US Debt Soars By $100 Billion On Last Day Of 2014, Hits Record $18.14 Trillion
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015 17:07 -0500
It seems like it was only yesterday when we reported that, in yet another sleight of hand for the US Treasury and Social Security Administration, US debt rose by $32 billion on the last day of November sending total US debt above $18 trillion for the first time ever. As we further noted, it also meant "that total US debt has increased by 70% under Obama, from $10.625 trillion on January 21, 2009 to $18.005 trillion most recently."
Fast forward to today when we are happy to report that according to the US Treasury, America's debt-funded spending spree, while supposedly slowing down if looking at the declining monthly budget deficit report, never actually has.
As of the last day of 2014, total US debt soared by $98 billion in one day (driven again by Social Security debt surging on the last day of the month to a record $5.117 trillion), and closing off 2014 with a new all time high total of $18.141 trillion in Federal debt - an increase of $136 billion in the month of December and $790 billion for all of 2014.
Source: US Treasury
I read a report that said US consumers will benefit by 75 Billion next year due to lower gas prices.
ReplyDeleteAnd they cram down 100 B in one day.
This entire thing is a joke.
What is a joke is that you believe this crap. And William in my mind Social Security isn't a debt. I've paid my fair share for 43 years. I am coming up on needing that money. It never should have been spent same as Bush should have never cut taxes... not once not twice but three times while running up the bills with unnecessary war and with the country already in debt. he said "it is your money" but it wasn't. We owed it to 1st and foremost Social Security the #1 holder of American Debt. So I guess in a way it was our money but it was pissed away as usual with nothing to show for it.
ReplyDeleteYour hero HRC agreed and voted for those spending bills.
Delete“I've paid my fair share for 43 years. I am coming up on needing that money.”
DeleteTake the total paid on your SS summary and divide by the monthly amount you expect to receive... Do you plan to die before then or do you hope to spend more than you contributed? Barring significant ill health, I would expect it to be the latter.
Social Security was sold to America as a supplement but over time has morphed into the only retirement plan people save for. I was quite fortunate that my father hounded me to understand this point and to understand that Social Security here today, can be removed from the books by legislation tomorrow… Later I read it for myself on the summery sheets they sent.
Social security could be shored up by cutting benefits by some 16%(relieving the burden of current workers who support the system) but the huge percentage of people collecting social security could never live without that 16 percent. What I need is for the government to encourage people to save and plan for their own retirement but alas what we get is a government so overly absorbed in controlling the economy via monetary policy that you can’t get a decent rate of return at the bank anymore and have to depend on schemes that force you to invest in the highly manipulated markets via 401K’s… Those savings too could be decimated by the stroke of the policy pen.
Your last para, TS, describes much of what I feel. Throughout the 90's, I watched the Fed, under Ayn Rand acolyte Greenspan, completely destroy anyone who actually saved their money. By driving rates to zero, the Fed created a pure giveaway to banks, and even that was not enough money for them.
DeleteWith two Republican houses, I believe we can only expect more of the same.
Remove the fed from the business of creating money out of thin air, creating 2% inflation as a goal and have them butt out of job creation as a function and you might see honest money in the system again....
DeleteI don't hear anybody singing the chorus of seriously auditing the fed much less stripping it of almost all of its powers nor do I hear anyone talking about the cozy little relationship between the fed and the US treasury department....
Show me some fiscal democrats that supported any initiatives or legislative attempts put forward by Ron Paul in his many years of talking about these very subjects.
Federal Reserve Achievement: Rich Getting Richer, Poor Getting Poorer, Middle Class Being Squeezed
DeleteSeptember 24, 2014 | americanprinciplesproject
Media coverage of Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen’s speech ignores the continuing predicament of the middle income American.
Sure, those with highly leveraged portfolios or a large pile of retirement assets might care, but that’s not the median income worker. For conversation sake let’s call her Julia. Julia is far more concerned with whether her earnings will ever catch up to those in 2007.
The massive Fed interventions and record low interest rates over the last 6 years haven’t helped her. The government recently reported that the 2013 median income of Americans had plummeted 8 percent from 2007. Over half of that happened while the Federal Reserve trumpeted its various “Quantitative Easing” programs.
Instead of wasting so much time bantering about the Fed’s latest pronouncement, political leaders and the media should be focused on how to make workers able to thrive again.
