Your Government is Selling You.

[iamhunter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd-SLRyuRq0&

No tinfoil hat necessary.

His language is, in my opinion, a bit overly ominous.

But what he's saying is fundamentally true.

Our government is not selling dollars or bonds.

They're selling YOUR future blood, sweat, and labor.

[TS12000]

Where have you been? They have been writing $(Infinite) checks out of our books for quite some time now

[SNAFU]

I'm sorry,the USA has been in debt since day 1.
Andrew Jackson came the closest to elimanating the debt.
What I REALLY want to know is who TRUELLY do we owe?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

[Hoosier]

I'm sorry,the USA has been in debt since day 1.
Andrew Jackson came the closest to eliminating the debt.
What I REALLY want to know is who TRULY do we owe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

We owe the money to the bond market. The US Treasury prints out "Treasury Bills" and "Treasury Notes" (T-Bill, T-Note) that are basically a promise to pay. The treasury sells notes constantly, it's sort of like having several billion little credit cards, each owned by whoever bought the note.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/United_States_Treasury_security

When people say "China owns our debt" they're talking about both the Peoples Republic of China state government, and individual citizens (mostly that very rich upper 0.1%). Many other countries that operate Sovereign Wealth Funds have "invested" in brand USA.

This video is overly dramatic, and I would say the government is borrowing against it's future tax revenues. Those tax revenues are supplied by citizens (and some companies). It's the same reason that the US Dollar has value. Once we dropped the gold standard, our currency is valued only in as much as the citizens of the United States work; providing services and building things of value.

Here is where you can buy treasury notes: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/

H.

[68Charger]

We owe the money to the bond market. The US Treasury prints out "Treasury Bills" and "Treasury Notes" (T-Bill, T-Note) that are basically a promise to pay. The treasury sells notes constantly, it's sort of like having several billion little credit cards, each owned by whoever bought the note.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/United_States_Treasury_security

When people say "China owns our debt" they're talking about both the Peoples Republic of China state government, and individual citizens (mostly that very rich upper 0.1%). Many other countries that operate Sovereign Wealth Funds have "invested" in brand USA.

This video is overly dramatic, and I would say the government is borrowing against it's future tax revenues. Those tax revenues are supplied by citizens (and some companies). It's the same reason that the US Dollar has value. Once we dropped the gold standard, our currency is valued only in as much as the citizens of the United States work; providing services and building things of value.

Here is where you can buy treasury notes: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/

H.

Very well stated post, Hoosier..

while reading in that context, it occurs to me that our taxes may be increased by an administration in power to do so, simply to appease the debtors...
despite evidence that increasing taxes will reduce revenue- you think that communist states would buy into that?

[Hoosier]

Very well stated post, Hoosier..

while reading in that context, it occurs to me that our taxes may be increased by an administration in power to do so, simply to appease the debtors...
despite evidence that increasing taxes will reduce revenue- you think that communist states would buy into that?

I think everyone has a fascination with taxes, but the real problem is that spending has become unlinked from taxes. Since 2003 the fed deficit has grown by 500BN a year. 1.0T in 2008. 1.9T in 2009. So the money has been spent, and eventually we'll have to pay the bill on that. I expect Obama will allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse, essentially raising on taxes on anyone making more than 250k by like 3%.

As for appeasing the debtors, well, there are many millions of them and individually they aren't very "important". What does matter is the perceived value of the dollar. If we continue to print money, we reduce the value of the USD. This is inflation. The upshot to inflation is it makes it easier for the country to pay off it's debts. This would upset anyone who holds Tbills because what they are paid in return might be less than they spent, in inflation adjusted terms. Part of the UST's solution is to offer inflation adjusted notes, that go on the consume price index.

My point is this: If you don't like taxes, then you need to oppose spending. All of the spending. Including the sacrosanct 600B+ U.S. Military. All of the entitlement programs. All discretionary funding.

People claim Democrats are Tax and Spend; frankly I prefer that to what we saw in the latter half of the Bush Administration, which was Borrow and Spend.

Ron Paul 2012

H.

PS: Communist states? I don't think there are any. Just despots, (DPRK), tyrants (Cuba), and bureaucrats (PRC) who masquerade as Communists, but really are just working to enrich the lives of their leaders without pissing off the populace enough for them to revolt.

PPS: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Social_Security_debate_(United_States) Reading this, you see that 2.3T of US Debt is owned by the Social Security Administration. The US fed has been borrowing money from the collective piggy bank almost since it was established.