The US Deficit In One Picture

I like this graphic for several reasons, but especially because it puts everything in proportion with regard to the US' current obligations.

One thing I would like to highlight is the large surplus funds in the Social Security Trust and others.  These were 'invested' in a special type of intra-governmental Treasury note.

These funds are not 'gone' anymore than a Treasury bond is 'gone.' It is a sovereign debt holding. If the US defaults on its debt, then it defaults. But let's call it what it is.

The Trust Funds are not the money that the government 'owes to itself.' It is a Trust fund, that is, money held by the government in Trust for others. The Trustees invested it in a special category of Treasury bonds that do not trade on the open market.

So to somehow suggest that Social Security is bankrupt now because the government spent the funds on general obligations is to assert a violation of Trust, a fraud, and a selective default on the sovereign US debt.

And do not think that the world would view it any other way, despite the spin put on it by faux economists, useful idiots, and mainstream propagandists for the money men.

Where would you think they would put a Trust Fund of this size? In a passbook savings deposit account? Federal Reserve Notes? The stock market?  It was given to the government to be invested in bonds that were judged to be the least risky form of storing that wealth.

No, the real problem is that the US has malinvested too much of its revenue in too many fruitless and unfunded projects like wars, overseas military bases, and other subsides to oil companies, banks, and multinational corporations. The partnership between the money men, their corporations, and the government has allowed corruption to grow and prosper. 

The money men and their cronies directed the peace dividend into their own pockets. And now that hard times have come, they wish to not only keep their gains but multiply them, and visit hardships on the very people whom they have defrauded.  Their greed and hypocrisy knows no bounds.

"Adversity makes men; prosperity makes monsters."

Victor Hugo

The US trade deficit and the stagnant real wage are major unaddressed problems, and has been so for the past twenty years. And those are the result of the distortions of fiat money regimes.

Reform and domestic growth is the answer to the US and UK problems, and not further looting and economic pillage of the laboring classes to provide largesse to the money men and paper manipulators.

Chart That Should Accompany Every Discussion of the US Deficit

The Chart That Should Accompany Every Discussion of Deficits - The Atlantic

Obama shares a significant portion of the blame, contrary to what the Atlantic may be implying. But the sources of the financial collapse and deficits are identifiable, but little discussed by the corporate media.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustained recovery.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States of America Is Insolvent

"In case you failed to catch it in our previous articles this year, we thought we’d state it outright for our readers this month: the United States Government is on a trajectory to default on their obligations. In its current financial condition, it will not be able to fund its forecasted budget deficits and unfunded Social Security and Medicare promises on top of its current debt obligations. This isn’t official yet, and we don’t know when the market will react to it, but there is no longer any doubt about the extent of their trajectory. There simply isn’t enough taxing power, value creation or outside capital willing to support its egregious spending...

The projected US deficit from 2009 to 2019 is now slated to be almost $9 trillion dollars. How on earth does anyone expect them to raise this capital? As we stated in a previous article, in order to satisfy US capital requirements, all existing investors would have had to increase their US bond purchases by 200% in fiscal 2009. Foreigners, however, only increased their purchases by a mere 28% from September 2008 to July 2009 - far short of what the US government required. The US taxpayer can’t cover the difference either. According to recent estimates, tax revenue from all sources would have to increase by 61% in order to balance the 2010 fiscal budget. Given that State government income tax revenues were down 27.5% in the second quarter, the US government will be lucky just to maintain its current level of tax revenue, let alone increase it.

The bottom line is that there is serious cause for concern here – and don’t be fooled into thinking this crisis will fix itself when (and if) the economy recovers. Just how bad is it?..." Sprott Asset Management

Just a reminder, in case you had forgotten in all the excitement of a bull market rally in US equities and a reasonably good baseball World Series.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States Is Insolvent, 29 May 2009

The States racked up some serious debt in keeping the world safe for democracy in the Second World War. On a percentage basis, it has recently spent a significant amount keeping its financial sector safe from productive effort and honest labour. They will raid the Treasury, take their fill, and then compel the government to confiscate the savings of a generation by defaulting on its obligations, its sovereign debt.

Tax Revenues Slump as the US Budget Deficit Soars

Income Tax revenue is taking a drop commensurate with the kind of slump which we are experiencing in domestic GDP.



But there is a bull market in government spending. This does not include much of the support being given to Wall Street banks and other 'off balance sheet' shenanigans.



Thanks to Escape From America Magazine for these charts.

Fiscal Meltdown Will Test the Bond and the Dollar to the Breaking Point

Don't blame the Democrats alone for this. Instead blame a political system that is corrupted by Wall Street and lobbyist money, and a mainstream media dominated by four corporations feeding a stream of managed news and perception spin to gullible US households.

The day of reckoning is nearly at hand, in which the currency crisis in the US will shake the financial foundations of the global economy.

"Outlays are rising at 17% YOY the fastest nominal pace since late 1981. With receipts falling 14.6% YOY their fastest drop in at least 40 years the gap between their growth rates is also the widest in the record.

All these rates are accelerating and are threatening to push the deficit to more than 50% of receipts and - at $1.1 trillion and rising - to more than 10% of private GDP."

Thanks to Sean Corrigan at Diapason Trading for this chart.

A Budget Forecast from President-elect Obama

"Trillion dollar deficits for years to come, even with an economic recovery."

Should we get Bernanke a truss?

Yikes!

Obama Says Deficit Likely to Approach $1 Trillion
By Julianna Goldman and Roger Runningen

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama said he expects to inherit a $1 trillion budget deficit and that similar shortfalls are in store “for years to come” as the government grapples with a recession and other spending demands.

A “trillion dollar deficit will be here before we even start the next budget,” Obama said after meeting in Washington with his economic advisers, including Peter Orszag, who has been designated as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“Potentially we’ve got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery we are working on...”