HP'ers under 25 - your generation needs to come to power quick, or you'll be in a heap of trouble. The baby boomer generation of leaders has gotten us into a situation through deception and fraud that puts future generations on a course to sure financial ruin.
We as Americans should be outraged that our government doesn't follow the accounting conventions that our businesses must adhere to. And some pretty basic accounting too - like recording the cost of future obligations. We jail business leaders who deceive shareholders and cook the books. So will we jail Congressmen and Presidents who did the same? Will anyone even care? And why am I holding dollars?
Here's the latest, nice to see the MSM finally reporting some truth for a change vs. DC spin points. Warning - your view of the US's future prospects will be forever changed after reading this cover story in today's USA Today. Read the whole thing, but here's low-lights:
What's the real federal deficit? The federal government keeps two sets of books. The set the government promotes to the public has a healthier bottom line: a $318 billion deficit in 2005.
The set the government doesn't talk about is the audited financial statement produced by the government's accountants following standard accounting rules. It reports a more ominous financial picture: a $760 billion deficit for 2005. If Social Security and Medicare were included — as the board that sets accounting rules is considering — the federal deficit would have been $3.5 trillion.
Congress has written its own accounting rules — which would be illegal for a corporation to use because they ignore important costs such as the growing expense of retirement benefits for civil servants and military personnel.
"We're a bottom-line culture, and we've been hiding the bottom line from the American people," says Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., a former investment banker. "It's not fair to them, and it's delusional on our part."
The audited financial statement — prepared by the Treasury Department — reveals a federal government in far worse financial shape than official budget reports indicate, a USA TODAY analysis found. The government has run a deficit of $2.9 trillion since 1997, according to the audited number. The official deficit since then is just $729 billion. The difference is equal to an entire year's worth of federal spending.
The Bush administration opposes including Social Security and Medicare in the audited deficit. Its reason: Congress can cancel or cut the retirement programs at any time, so they should not be considered a government liability for accounting purposes.
The government would have reported nearly $40 trillion in losses since 1997 if the deterioration of Social Security and Medicare had been included, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the proposed accounting change. That's because generally accepted accounting principles require reporting financial burdens when they are incurred, not when they come due.
August 03, 2006
Is the United States the next Enron? Cooking the books, hiding liabilities, using unaudited numbers and quickly spiraling towards insolvency
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HP should run - you got my vote
Enron was just the testing ground...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12952860/
Try this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12839694/
and the note about "small: business - yeah right.
And what happens when China knocks on the door and say's
"You got Bill, You pay NOW!!
scary shit to say the least..gee rates are going lower..if you have an ARM!! GET OUT OF IT FOOLS!!!!!
I remember reading somewhere a couple years ago on the net... that the real debt was not 5,6, or 7 trillion, but closer to 14 trillion.. during clinton time.
The fact is: The U.S. is bankrupt. Need I site the multitude of information that proves this to be true? The game is over. Get ready for hard, hard times.
I've been a lurker for over 9 months now, and have never posted until now. I have been telling several family and friends that "uncle" sam is not acting like a very nice uncle, perhaps more like Uncle SKILLING or Uncle LAY. Yes, the debt situation, with social security "trust me" funds sloshing around and pretending to be an asset one second, the next as debt is a sham and simply isn't right. The undisclosed federal debt, hushed up by multiple treasury secretaries and Presidents, runs into the TENS of Trillions!
I suggest reading The Coming Generational Storm by Kotlikoff. Kotlikoff is the gentleman who wrote the recent piece, "Is the US Government Bankrupt?" for the St Louis Fed review.
It's even more terrifying: why are lenders willing to lend such ungodly sums of debt to us? Because our future TAX receipts are the offsetting collateral asset. In other words, my 3 children (all under 3 years old) guarantee the government's debt. They weren't born free, as I imagined they were; they were born as the IRS/Federal Reserve's debt SLAVES. Read Peter Warburton's Debt and Delusion, if you dare. I challenge you to find a copy for less than $75.
Also, the Cash Nexus by Niall Ferguson puts some interesting light on the inflation/deflation debate. Governments, if they "do it right" can lose fewer votes through inflation than deflation. Job losses and asset deflation are more politically devastating than inflation, so politicians historically (provided they are well-informed) have a strong incentive to INFLATE or DIE. They need more Chewco, more LJM partnerships, more off-balance sheet entities and they need 'em NOW.