The often conflicting interpretations of the Fed’s positions points out one problem – the primary product of the current monetary system is more and more uncertainty. The Federal Reserve has adopted what is called in foreign diplomacy “the art of ambiguity,” parsing every word and nuance in each sentence.
An economy that rises and falls on statements from bureaucrats is not a healthy one. It doesn’t have to be that way. Eliminate uncertainty by returning to the gold standard and return to the equitable prosperity that made America great.
In contrast over the five years before the dollar was formally cut loose from gold in August 1971, the real earnings of the average American worker grew by 6.3% per year. Compared to the 8% drop Julia has experienced the last five years, that’s a difference of 14.3% in her buying power.
With the dollar fixed to gold, people did not wake up every morning and listen for how much their paycheck had shrunk in its buying power. Family budgeting was so much easier!
It’s time for a useful discussion. Let American workers flourish.
Fix the dollar.
Mr. Lonegan will be attending our Tea Party this Thursday evening to discuss exactly this subject.
American Principles Project
DeleteGold is Money
Money with independent value is a crucial component of a free society and a free market. Gold has proved, throughout history, to be the ideal monetary commodity because it is universally valuable and has a steady supply growth. The classical gold standard produced the highest levels of long-term price stability and economic growth of all U.S. monetary systems. The current paper dollar standard has caused financial disorder and kept the American economy from reaching its potential.
We promote gold-backed monetary reform at the national and state levels, and work to educate lawmakers and policymakers about the need for such reform. We communicate these themes through the mainstream media, and engage activists and voters on this issue. We championed a presidential commission on gold, before it was included in the Republican primary contest. We have led the movement to use states’ constitutional legal tender power to monetize gold, and have reached mass audiences though commercials and town halls across the nation.
Pensions Project
State and local governments are feeling the pressure of a combined $4.4 trillion in unfunded retirement liabilities. Unless bold reform takes shape, they will be left to raise taxes and cut public services, in order to fund pension payouts. We believe pension reform should be grounded in three principles: truth, equality, and fiscal federalism. This means that government disclosure of pension debt should be truthful, retirement compensation for public and private-sector workers should be in line, and that the states and localities, rather than the federal government, should dictate pension reform.
We are unique in advocating these principles in the public pension debate. We promote these principles through model legislation, media, and public engagement.
State Legal Tender
State Legal Tender was created to foster discussion about the ability of states to use hard money. At a time when citizens are becoming increasingly frustrated about the dollar’s loss of purchasing power, enabling them to use gold and silver coins as currency is a first step toward fixing our dysfunctional monetary system.
Here is a clearer picture of the debt problem, which is $13.03 trillion if you deduct the trust funds. Still too high though.
ReplyDeletehttp://zfacts.com/p/461.html
A $790 Billion deficit in a year in which tax revenues set an all time record. A $1.1 Trillion budget passed by Mr. Boehner in a lame duck session because he just couldn't wait a few months to spend our grandchildren money out his ass. Yes it is on you Mr. Boehner, you who so eagerly wanted to show how representatives and senators who were shown the door in the election could govern.
ReplyDeleteNow we will hear during the next few weeks what a bunch of swells now occupy our sacred halls. How repealing a medical device tax will reign in Obamacare. How waiting until the 2016 election will provide the final piece of the puzzle. How we just need to keep spending out our ass to show the leftist media that " we can govern."
What a crock of unadulterated horse shit.
Ric, if I were you (and I've also paid into SS for 43 years) I'd be fucking worried big time about my retirement if you're going to rely on the greatest Ponzi scheme ever created to support your golden age years.
Being involved in restaurants you can probably come up with great recipes mixing hamburger helper with dog food.
TS, you made a comment further up about being forced into highly manipulated markets and I had a question for you.
ReplyDeletePremise- I believe markets must be regulated to ensure that they are competitive. I also believe that it is possible to create regulation that will accomplish this goal. When I worked in the bond market and saw how trading desks worked in NY, it became clear that the mega houses always had important information first and because of their size and infrastucture, they could frequently be first to the punch. A trader sitting at a desk for Goldman has enormous resources that are not available to a small hedge fund down the street.
