Social Security’s Trustees have released their annual report for 2017, which updates their view of the fiscal health of the single largest government program in the United States. To provide some sense of scale, the program paid out $922 billion to 61 million Americans in 2016, for an average benefit of over $15,000 per…
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Last week, Moody’s cut Greece’s credit rating to the lowest level on its scale, citing risk of default despite the recent write-off deal. Moody’s said the rating decision was “prompted by the recently announced debt exchange proposals for Greece, which imply expected losses to investors in excess of 70%.” The sovereign debt crisis in…
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James Buchanan and Richard Wagner begin their book Democracy in Deficit by explaining that prior to the absorption of Keynesian economics, the conventional wisdom of Adam Smith prevailed. Adam Smith had observed that: “What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.” This…
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The United States will officially pass the 100 percent debt-to-GDP line on Halloween. This is the first time this has ever happened since World War II. As Zero Hedge reports, We decided to dig into the actual numbers (cancelling out the per capital denominator as it is the same on both sides of the…
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The above video is of security camera footage during last month’s earthquake in Washington, DC. Details here. An apt metaphor for the current state of the United States fiscal situation!
Since last summer, the top 3 ratings agencies (S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch Ratings) have made 196 “super-downgrades” on municipal bonds, according to research popularized in today’s Wall Street Journal. Super-downgrades are defined as cuts of at least three grade-letter scores on the traditional scale used by the firms. For example, when the US treasury…
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The market is a yo-yo following the S&P downgrade – investors are searching for stability amid the policy flux created by the current Congress and Administration. Businesses and investors are struggling to create and sustain stable and accurate expectations as to the rules they are likely to face in the future. Steve Horowitz gives…
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In a speech to the Libertarian Party in Indianapolis, Michael Munger gives three things the government has to do to deal with the debt crisis: 1. Cut defense spending by by at least 15%. More than 15% — even better! 2. Sell US bonds in the Social Security trust fund. Also raise the Social…
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In “CBO Releases Daunting Long-Term Outlook,” Tim Fernholz at the National Journal reports that: Increasing federal debt will be a growing burden on government action, crowding out lawmakers’ ability to adopt tax and spending priorities in good times and reducing flexibility during recessions, all while making a fiscal crisis more likely and hindering long-term…
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In “Irish Bombshell: Government Raids PRIVATE Pensions to Pay for Spending,” in the Business Insider, Joe Weisenthal and Gregory White report on what some people consider might be an ominous sign for future policies in the U.S. and other countries to address the gigantic spending and debt crisis. The Irish government plans to institute…
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