Oh, please, it's all funny money anyway. Some central banker writes down the amount in a ledger and there's your money supply, right out of thin air. Need more? No problem. Back to the ledger and write down another amount. What's China going to do about it? Send in US peacekeepers to go door to door and collect? Fine. I'll take some dollars out of my purse, go to the loo, wipe and hand them over to whoever knocks at my door. Or I'll just give back my crappy Chinese made computer desk.
Not only did the boomers do this to us, but they destroyed our means to get us out of this mess. How can we expect the 25 year olds to help us when they never had the educational background to do anything about it. Education has been so watered down by all of the PC crap the boomers created that students learn very little. It's more important to worry about kids feelings than to teach them something.
SS runs a surplus, thus doesn't add to the deficit. Matter of fact, using that surplus is one way they "thin" the deficit down. When the Gov. "ran" a surplus in 99-00, it was actually SS money that they used to pay down the ND from 5.9 to 5.7 million.
This dude has faulty assumptions and incorrect data.
And another thing: I am from Gen X (30, born in the year 1975, when the fewest babies were born in the US in some time).
I never signed up for any of these entitlements. I don't want Social "Security" (more popularly among my friends as Social Insecurity), I don't want Medicare and all the rest of it. I just want the tax money back so I can save on my own. I wish the left hand of the Federal Reserve couldn't borrow in my children's names so that the IRS can steal everything back with an iron fist on the right.
I hate to blame the Baby Boomers, here, but I do. They are simply delusional and selfish, and unless we use some serious inflation to bail ourselves out, there is no way that Generations X and Y can bail out this sinking ship. No one should ever have counted on government like this, and should have saved more.
It's true that the Social Security "surplus" offsets the larger debt. But, it's my understanding that the "funds" saved are actually government debt held as an asset that it owes to itself. It would be like if Ford came in and said, "ok, we can pay for all these losses because we have all these assets backing these debts." But what's backing the debts...is FORD stock.
The debt it offsets is the intertemporral long-term liabilities of our entitlement programs, which are massive, unless we lose like 100 million people to Avian flu. Ohhhh goody.
It's pathetic. Our members of Congress have been busy doing the "dog and pony" show about the immigration reform and no solution is being offered. They're just waisting their time. Instead, the threat of a financial crisis,as being discussed here, is ignored, let alone included in the congressional debate.
And when the smoke settles, I'm afraid that we Americans might just find ourselves illegals in some foreign land - like China. And the Chinese government will be listening to our defenses; "all we want is to have a better future for our children."
david in jax: I agree with your comments concerning the education of the 25 year olds. EXACTLY RIGHT ( and it was intentional). I do, however take somewhat of an issue with the wholesale blame of the boomers. Crimson dynamo was right about not signing up for any of this crap and indeed, we all would have been much better off without big government taking and distributing at will. However, crimson dynamo seems to be falling into that "blame the boomer" camp as well. I'm a boomer. I have seen for a long, long time the trap "they" have been setting for us. I would be more than willing to give up ANY and ALL entitlement(s)in exchange for the government (whoever the hell they are anymore) to stay out of my life for ever more. I sincerely believe that most boomers would agree. Boomers didn't ask for this mess. They simply believed all the bullshit promises and lies. In that regard, (damn- this is difficult to say) in that regard, boomers are not the villains - they're actually victims. And no, let's not "boo hoo" for the boomers. We had many opportunities to stop these bastards of power. Comfortably numb anyone?
Oh, yeah, blame it on the "Boomers", that'll solve it all. This lie about boomers being delusional and selfish started with their lousy lying sack of s--t parents, who called their children "The Me Generation", just to hide the fact that the parents were not the so-called Greatest Generation, but the biggest public relations hoax entitlement generation ever to hit the planet, the "I Got Mine" generation. Got Medicare, Got Social Security, Got Pension Funds, Got Early Bird Specials. Now there was a generation that truly ate its young, so their kids could work to keep their bloated carcasses on entitlement life support. Oh yeah, they fought in WW2. But at least there was some sort of noble purpose to that war. However, the "I Got Mine" Generation couldn't wait to ship their sons off to Vietnam, with their "I served my country so should you" crap, to a war with the purpose of propping up the "I Got Mine" Generation's pension funds, invested in Monsanto stock, while their sons soaked up enough Agent Orange Dioxin to deform about 10 future generations. At least boomers had enough balls to stand up to their parents' goverment sham to the point of actually taking bullets. No generation has that sort of balls now, Good Lord, they'd have to disconnect from the I-PODS. And when the "boomers" started catching on, what was the response from the "Greatest I Got Mine Generation"? Ship those drugs into the population as fast as you can, before my kids find out what I really am. And then I can have a few more cocktails while my kids zonk out. And where did Gen X learn about how supposedly "selfish" the boomers were? That's right, from their sainted grandparents, who hated their boomer young (most parasites hate their hosts) and were only to happy to pass it on to the grandchildren. Lotta boomers have worked their butts off to take care of aging parents AND children at the same time.
