When the economy gets rocky, investors often turn away from riskier alternatives to the world’s safest and most risk-free investment, the debt securities issued by the U.S. federal government, in what is often described as a “flight to quality.” The same phenomenon holds true for the world’s central banks, where the primary financial institutions…
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The troubled Environmental Protection Agency has a lot of problems, but according to Adam Andrzejewski of Open the Books, a lack of military-style weapons for the agency’s 200 environmental law enforcement agents isn’t among them. The Washington Times reports on Andrzejewski’s findings of how the agency has spent millions of dollars over the past…
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Not long ago, we featured a creative visualization of data developed by Jeff Desjardins of Visual Capitalist showing how all the money owed by all the governments of the world is broken up between them. Desjardins has surpassed himself with a new world debt infographic, which digs into the ability of the world’s nations…
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Last week, we considered what your share of your state’s debt is. Today, we’re going to find out which state is in the worst situation with respect to its debt! Before we go any farther, let’s consider what we mean by worst off. While having the largest debt per capita is not a good…
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The following chart appeared in a Bloomberg article several weeks ago comparing the size of all-but-completely-bankrupt U.S. territory Puerto Rico with the 50 states. You might want to click on the image to see a larger one to see how your state ranks. Bloomberg explains the numbers: Puerto Rico’s debt per capita of $15,637…
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a lot of problems. For instance, the federal government department has had to tell its employees to stop defecating in its office hallways. The agency’s top expert on climate change is currently serving time in federal prison for collecting a paycheck for years without actually doing any work….
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Jay Obernolte of the Los Angeles Times asked a question that nearly every California resident who has traveled in a car almost anywhere in the state at almost anytime in recent decades might also have asked: “Why are California’s roads so bad?” Given that Californians pay about 40% more in taxes and fees than…
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What benefit does China get for being the largest single foreign lender of money to the U.S. federal government? Well, if Time magazine’s Rana Foroohar is right, the biggest benefit may be that China gets the right to set the course for U.S. monetary policy. Foroohar writes: In important ways, China now controls U.S….
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We’re always on the lookout for creative ways to describe the state of the U.S. national debt and the factors that affect it. Today’s exercise in data visualization comes to us via the Twitter feed of DonDraperClone, who has assembled several charts showing some of the biggest drivers of the U.S. government’s total public…
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The Washington Times reports on a dubious achievement by the U.S. government: In the first 11 months of fiscal year 2015, the amount of taxes collected by the federal government outpaced the first 11 months of all previous fiscal years, even after adjusting for inflation. The 2015 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2014, and…
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