paulson or Federal Reserve
Chairman Bernanke are professionally unable to acknowledge this
problem, and it does not appear in most neoclassical or monetarist
textbooks. But the underlying mathematics of compound interest are
rediscovered in each generation, often prompted by the force majeur of
financial crisis..."