Except for one simple overlooked point. The US Gov't OWNS US currency printing presses. Understand? The US Gov't. is NEVER bankrupt. I ask you, if you were owed $1000 by the gov't. and they said 'hold on we have to go print it', would you refuse it? I didn't think so. The US Gov't has UNLIMITED funds. That is the difference between them and any corporation. That is why the deficit is 100% TOTALLY MEANINGLESS.
Don't think this is happening? Well, go try and find out. You can't.
swampland sees exactly what I just wrote.
As a matter of fact I used to always cringe when the deficit levels were raised. Now I just laugh at it since it is meaningless. Print some more $. Gotta pay those welfare and medicare and SS checks. YAWN.
Right On, Brothah! Or Sistah!
Brilliant post swampland. Thanks for the amplifying information. But perhaps we could reach back another generation or two (or three or four or more) and find out exactly when did we as a society start to derail. Hint: it goes back farther than the greatest generation. Look at history. WWII was as classic of a set up as was Vietnam. Today, it's Iraq. Tomorrow, it's Iran. There is no end to the set up. No end to the lies, the promises, and more lies. They are certainly laughing at us. Another generation lured into the trap. Reminds me of the classic sixties poster: What if they gave a war and nobody came? Regards, Python.
Don't give me that crap about the Boomers being innocent victims. The generation that stood up to power in the 60s and 70s and then sucked up to it in the 80s. The generation that gave us the anti-materialist anthem "Mercedes Benz" and then used it to sell cars. The Boomers make me want to puke. The Boomers had the chance to mitigate the coming Oil Crisis (which is going to wreck this country harder than any budget defecit) by listening to Carter but decided that they liked Regan's "You can have your cake and eat it too. And you can have your children's cake as well".
As much as I hate that punk Bush, he was right when he said Social Security was nothing more than a bunch of meaningless I.O.U.s. I can borrow money from myself but all I am is poorer in the end.
The Boomer generation has done nothing but squander the wealth that the previous generation created. You had the opportunity to stop Gloal Warming and the coming Oil crash, but you decided it was easier to get rich than live by the ideals that made Woodstock, Watergate, and the ERA possible. If you want to bitch about us young folks and our Ipods just remember who educated us. You did. If you have some complaints about our materialism just remember who showed us how to be self-centerd and lazy. I remember the 80s. I remeber the Yuppies. I remeber how quickly my parents went from wearing sandals and grinding grain to make bread to buying the biggest house they could find, dressing in Izods, and talking about what freaks the "tree huggers" were.
Thanks, python. I've been sitting on that rant for a long time. Ultimately, though, it goes along with that the line "Every Generation blames the one before" from that song by Mike and the Mechanics, I think it's called "In the Living Years". This intergenerational sniping has got to stop, but I think the boomers need to wake up and stop agreeing with how bad they all are. I really saw my parents' generation propagate that myth, with malice aforethought. There's good and bad with every generation. Point is, we are all going to have to work together. What we need is a good alien invasion from another planet to bring all us bozos on this bus known as Planet Earth together.
Hey anon with your simple overlooked point about the government owning the printing presses. Go research the fall of governments and their currencies and report back. You can start with Weimar Germany. But hey, don't stop there. Argentina is a good recent lesson. There's more. Much more. Your simplistic shrug ignores much. Sorry, not trying to flame you, but gosh damn, this is important and you come across as flippant. And if it was all tongue in cheek, my sincerest apologies. If however, you truly stand by your position, then bravo to you. At least you have your convictions. My last wish would be for you to purchase a copy of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" Sure it was published in 1776, but hey, truth endures.
