They finally admit the debt. Get ready.

reply to post by Condemned0625

I don't even see the point in paying off any of the debt as it continues to pile up at an increasing rate. The money that is loaned to them may as well be given as a gift and not expected to be repaid since they can't seem to repay it anyways.

Indeed, from what I have seen, the governments of such overly indebted western economies have been trying quite hard to come up with ways to brush the debts under the carpet, in both the short and long term.

Unfortunately, for them, enough players around the globe see it another way and are very keen indeed to hold on to their investments, AND in the case of some competing nations it must be very tempting to use the situation to their advantage.

It also reminded me of how we hear the Chinese government likes to think in terms of much longer timescales than we have become accustomed to in the west and corporate/state planning - i.e. months/quarters/terms vs. hundreds or thousands of years. When you are looking at a long term plan to re-establish a multi-millenial world power to a position of greatness and affluence, what harm holding one of your key competitors and strategic challengers to what is an incredibly burdensome debt for a generation or three?

We spend half a trillion dollars a year on defense. We've spent a trillion dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan. We spent nearly 100 billion in 2006 on corporate welfare. Oh, we could pay it off. It's all about priorities.

Originally posted by celeritas

Tell me again why the US currency is still so strong and why almost everything in the world is traded in US dollars?

Because we have 11 Carrier Battle Groups, We Control Outer Space and our Ground Forces kick ass.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8df75b514d41.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by thewanger


National Debt Clock

That link has every possible iteration of the National Debt and National Revenue.

Yes it is insane to block the ceiling raise, and it will cause catastrophic defaults. The only thing more insane than that, would be to approve the raise of the ceiling and continue printing money out of thin air, and continue encumbering more and more generations of Americans with outrageous debt! There is no "good" solution. All the answers are very hard, and they all come with considerable pain and consequence, but we are at that point. Time to start paying the piper!