US Debt Deal - Give us a break - Are they truly serious?

UPDATE 8th August - I believe that Geithner´s comments explain to me what a ´bull´ market is... except for the fact that there are four letters missing from that. Referring to the action by S & P to downgrade Americas credit rating, "They've handled themselves very poorly. And they've shown a stunning lack of knowledge about the basic U.S. fiscal budget math," Geithner said in his first public comments about the credit rating decision. ¨the basic U.S. fiscal budget math¨? A first-grader could take a look and see the sums do not add up... see here. Or here. You could say that Geithner is being an ostrich and simply sticking his head in the sand... except ostriches do not do this... When an ostrich senses danger and cannot run away, it flops to the ground and remains still, with its head and neck flat on the ground in front of it. The head and neck are lightly coloured so it blends in with the colour of the soil and it simply looks like the ostrich has buried its head in the sand as only the body is visible.

I am trying to understand what this does for the credibility of the Fed and for Geithner when it is clear to everyone and his brother that the economy has been totally mismanaged.

UPDATE 1st August - So... there is (apparently) agreement on the debt ceiling. The solution for a nation which is in deep (REALLY deep) debt is to increase the amount of debt they can have while making huge cuts in public spending and not increasing taxes. This proposal is so ridiculous as to defy any proper description. The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum...


UPDATE: With the August 2nd deadline rapidly approaching all I see is a lot of pompous posturing to score political points between the opposing parties. There are some good politicians out there who do have integrity and are committed to serving the people. The remainder should be committed and stop being self-serving. A politicians role is to represent the people and ensure the integrity of their country. Quite frankly, the common perception of many is that the current debacle is nothing short of ludicrous and madness with little concern for the impact this will have on ordinary people both in America and across the globe. The debt is huge yet the approach to solving (temporarily) the problem before it becomes a crisis seems to be low down on the agenda with those ´negotiating´ a solution. In essence, the US Government has, according to pundits, become a laughing stock both within and outside the USA... here.

So, what is likely to happen? One possibility is given here. People on any form of government backed income support are likely to go unpaid leading to all sorts of problems for ordinary people. The question to be asked is whether politicians will still get paid... More views here. A somewhat depressing opinion here.

The reasons why the debt has surged? The Wall Street Journal has this to say... here.


Part of the debate over the pending USA debt default on August 2nd is a (serious) proposal to give large corporations a one off tax break. See here. When you see all the posturing taking place in Washington it is almost possible to think that the politicians are not thinking at all about the typical American who actually voted for them but more for themselves. It is almost akin to pigs rutting at a trough. Hold on, wait a minute...

If you take a moment to look at reality, you will see that past actions to reduce taxes paid by a minority have been in part a cause behind the massive debt America has. Now that things are looking REALLY bad? What is the proposal? The various acts of debate over the economy whereby one side walks away from the table should make anyone take a serious look at the people who ´represent´ them and seriously wonder whether or not they care at all. The Economist has some more words on this here.



While checking out the scale of the debt I visited the US Debt Clock site (WARNING! Make sure you have any work on your computer saved before visiting the site!). Apart from crashing my browser a couple of times, it took (on a good ADSL link) about 10 minutes or so before all of the information could populate the boxes. This involved several ´grey-out´ moments with Firefox and a huge spike in my Internet line usage.

The World is not in much better shape either.



Meanwhile, corporations are taking their profit overseas and leaving the ordinary Joe to foot the bills. This is completely wrong in many ways. And how do politicians choose to ´manage´ this? By throwing their rattles out of the pram and walking away from the table. This is NOT ´government of the people´ etc. You should be as mad as hell...