Social Security runs a surplus in a cash sense, greater contributions than outflows. But not an economic sense. All contributions now are future promises it has to pay in the future.
The best way to look at SS is to separate it from the gov't. It is a private pension plan...currently taking in more cash than it pays out (many plans are) and it is force to invest these in the US treasury bonds (which have the lowest credit risk and lowest interest rates).
So the "true" deficit the nonSS part of the gov't is the stated deficit + SS surplus (they currently net it out).
For example if the non SS deficit is 500B and SS surplus is 100B, they report 400B.
The TRUE debt is the debt outstanding PLUS the debt issued to SS. They usually exclude this.
Another issue is the fact that pensions aren't accrued for and medicare benefits aren't accrued as earned but as paid.
There's no point in Gen X or Gen Y getting into politics at this particular timepoint. No one would listen to us or take our advice anyway. The only thing we can do is be on the record about the truth about our current financial situation and where it's taking us. When the collapse happens, then people will start fresh again and reformers will be elected into office (that is, if the country survives the economic riots).
So as always, get your financial house in order, and prepare to buy up everything in sight after the crash, when real estate will be pennies on the dollar (i.e. RTC 1987, Great Depression, etc.)
The boomers are delusional - They think they are going to be able to escape the coming storm (that they AND their parents created), but they aren't going to make it. They never bothered to learn financial wisdom, instead believing any piece of crap that a pandering politician wanted to sell them. The vast majority of them haven't saved a dime and will end up having to work their entire lives, especially after the "home equity nest egg" that they are banking on evaporates when all of them try to sell at once and prices collapse.
So in summary, prepare yourselves, my generational brothers and sisters, our time is coming...
Swampland: So true. And, as if we needed confirmation, look at the Yogsoggoth post. This is exactly what "they" want. Inter-generational sniping. So many divisions. Generational, Income, Racial, Gender, Sexual Orientation, RELIGION, (always an ace in the hole) Etc, etc, etc... We are a flock of sheep. Easily spooked, easily lead. Again, regards, Python.
Who cares about the deficit. You bunch of chicken littles. USA will over come anything. Deficit it does not matter. Plenty of good jobs. just stop spending your money on crap and you will have plenty of savings.
Didn't you hear Mr. Bush say they could end it any time? Forget about private pension, social security is just another item on the income tax with a meaningless name.
Python. Give me a break. There is no "they" that is pitting generation against generation. There is only the economic reality that a serious problem is on the horizon. My post was only a reaction to the mea culpas that is was the "greatest generations fault" us poor Boomers aren't to blame. Truth be told, the Boomers could have dealt with or fixed these problems long ago but they decided to foist the problem on to future generations. Ultimately it doesn't matter who we point the finger at because the reality is that it will be my generation and the next generation that are going to have to clean up the mess. The Boomer generation just didn't have the self-discipline to do the dirty work. Of course we have some serious impediments ahead like living in a world where all natural resources are shrinking and population is growing. Of course the Boomer generation response to these problems were - let's build suburban sprawl, let's buy big cars, let's not save for retirement (the average retirment asvings in the U.S. is $50,000), let's not worry about clear cutting, let's not worry about over-population, etc...
Ultimately it is an exercise in futility pointing at the Boomer Generation and saying "you're responsible. But it's fun to do anyways. And, I think we are entitled to do a little finger pointing since we're the folks that are going to have to act like adults and clean up a mess we didn't make.
Keith, you think private companies follow the rules? They write the rules. They get billions from uncle sugar every year. Halliburton, pharmaceuticals, ring any bells? As far as the debt, that's nothing, the government also insures private investments in this country to the tune of trillions more. Private pensions, Ginnie Mae, T-bills, on and on. Then there are the assumed coverages, disasters, FEMA, Freddie, Fannie. I don't know why the rest of the world still accepts our money in payment for anything. If it weren't for the Chinese, the arabs, and the Japanese propping us up with loans and liquidity dumps the dollar wouldn't buy you a stick of gum. Good luck all you youngsters!
Goth, your post just proves my point about grandkids drinking granny's koolaid. It's almost word for word the crap that "The Greatest I Got Mine Generation" put out about their kids, especially the part about sqaundering wealth, yada, yada. The one thing boomers failed to do as parents was to yank their kids as fast as possible off the knees of the grandparents and for that I am truly sorry. But you see, the boomers had to send both parents into the workforce to support the family and their parents' pension funds, so no one was around to supervise what granny was telling you.
