US Has No Ability to Pay Back Debt

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The money men won't allow it. It's that simple.

[JimC]

About the only tax loophole I have is claiming my weekly copy of NewScientist as a tax deduction...

[Gawd]

It seems Standard & Poor is starting to agree with Gawd's original post.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-0 ... ccord.html

S&P Cuts U.S. Rating for First Time on Deficit Reduction Pact

Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S.’s AAA credit rating for the first time, slamming the nation’s political process and criticizing lawmakers for failing to cut spending enough to reduce record budget deficits.

S&P lowered the U.S. one level to AA+ while keeping the outlook at “negative” as it becomes less confident Congress will end Bush-era tax cuts or tackle entitlements. The rating may be cut to AA within two years if spending reductions are lower than agreed to, interest rates rise or “new fiscal pressures” result in higher general government debt, the New York-based firm said yesterday.

.......

S&P’s action may hurt the U.S. economy over time by increasing the cost of mortgages, auto loans and other types of lending tied to the interest rates paid on Treasuries. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated that a downgrade would raise the nation’s borrowing costs by $100 billion a year. The U.S. spent $414 billion on interest expense in fiscal 2010, or 2.7 percent of gross domestic product, according to Treasury Department data.

......

You don't know it, but I have a 135 point IQ. And the US deadbeat situation is even worse than first thought: $414 billion just in interest every year on the national debt and that $414 billion has no way of going down for decades. In fact, it will definitely grow every year as the national debt gets larger and larger and higher interest rates caused by investment firms realizing that the US is a house of cards that is falling down. With the S&P downgrade, the interest the US deadbeats have to pay on the national debt in the next year will likely be over $500 billion.

[Gawd]

I know what a tax loophole is. Shit like this is why I mentioned tax havens

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... 16wf8.html

Hey, it's legal. The US has no jurisdiction over overseas operations. The profits were earned in the UK, the US has no right to it.

[Ian]

One teeny little point you're overlooking, Gawd: unlike situations around Europe and elsewhere, the lion's share of American debt is owed to... Americans. Less than one third is owned by foreign sources.

You don't know it, but I have a 135 point IQ.

Netanyahu's is 180. Hitler's was 141.
See? I can pull a Godwin too when I want.

[Gawd]

One teeny little point you're overlooking, Gawd: unlike situations around Europe and elsewhere, the lion's share of American debt is owed to... Americans. Less than one third is owned by foreign sources.

You don't know it, but I have a 135 point IQ.

Netanyahu's is 180. Hitler's was 141.
See? I can pull a Godwin too when I want.

And this make any hoot of a difference because.......????????

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14428930

[JimC]

One teeny little point you're overlooking, Gawd: unlike situations around Europe and elsewhere, the lion's share of American debt is owed to... Americans. Less than one third is owned by foreign sources.

You don't know it, but I have a 135 point IQ.

Netanyahu's is 180. Hitler's was 141.
See? I can pull a Godwin too when I want.

And this make any hoot of a difference because.......????????

It makes just as much difference as your IQ statement...

Not really a telling point, here we rely on cogent argument, not IQ claims...

Aspects of your analysis may well be reasonable, but it would probably go down better if served with a little less delighted schadenfreude...

[Gawd]

One teeny little point you're overlooking, Gawd: unlike situations around Europe and elsewhere, the lion's share of American debt is owed to... Americans. Less than one third is owned by foreign sources.

You don't know it, but I have a 135 point IQ.

Netanyahu's is 180. Hitler's was 141.
See? I can pull a Godwin too when I want.

And this make any hoot of a difference because.......????????

It makes just as much difference as your IQ statement...

Not really a telling point, here we rely on cogent argument, not IQ claims...

Aspects of your analysis may well be reasonable, but it would probably go down better if served with a little less delighted schadenfreude...

You wouldn't learn from a dumb teacher, would you?

[Robert_S]

Heh, Our credit rating goes down.

That might mean maybe our dollar will get cheaper which would mean we can be a little more competitive in manufacturing which could boost our economy. Unless the Repugnicrants deliberately sabotage the economy. I wouldn't out it past some of these teabagger influenced shits.

[Pappa]

The breakthrough in renewables won't come from the environmentalists, it will come from people looking for cheaper energy.

Agreed, but the fact that China is looking for cheap energy does not mean they give a damn about the environment. Their attitude has been noted repeatedly, with dismay.

They have a point though. Why should they stunt their own growth for everyone else's benefit when the rest of us didn't do the same?

Any anyway, their carbon is our carbon really. They generate it on our behalf when they produce and supply all the consumer goods we demand. If we want them to be clean, we should stop buying their dirty goods.

[Exi5tentialist]

The Guardian quotes, 'The British economist Baroness Vadera, a former Labour minister and G20 adviser who played a role in devising a rescue package for the international banking system at the time of the 2008 crash, said the current crisis could be even worse. She told BBC Newsnight: "It feels as scary, but it is different. The reason it is potentially worse is that governments stepped in [in 2008-09] all over the world and saved the banking system in order to save their economies, but now who is going to step in to save governments?'

Who is going to step in to save governments? The only people who can: taxpayers. Don't talk to me about loopholes. They're an ongoing fight, I agree. But ultimately governments have no income but tax. None. This is how the inevitability of tax increases take hold. It's like I said, they're going to have to stop playing games and put up taxes.

[Geoff]

The Guardian quotes, 'The British economist Baroness Vadera, a former Labour minister and G20 adviser who played a role in devising a rescue package for the international banking system at the time of the 2008 crash, said the current crisis could be even worse. She told BBC Newsnight: "It feels as scary, but it is different. The reason it is potentially worse is that governments stepped in [in 2008-09] all over the world and saved the banking system in order to save their economies, but now who is going to step in to save governments?'

Who is going to step in to save governments? The only people who can: taxpayers. Don't talk to me about loopholes. They're an ongoing fight, I agree. But ultimately governments have no income but tax. None. This is how the inevitability of tax increases take hold. It's like I said, they're going to have to stop playing games and put up taxes.

I watched that Newsnight show last night. Some of them talked a lot of sense (particularly the German guy), but a lot of it was scaremongering.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What say we just nuke anybody we owe money to?

[Geoff]

What say we just nuke anybody we owe money to?

Good idea.

The US's largest single creditor is China, for about $1.5 trillion. That would be a good place to start...