US Fed Debt $1 trillion in 1980s, almost $8 trillion today--worried?

[rrrevolution]

So the printing presses are the Treasury churning out those new dollars for the government to spend does not bother you?

Devaluation of the dollar is a real threat to our economy, and will hit every citizen in the pocketbook as real wages remain stagnant and the dollar buys less and less.

When we talk about running annual budget deficits of $500 billion, we are talking about your meager salary paid in dollars buying less.

In the early 1980s the US was the world's largest Creditor Nation. By the end of the 1980s the US federal debt was $1 trillion, and people were shocked. Today, just 25 years later we are approaching $8 trillion dollars in federal debt. Even Republicans have to acknowledge these facts (see http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst082205.htm).

By the way, each dollar budgeted by our Congress to hold the line on social program spending buys less each year than the year before. So if you continue to fund programs at the same level as the year before, you are really cutting funding of those programs because of less buying power.

Hundreds of $ Billions spent in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, billions given away to wealthy oil and energy companies in the Energy bill, billions stuffed as "pork" into the highway bill just passed, all contribute to an explosive situation as the price of oil, natural gas, and gasoline skyrocket. Don't forget the billions being spend on healthcare which buys less and less for each dollar spent each year.

And look who holds the largest amount of our federal debt -- China.
Don't think for a minute that China will not utilize that debt holding to influence US policy at home and abroad.

If our economy fails at home, you need not worry about our foreign policy goals -- they will be pursued by our military controlled government at the expense of the citizens at home.

A further scary thought is that the US may not be able to afford the expensive high-tech equipped volunteer military. So a draft may not be the first choice of our leaders, it may be the only choice we can afford.

[Burried News]

1. 50% of Stock Market Trades are by Hedge Funds.

What is a stock derivative? The definition is unclear. They are unregulated. They are traded. There are few controls on them. Estimates as high as 24 Trillion have been floated.

[rrrevolution]

3. Not a technical definition, but means generally ....

a derivative is a contract that allows the holder to control the sale or purchase of thousands of share of stock or options by conversion of the derivative contract itself into another form upon the happening of an event -- or upon the exercise of same by choice of the holder.

IN other words, it has been aptly described as a "bet on the outcome of some future event."

So the types of derivatives are unlimited as the events that derivatives depend up can be infinite in number.

[Burried News]

7. Thank you - went to Wikipedia - they are down today.

Some kind of scheduled updates I think.

[whistle]

2. You have to allow for inflation....

....:sarcasm:

...and also the fact that over the past 25 years (1981 to present) republican presidents have been in the white house for 17 of those years and the democrats have had only 8 years to try to clean up the mess.

[Javaman]

4. I said it before and I will say it again, we had our day in the sun...

The 20th century was ours like the 19th century was Britain's. This century will be Chinas.

We are currently at the stage britain was at roughly at 1939, just before total fiscal collapse. If moron* or one of his room full of dopes decides to invade another country, that in effect will be the financial death of this country.

So deep and breath of this expanse, it would take centuries, a revolution, a civil war or a take over by another nation to fix it.

In the mean time, if we don't go to war and continue on our current financial trajectory, we will just slowly fade away.

What is more scary? Going out in a blaze of glory or just slipping into history as yet another failed society? Oddly, we are doing both at the moment.

colossal failure*.

[whistle]

6. Obviously neo-cons won't accept this shared status and seem to be

...quite willing to rip up the constitution and establish some sort of theocratic fascist military dictatorship to preserve the power of the top 5% of the wealthiest U.S. families with a bureaucratic middle class made up of 20% of the population looking out after the wealthy classes interests, while the rest of the country slides into poverty and deprivation.

[jokerman93]

5. Psssht! Don't be such an alarmist.

Everyone knows that Bush's economy is "robust" and growing in all the important sectors. I just saw it on tv.

:sarcasm:

[Burried News]

8. Nominated. Perhaps it might be worth mentioning that protracted

conventional war is so expensive that it puts it out of reach when you have a weak economy. This makes it more likely that wars using WMD's will be pursued. A weak America is a more dangerous America in that regard.