Agree with you about the 180 in ideals and lifestyle, though. Saw it happen, couldn't believe it.
As to global warming, back during the early 80s, boomers started trying to go solar in a big way. Their parents got scared s--tless and lowered the price of oil so that solar was no longer viable, because those pension funds were heavily invested in oil company stocks.
Nah, boomers aren't victims, don't know where you got that idea. Boomers did something about it, and then they partied. They had a pretty good time, except for the part about Vietnam. That really blew chunks.
Boomers had a great sense of humor, too. Look at the old SNL episodes and compare it to SNL now, where humor doesn't rise much above the level of fart and T&A jokes.
re-read every word in this paragraph, over and over and over and over and over again, until you get it:
The Bush administration opposes including Social Security and Medicare in the audited deficit. Its reason: Congress can cancel or cut the retirement programs at any time, so they should not be considered a government liability for accounting purposes.
Ok, I read it and I got it. Will Congress do it? Only if and when the voting system gets completely and irreparably rigged. Which they are trying very hard to accomplish, I must admit. In the meantime, gotta keep the populace in bread and circuses.
WE NEED MORE IMMIGRANTS
Foz, I'm rather looking forward to the riots!
I pay 15% of my first $80k each year to a fund that won't be there
that's just not right. I should have the choice to pay or not to pay. They're legally stealing my money.
Poor government financial planning is the fault of many past generations. But, it was the baby boomers who destroyed education. They were the first ones to get rid of teaching phonics. They made up the idea that correcting handwriting stops childrens creativity. They created "new math". They got rid of diagramming sentances and other ways of teaching grammar because language "varied by culture". They even stopped letting kids keep score in soccer games because "it could hurt their feelings". As a 30 something Gen Xer, these things make me very bitter.
Yogsoggoth: Alright my friend: you and your generation go ahead and take it on. ANYTHING GOES. Do it. Propose it. Put it on a ballot. Push it. Propose it. Do anything that will forward a positive agenda. Make it happen. Bash your fucking head into a wall. IT DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Get it? You blindly strike at phantom objects that torment you. The real damage.....You don't even see.
Granny Koolaid. But, since I had to study New Math, I don't blame you for being bitter. Go on up to Washington and give those boomers in Congress what for. I'll be right behind you.
I now understand this "irony" thing that the young folk talk about all the time. It is 20-somethings bitching about how tough their lives are, while using a computer that probably cost more than the average yearly wage of the person that made their shirt, while goofing off at work in the middle of the day.
Cheers.
Couldn't have said it better myself, Antique. Hear, hear. As for the blame game thing, I think most of us were just letting off some steam and even having a little fun, even if it looks a little ripe. I was not as serious about it as it seems, just sort of trying to illustrate how any generation can spin things, if they want to.
And you are right, hate and nastiness are the two biggest accomplishments of this administration and you just nailed the biggest hatemonger of them all.
Boomers? The hell? Only the last two presidents have been of the boomer generation and most of their advisors and the people in real power were of the generation before. Alan Greenspan was not a boomer. The people who structured the post-WWII worlwide economic system were not boomers. Sorry, I agree that worldwide economics are totally messed up, but the boomers were just handed a bankrupt declining system.
As for the Gen-Xers "bitter" about the educational system, all I'm hearing is "WAH WAH WAH WAH WAHHHHH". Apparently the boomers didnt do a good enough job of stopping people's feelings from getting hurt since the majority of you on here seem to spend every waking moment complaining about your life and how your parents messed it up for you.
Also, please stop drinking the gallons of kool-aid you seem to be gulping down and look at reality. The vast majority of people who grew up attending that HORRIBLE educational system created by Boomers where "they dont teach math or phonetics and spend 6 hours a day talking about diversity and black people and political correctness" or whatever other delusions you have about the educational system manage to GROW UP and manage a decent lifestyle for themselves. Just because you have some psychological hangups doesnt mean you have to bore us with it.
-A Gen-Yer tired of people placing the blame on others instead of doing something about it
Hey Borkafatty: Any help here... or are you going to sit this one out? Warmest regards, Python sends...
The boomers presided over most of the dismantling of US manufacturing and offshoring to boost corporate profits. Fortunately though we will all become wealthy by selling houses to eachother.