Question- should we just allow the mega banks to control the entire market structure or should we put limits on how much advantage they are allowed to have? I watched a ton of financial regulation get rolled back in 15 years time and it's been a pure disaster that is going to erupt again IMO, because we refuse to put any handcuffs on Wall Street.
thoughts?
As a young teen, I use to watch some ‘business’ men while they contemplated various stocks. They would turn to page one of the New York Times, see that this company or that had done something, turn to the listings pages to see, primarily, if they could afford the stock and then call their broker to place an order. The broker would call them back later in the day or more likely the next to confirm the price per share they paid… They would then run to the next addition of the stock prices to find that they were behind the curve.
DeleteWhile it might sound condescending in this day and age, investing in a business is really a professional endeavour and not something that the common individual should be basing their retirement on. Until the advent of the 401k, investing in business has never been part of the pay check workers retirement strategy and any monies that one used to ‘dabble’ was voluntary decision to participate. Knowledge has always been the privy of those closest to the business and most ‘investors’ didn’t and don’t speculate.
From the days of Tulip Madness, investment has generally been done by people with superior access and knowledge and as with Tulip Madness those with inferior knowledge or understanding purchased near worthless tulip bulbs at an unsellable price. That has not changed today and while electronic trading has narrowed the time frame from those who had a ticker tape and those who didn’t, the difference still exists and those who are short on information or talent will lose plus we must always remember, investing is never a zero sum game… middlemen always get their cut. No place for one’s retirement funds.
Your point about the megabanks controlling the entire market structure. Firstly, I don’t think that the markets would operate as efficiently without them… they are after all the market makers.
The control they seem to have exists only because our government is not enforcing the basic laws of this country. When regulators turn a blind eye to naked shorts, banks are allowed to accept unbacked protection for their derivative trades and the Justice Department can’t seem to find one major banker to put in jail for common offences of fraud, deceptive trade and theft, what do you expect? Now I must ask; you what you think is the number one reason why these laws are not enforced… never mind writing a new volume of regulations… why are current and very basic laws not being enforced?
Of course you know my theory. Were government to admit that it has no business in regulating everything, then it would not be so susceptible to lobby efforts. If you can’t push laws that favour one business or industry over another then you can’t be bribed…. Or more to the point as it seems to exist today; you lose the ability to extort business with threats of unfavourable legislation.
Also, as with student loans, the mere fact that the government (taxpayers) are on the hook for business failure and bank deposits allows private money to travel much riskier roads than those it would ordinarily take if they had to absorb the risk. People are irate today over the fact that a company can lose money and the CEO still get a bonus… CEO’s are no longer compensated just for their business acumen… they are compensated for the economic and political connections that provide that company or bank favour over others.
I believe that the ‘pursuit of happiness’ has inherent risks. It requires thought and planning. It requires an education system that teaches kids how to balance a check book, the proper use of credit, the magic of compound interest and how to think… Then, after giving them wisdom, turn them loose. Some will make mistakes… I have and it has cost me tens of thousands. Some will be decimated… I will offer them 3 hots and a warm, safe cot to rebuild their life with. Those that want it bad enough won’t use the cot for long and those that don’t really don’t deserve much more. And before you start, yes, I know that some are actually incapable… I don’t begrudge them benefaction.
TS I disagree. I believe it is imperative that every citizen study and produce his/her own investment portfolio based on time proven methods. To hope to stay ahead of government sponsored inflation each one of us absolutely must be disciplined to look after, to husband a families resources.
DeleteSimple rules of the road:
Invest don't trade
Own pieces of great companies
Reinvest dividends/minimize brokerage fees
Find a way to truly understand compound interest
Watch positions/use patience
Trust your own instincts/own your own decisions
Learn from your mistakes
We all know the price at the pump and prices we deal with in everyday life. I remember buying gas for less than 20 cents per gallon and building and selling houses for less than 20K. I started small and kept at it for almost 40 years. Without this long term discipline there is no way my wife and I could think about affording a retirement in the Northeast near two of our children's families. Using a modest withdrawal rule of 4% of your nest egg each year an estimated 2-3M is required if you prudently discount the possibility that SS may be adjusted over the next twenty years.
The key is to start your children/grandchildren's education understanding the roots of the simple principles listed above. The best thing a grandparent can do is buy a share or two of CAT or Disney for a child and let them keep the annual report in their bedroom. Associating tractors and Cinderrella and Ariel and nowadays Elsa with numbers is a great start for any future Buffet. Every kid is a future successful investor.
