[ExI] I Miss The King of Extropia

spike spike66 at att.net
Mon Jul 18 02:42:12 UTC 2016


 

 

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of John Clark
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2016 5:34 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] I Miss The King of Extropia

 

On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 4:13 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net <mailto:spike66 at att.net> > wrote:

  

​> >…John, US presidents do not control T-bills. 

 

​>…Yes they do.​ Unless the congress periodically passes a law to raise the farcical "debt ceiling" and the president signs it, that is to say unless they agree to pay for the stuff they ALREADY AGREED TO BUY the T bills will go into default…

 

 

On the contrary.  If congress or a president refuses to increase the debt ceiling, the government is still taking in money and can still operate.  It has a number of options, such as immediately cutting the pay of government employees, cutting pensions and so forth.  Even with a forced balanced budget, it could still service the T-bills.  It couldn’t do all the stuff it is doing now however.  Much or most of that would need to be handed back to the states where it belongs.

 

 

>…Let me repeat that, the largest and universally regarded as the safest investment on planet Earth would go belly up!...

 

So an investment you previously claimed hangs on the balance of one person’s signature is the safest investment on planet Earth?  Indeed?  What happens when we eventually elect a president who demands a balanced budget?

 

 

>…And that almost happened, on October 16 2013    T-bills came within 45 minutes of defaulting. That was the day I stopped being a Republican and that is why I think Ted Cruz may be the only person who would be a worse president than Donald Trump…

 

So this is the safest investment on planet Earth?  Should not we be reminding investors everywhere that their investments came within 45 minutes of default?

 

         

 

​> 

We recognize that not all debt is bad.

​ 

Runaway debt is very bad. 

Runaway?

​ 

In fiscal year 2009

​ 

the deficit was 9.8

​%​ of GDP, in 2015 it was 2.​5%. ​That doesn't sound like the end of the world to me…

 

 

 

Debt accumulates.  US debt has doubled in the past 8 years.  That’s irresponsible.  It’s unpatriotic.

 

 

 

​>…The sign that government debt was getting too large would increasing inflation and skyrocketing interest rates, but today the inflation rate is the lowest in my lifetime and interest rates are the lowest in the history of the country. It sound to me like debt is too low not too high…

 

If only they would realize the debt capacity is infinite.  Then we wouldn’t need to pay taxes at all.  We wouldn’t need to work either: we could all live on pensions supplied by borrowed money forever.

 

 ​

 

 

​>>… ​The US has become so addicted to borrowing and spending, we are openly proclaiming we cannot balance the budget without it,

 

So what? As I said, except the for Clinton years the budget hasn't been balanced since 1835 and we don't seem to have reached the point on no return yet. John K Clark​

 

 

Everything is going fine so far, shouted the falling man as he passed the fourth floor.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

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