GenYer, proud of you. Folks like you are worth fighting for. There are boomers who have your back.
I've read a few political blogs and the ONLY people reaching out to help the GenX and Yers who are getting screwed when they come back from Iraq are the boomer Viet Vets. Because they've been there and understand.
Will someone please tel me how to sell my gold for a profit.
I sold my house for $456,000. I bought gold like Kieth told me to.
Now houses are going for $468,000 and my gold is going for $412,000.
What did I do wrong?
OTAY, back to housing now. Devestment, you are probably right. I think all the bubble blogs are probably getting more traffic now that the cat is out of the bag. And a good thing, too. The faster people catch on what a Ponzi farce this whole housing bubble is, the faster we can take our medicine, get it over with and move on. It's a huge distraction from other more important issues, such as whether or not anyone's vote counts anymore or whether human rights matter. Anyway, one of the international housing bubble bloggers mentioned the other day that a lot of investors in Ireland had large amounts of money in the US real estate market, mostly in New York and Florida. WHEEEEEOOOOO! So we can't just blame the Californicators for this. Is it just me, or is this globalization thing a really bad idea, or what?
http://tinyurl.com/zbst7
OT: This in itself proves that Dush & Company are Pussy's and know someday...someday, americans will look at what has takin place in this presidency and learn from it..no one person can police the world..the romans tried and where are they now...history is a funny thing.
About as funny as the financial situation we are in.
I have a Bubble Idea tho, not Economically..well maybe..
Legalize Marijuana.??..Not!that I Smoke the stuff..
I just like the smell of it ----~
.every body will buy it..and when we are all walking around in a nice High! High!...we wont even Notice
$6.50 Gas
$5.00 Loaf of bread
Rolling Ppaers $ 5.50
Soda $4.50
Toilet Paper..$20.00 (Short Toilet paper I predict a shortage,comodity nearest to gold in my book)
You know the important stuff..Oh and Easy Mac for the kids...Life will be grand..Now drink your $10.50 Starbucks Special.
Little levity to break the tention..Oh and a 12 pack of Heineken!
Peace!..and Cheers.
Bunch of B.S.
Just what we need, a bunch of nose, cheek, lip, tongue, and dick pierced 20 somethings to run the country...
Let them grow up a few more years.
When the US builds a bridge, it is "expensed", and adds to the deficit. But as a business, its a capital asset written down over its 20-30 year life.
If they want to account as a "business", why don't they include the other side as well?
What a joke...
Oh and before you anonopusses flame me No i am not a fan of the Kos, This was the story link..
Just what we need, a bunch of nose, cheek, lip, tongue, and dick pierced 20 somethings to run the country...
Some of the finest software you probably use in that trash can of a computer on a daily basis was coded by a 20 somthing with his dick pierced..and living a good life ..no wait great life..and laughing all the way to the bank..
Borka, good post. And to the anonypuss who just dumped on the twenty somethings and their piercings, I got news for ya. Those twenty somethings are coming home from the Gulf and if I were you, I'd get yourself a double piercing to close your cakehole. You want to be real nice to those twenty somethings coming home. I mean you really want to pucker up, because you haven't seen the meaning of pissed off until they get back here, unless the implications of Abu Graib, Guantanamo and Haditha are completely lost on you. You want to be real polite to those twenty somethings. You want to make real sure they have decent housing, a good pension, full medical care, whatever they want.
"...You want to be real polite to those twenty somethings. You want to make real sure they have decent housing, a good pension, full medical care, whatever they want."
I quite agree. However, I don't think those twenty somethings are the ones whining on this blog.
Foosball break is over; back to your cubicle.
Back to Keith's point about not counting those liabilities.
Basic question: If we don't count these obligations to the previous generations as contingent liabilities, then why are we taxed on that basis? To say that the problem doesn't exist because the obligations are not secured means that Gen X is FORCED to be a bunch of bagholders. This is patently unfair and is outright theft.
That the President, or any respectable leader in authority would have the guts to basically admit this is frightening. That we do nothing about it, and that my generation is so blase about the issue is even more frightening.
Just stop taxing me and my generation and let us find our own way. Saving would be a hell of a lot easier if government didn't confiscate everything.