It really is as simple as that.
You are correct William. I did cut a small amount for space and it included comment about buying stock in good quality companies and holding them for the long term; a couple of points however. You and I, at least earlier in our lives, saw a world that was ‘relatively’ well-ordered and the rule of law held more importance than it does today.
DeleteWe have seen companies lose considerable assets to, for instance, the entire oil industry and its completed infrastructure nationalized and the ‘owners’ told to leave. We have watched OPEC with a 40 year run of price manipulation that has scuttled many a promising start up in the US. We have watched western oil get into bed with Russia only to be kicked out of the partnership after considerable investment. We have watched bond holders shown the door by our own governments disregard for law and who can tell what the internet will look like when policy makers finish destroying that industry.
I don’t disagree that children can be taught investing but I do disagree that ALL have the temperament. Saving for many people is hard enough but todays come ‘trade’ with us ads make irrational in/out trades appear inviting.
I certainly don’t believe that people should be forced into plans like 401k’s that are in many ways like handing the keys of a Ferrari to a novice driver when the markets behaviour is cooked by FED policy, the fortunes and misfortunes of companies is distorted by deals or bad law of the government (Boeing and GE vs coal and autos spring to mind) and creative accounting cesses to provide a clear picture of accounts. With those factors, picking that long term buy becomes more unclear because companies that look solid today can be undone by government manipulation tomorrow and companies, appearing good, can misrepresent themselves without fear of punishment. A good many people might be able to learn good investing, a good many people have made considerable returns in their 401K’s but a lot of people have lost big because setting aside a certain amount of money each month and depending on compound interest to grow it is different knowing how to pick a stock. My only point here is that regardless of ability, disciplined savings is all you SHOULD need to secure a retirement because depending on investments requires the actions and good intentions of others and without the spectre of induced inflation, you should be able to look to the end of your life and see what you need to save at the beginning without having to second guess anything more than general interest rate trends. That is as simple as it should be.
What needs to be fixed is the hideous induced inflation of fed policy that destroys savings. A person saving a dollar at age 20 can expect it, through FED induced inflation, to be worth only 26 cents when they reach 65… and people still scream for higher taxes.
TS. Thank you for your worthy comments. Your last two paragraphs hit the nail on the head. As you may or may not recall my handle on the former MW American Politics site was DOLLAR INFLATION.
DeleteI mentioned in my last post about buying gasoline below 20 cents a gallon. This was in the late 60's and it was common up until the oil embargo to buy that commodity retail for less than 35 cents. Recently of course we have seen a temporary retrace of the price but generally we are paying about ten times the cost. I mentioned building and selling houses in 1973 for less than 20K. Yes, I did that in New Jersey about one hour from NYC, and did very well indeed on the profit. Today these 40 year old homes sell for about ten times as much. Matter of fact I am currently constructing a modest home to replace one lost to Superstorm Sandy that costs around 300K. Comparable in size to those mentioned above.
My point here is that I have experienced six or seven recessions and two major stock market meltdowns during my time in business and during my investment cycle. I have made many poor stock picking decisions. I have suffered the slings and arrows like so many others who husband their families resources. All in all I remain convinced that prudent investing in the greatest market in the world is the only chance families have to moderate this government growing inflation.
Happy New Year and great investing.
Government didn't grow inflation time grows inflation. Yes over time everything becomes more expensive. Economically the opposite, deflation is a very sorry way to run anything. Everything costs ten times more then it did in the 60's. The Dow is up 22 times it's value in 1965. So wealth has actually outpaced inflation by a large margin if you are smart enough to be in. And most of the increase has come under democratic administrations. Yep it has.
DeleteThe DOW index has been adjusted time after time. If you had a dollar in your drawer since 1970 it would be worth about 15 cents. If you had an oz of gold in your drawer worth $30 in 1970 it is worth $1200 today.
DeleteThe dollar has lost 96% of it 's value since the Fed has been in existence. No disagreement that the rich get richer. The government and it's agency have just killed middle and lower income people.
Your lack of understanding about inflation and indeed its definition is understandable Rick. The Federal Reserve and the US government make it hard to understand but don't tell the people of Zimbabwe that government has no effect on inflation or that it takes a lot of time…
Delete