MONEY: Savings bonds have gone digital

Sunday, January 8, 2012

http://www.doughroller.net/investing/how-to-buy-us-savings-bonds/

Electronic U.S. Savings Bonds–Say Goodbye to Paper
by Rob Berger
in Investing

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As of today, U.S. savings bonds have gone digital. Paper savings bonds are history.

I’m get a bit nostalgic when it comes to paper bonds. There’s just something comforting in holding physical evidence of your investment. And the designs of paper bonds over the years have been quite impressive.

*** end quote ***

In the old days, a family accumulated savings bonds to pay for the children’s education. War bond, savings bonds, even savings stamps that led to a savings bond were common.

Over time, even rubes recognized that this was a joke.

Sorry, but this is just another scam pulled off on “We, The Sheeple”.

If the inflation rate is what I think it is, there’s no way that Gooferment Bonds of any type make any economic sense.

And, any interest on those savings bonds add to your taxable income in the future.

Also, those “savings” count in the formula for aid for that education.

Bullion is a better vehicle for any saving. Similar to passing along an inheritance, the rounds don’t appear on any form or schedule.

Hey, if the Gooferment and Wall Street can have “off book” and “off balance sheet” entries, why can’t you?

Call it jewelry. Just don’t keep it in a safe deposit box. (FDR raided those.) Everyone should have a garden.

Keeping what’s yours and / or getting back what was stolen from you is just financial self-defense.

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POLITICAL: What the government is not

Thursday, January 5, 2012

http://lewrockwell.com/napolitano/napolitano34.1.html

The Case for Austerity
by Andrew P. Napolitano

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Government is not a jobs program, and government is not your caretaker. Government is an arrangement made by free individuals to protect their rights and their property.

It doesn’t take $3.6 trillion a year to do that effectively in America today. I doubt it takes a trillion. We must swallow the bitter pill of austerity now, on our own terms, while we are still the undisputed leader of the free world and while we still have a Constitution, so that we can restore our prosperity in a way consistent with personal liberty.

*** end quote ***

Certainly seems that the 15T$ national debt is OUR problem.

If we were all on the same page, then we could amortize that over generations.

Bet we could sell 50 year bonds!

But we’re not even on the same planet as some people.

The Tea Party and the Occupy folks were all screaming about the same thing. Crony Capitalism, Regulatory Capture, and Rule by the Effete Elite. (imho)

Time to cut spending. And get everyone back to work.

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MONEY: Rich people buy new cars. Poor people do not

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-corruption-of-america

The Corruption of America
By Porter Stansberryleadimage
12/21/11

 

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All we’ve done is convert the government’s nominal GDP stats into a fixed currency value that’s based on real-world purchasing power. The fact is, our data are far more accurate than the government’s because they represent the real-world experience. That’s why our data are far more closely correlated to other real-world studies of wealth in America.

Consider, for example, annual sales of automobiles. Auto sales peaked in 1985 (11 million) and have been declining at a fairly steady rate since 1999. In 2009, Americans bought just 5.4 million passenger cars. As a result, the median age of a registered vehicle in the U.S. is almost 10 years.

Our data shows that real per-capita wealth peaked in the late 1960s. Guess when we find the absolutely lowest median age of the U.S. fleet? In 1969. At the end of the 1960s, the median age of all the cars on the road in the U.S. was only 5.1 years. Even as recently as 1990, the median age was only 6.5 years.

Rich people buy new cars. Poor people do not.

 

*** end quote ***

 

Once again we have the “underground” confirming what we know in our gut, the country is getting poorer day by day.

 

“Penny candy”! Remember that? Like the recent Ron Paul point about 1964 dimes and gas, “penny candy” is a similar point.

 

One tenth of one single silver dime in the Sixties would get you one or more pieces of loose candy at the cash register. (Amazing in light of today’s focus on germs and health hazards that anyone survived.) Fast forward to today. That silver dime is worth about two of today’s dollars. So a tenth is about 20 cents. “Penny candy” is sold in quarter “gum ball” dispensers. So all that’s changed is the value of the money with respect to the  goods available.

 

Who wins in this inflation? No surprise there. The politicians and bureaucrats!

 

Argh!

 

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FLASH: The next debt limit debate

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-ask-debt-limit-hike-treasury-official-152416457.html

Obama to ask for debt limit hike: Treasury officialReutersReuters – 3 mins 32 secs ago

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government’s debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official on Tuesday.

The approval is expected to go through without a challenge, given that Congress is in recess until later in January and the request is in line with an agreement to keep the U.S. government funded into 2013.

The debt is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current cap by December 30, when the United States has $82 billion in interest on its debt and payments such as Social Security coming due. President Barack Obama is expected to ask for authority to increase the borrowing limit by $1.2 trillion, part of the spending authority that was negotiated between Congress and the White House this summer.

*** end quote ***

OK, let’s start another “debt deal”. No!

No more debt!

Ever.

In fact, it’s sticking it to the posterity. Stop spending.

End the FED.

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RANT: “Default”? No way, not needed

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

As a political junkie, I’m enraged when some bozo (i.e., politician and /or bureaucrat) is allowed by some talking head to say “default” without opposition.

IMHO any reasonable person would pay the interest on the debt first, then the social security and other mandatory welfare payments, and come up with a “total must pay”. Subtract that total from the budget to come up with “what’s left to pay”. Subtract “total must pay” from current receipts for “what’s left”.

Divide “what’s left” by “what’s left to pay” and that’s the haircut that the budget must be slashed by.

No one is going to be happy, but no default. It’ll set off a lot of wailing and gnashing but that’s what fiscal discipline is all about.

That’s why I say don’t raise the debt ceiling. And, don’t let politicians and bureaucrats scare old people by saying no soc sec or the markets by saying default.

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POLITICAL: BHO44 SOTU long on words; short on meaningful debt reduction

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=255325#ixzz1C9GPMNFb  

And the debt bomb ticks on
Posted: January 25, 2011
Pat Buchanan

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Undeniably. Yet, consider.

The federal deficit for the fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30, is projected at between $1,200 billion and $1,500 billion.

Thus, the $100 billion in cuts the firebrands are pushing, and few think they will get, add up at best to 8 percent of the deficit and 2.5 percent of the $3.87 trillion budget Obama proposed.

Thus, at best, this Congress will only slightly reduce the rate of speed at which we are heading toward a debt default.

*** end quote ***

I heard a lot of “investment”, “infrastructure”, and other pie in the sky.

Even the Tea Party “firebrands” aren’t cutting big enough.

And, they insist on using the Federal Reserve Bank Notes, mislabeled “dollars”.

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AN ASIDE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar

*** begin quote ***

In 1792 the U.S. Congress adopted legislation titled An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States. Section 9 of that act authorized the production of various coins, including “DOLLARS OR UNITS—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver”.

*** end quote ***

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RESUMING

I’d suggest that the Debt Limit NOT be raised. Close the “credit card”.

I’d suggest that we need to go back to 30 year Treasury bonds.

I’d suggest that we issue special 50 or 100 year debt reduction bonds to amortize the debt.

I’d suggest that we go back to “Constitutional money” and end the FED.

But what do I know!

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