The debt it offsets is the intertemporral long-term liabilities of our entitlement programs
the last time I looked, it was "military spending" that was the biggest burden by far. nothing even comes close.
the big defense companies, wanting big growth, have actively campaigned against social spending.
Wal-Mart wanted America to think it was something special, because of its Katrina response, but then it fights against health care and decent wages for its employees.
the social security/medicare bills reflect the fact that US companies aren't really that great, or efficient, because they are incapable of delivering health and well being to their communitees.
I ask people: if social security can't deliver, then why should I believe that equities can? that is, if private industry can deliver, then why should there be concern about social security?
IMO, if social security goes away, then our faith in the american economy will go away and, like those in Mexico and Venezuela, we'll demand a new deal.
see: http://tinyurl.com/z7pvc
"Will someone please tel me how to sell my gold for a profit."
Why would you want to sell $1/2 a million in gold?
Come back about november, and tell me again how much you've lost!!
Housing and economy, take a look at this.
http://www.gold-eagle.com/gold_digest_05/ci080106.html
Looking at these charts, not much grey area as to where the world is heading!!
>The only way to survive this thing is
1. Save as much Cash as you can.
I am, BUT will my cash be there when TSHTF or will private savings disappear like they did in the great depression?
"Will someone please tel me how to sell my gold for a profit."
If you sold your gold, what would you buy instead?
Bonds? Stocks? A house?
You blindly strike at phantom objects that torment you. The real damage.....You don't even see.
so true
and
so fu*king funny........
investors in Ireland had large amounts of money in the US real estate market, mostly in New York and Florida.
Shouln't you say "in Ireland HAVE large..."
This is what I am telling you guys. Keith, you should know, because you are in the UK. They buy and buy over here in Orlando, Fl.
It is the Exchange rate. When the dollar tanks, there will be more investors from overseas here by Disney, where there is never a depression, er depressing day. Blue Light Specials for everyone, the dollar is way down!! America is for sale.
There are so many UK/British RE Agents in Orlando, it sounds like London.
"There are so many UK/British RE Agents in Orlando, it sounds like London."
But the UK economy is up shit creek as much as it is in USA!!
The housing market has topped out here too, once the equity dries up, there'll be no money for holiday homes in Spain and Florida!!
What is going on with SS and MC is the same thing that is going on with private industry pensions. Underfunding. They have pension reform which I think boils down to "save on your own mr. Worker".
I think boomers are as screwed as gen X or Y, and maybe more so. They will probably not pay SS to anyone who has a 401k or savings or side income. We paid in our entire lives but I doubt we see any of it. I will not be able to get SS for 16 more years but i am at peak earning and paying through the nose.
The kids might be luckier, maybe they will get to put their SS into a 401K. But, the catch is the crooks in WS will steal it or the inflation hits it.
Gold, land (that can be productive even in droughts like I am now experiencing), and cash. That is real saving.
Traffic? Keith posted this:
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s20housingpanic&r=36
""Will someone please tel me how to sell my gold for a profit."
I like the technique of selling it for more than you paid.
I thought boomersitter was gonna get a new name after buying a condo. Must be as slow getting new names as sending emails.
I don't expect things'll work out smoothly, and have no confidence in government.
My plan for when TSHTF:
I don't have money to buy gold, but I do have just over an acre of fertile land, high up on a hillside. I believe I'll buy some seeds, grow spuds & corn, can, and stock up on beer. When that runs out, I'll make dandelion wine. I'll need to rig a cistern for backup H2O. I'll keep a shotgun across my lap as I sit on front porch and dive into the shelved books I haven't had time for, yet. Now, THAT'S some "fundamentals".
"I have followed this advice myself, so if and when things turn bad I will survive to work and Play another day."
I love the Conanesque-Stallone attitude!
Well I read this whole blog and the only thing other than dribble and wah wah wah is the guy in sandiego who is sittinpattsandiego he said to Save - live cheaply - do not insult anyone - but especially the NO DEBT thing - shit I am 78K in Debt and worrying all the time - but I got a Hummer and a Big titted girlfriend who loves me goood - so wtf I will just rob you if the shit hits the fan....
Ahh, where's Ken Lay when you need him? Oh yeah.
WOW! You've got a Hummer and a Big Titted girlfreind! By the time your done paying for your folly you'll need to rob somebody! Just don't be to surprised to watch all that silicon drive away in that Hummer before repossession!
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