Tag Archives: National debt

Random Thoughts

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | AUG 1, 2024

I find famous quotations therapeutic. Some make you smile. Some become an aha moment. Some make you wish you had said that. A couple of examples with more later.

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. — James Bovard, Libertarian author, lecturer

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free! — P. J. O’Rourke, author and political satirist

It’s good to have a little comic relief now and then, particularly now. There’s not much to smile about when it comes to the national debt crisis just around the corner. Continue reading →

Coronavirus Crisis Will Pass; Then What?

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | APR 21, 2020

When you have friends and family exposed to the risk of the “novel” coronavirus, which most of us do, it is difficult to think about much else.

New data based on revised models hold out hope for a quicker- than- predicted earlier cessation of the anguish. But just as hope gets brighter the light at the end of the tunnel dims. One scientist warns of a resurgence in the fall worse than this one and other scientists warn of a resurgence now if we don’t keep our distance from one another.

Still, it is time to think and plan ahead. The COVID-19 virus experience has left us with a mountain of problems and challenges, some caused by the virus, some older simply given new urgency by the pandemic. Continue reading →

Doesn’t Matter Which Way You Go

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

We were talking to a friend yesterday about the stock market recovering to exceed its peak of 2007, right before it fell to its valley when the banking system nearly evaporated in 2008.

Remember? That was not that long ago, you know.

‘There’s something that just seems ‘odd’ about it all’, he said.

The current state of affairs in America reminds us of that great Socratic philosopher in ‘Alice in Wonderland’, the Cheshire Cat when he counsels Alice Continue reading →

Great Cyprus Bank Robbery

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

It is well known that there are a number of countries in Europe that are in dire financial straits. So dire that they make our $16.7 trillion national debt look manageable.

We know about Greece and Italy, Portugal and Spain. Not only are they drowning in debt, but they have high unemployment (Spain’s is nearly 25 percent) and negative GDP growth.

But the scariest news over the weekend came from the tiny country of Cyprus. Continue reading →

Economic Recovery A Matter of Culture

BY MICHAEL JOHNSON

“I’m scared.”

That was the response of the guest speaker at a luncheon the other day, after I told him his speech was a little scary. We were riding down the elevator together and by the time the doors opened to the lobby I was convinced he was serious.

The speaker was Dr. Alan Greenspan, the man who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve for 18 years and is as much admired as he is despised. Whatever you think of him and his tenure, his remarks were chilling.

Greenspan’s message was that the short-term economic outlook is pretty decent because the stock market is driving the recovery. The long-term outlook, however, is grim. That’s because eventually U.S. debt is going to consume so much capital that there will too little left for the private sector to borrow.

When the private sector cannot borrow it cannot produce and when it cannot produce, the economy fails.

Continue reading →