Comments on: A reality check from Standard & Poor’s

By: Anubis

Anubis — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:44:19 +0000

CD it is all a swindle. I buy an antique for 10,000 dollars and insure it for 30,000. In reality I probably payed to much in the first place. I suspect the process by which equities are valued and traded is similarly flawed. Their true value is difficult to assess and most likely sold way over value. In turn investors cover their bet with hedge funds and credit default swaps that may in truth greatly exaggerate the value of the equity even further. Now that the institutions who back these securities (oxymoron) are crumbling they expect the U.S. taxpayer to bail them out. Social Security, pensions, health care and education will all be wiped out.

600 trillion might be right. To negotiate international debt is by definition default.
U.S treasury $4 trillion and rising…
China $750 billion or so…
Japan $600 billion…
Great Britain $500 billion…
Social Security unfunded liability estimated $40 trillion..
Mortgages, equities, bonds, derivatives? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

By: C.D. Walker

C.D. Walker — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:21:50 +0000

I keep hearing and seeing we have all this debt. Who do we owe it to? What is the interest rate on that debt? Where are the Debt holders offices? It board of Directors? Can we negotiate? I know China holds 1 trillion of our bonds, where are the rest?

I might be wrong, but I thought i read somewhere that Corporate Bonds, all together total around 600 trillion; where did all that money come from?

By: Eldon Lopes

Eldon Lopes — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:08:44 +0000

Finally a global realist speaks of our enormous debt problem!

By: gd

gd — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:29:29 +0000

IF BRITIAN WAS A LISTED COMPANY WOULD IT HAVE TO DECLARE ITSELF INSOLVENT NOW ?

By: gd

gd — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:20:02 +0000

Don’t worry the ratings companies will never downgrade. If they do the regulators will come knocking for the recent oversights they made on all those toxic assets. So relax, let the central banks keep printing money and hope you don’t own any bonds. ( that’s right don’t believe the feds effort to buy back bonds to lower there interest rates. They are gaming the market ! sell $100 in bonds buy $10 back NOT SUSTAINABLE !

By: Stephen O

Stephen O — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:11:41 +0000

Certainly Government spending needs rethinking. However, I don’t believe capital projects should be the top of the list. They may be easier tarkets and there are some which are unnecessary, but they do, at least, deliver something tangible to the public. The big spending is on the annual running costs of the public sector. Cutting here will be harder but will yield benefits year after year not just as a one off. But the management of the public debt shows big governement is not efficient government.

Cutting the Eurofighter will involve compensation payments which may exceed the cost of the order! Cancelling the aircraft carriers will render the navy ineffective. Fine if world peace is guaranteed, not so great if we are facing time of considerable geopolitical change, which seems more likely.

By: Peter H

Peter H — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:24:31 +0000

Unlike the Anisazi, Mayans, and Easter Islanders it’s not too late for us. All it will take is a complete rethink of everything (a little bit of leadership from the top wouldn’t go amiss either).

By: Anubis

Anubis — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:40:43 +0000

Very few nations in the developed world do anything sustainably. Not environmentally, fiscally or with their of use of resources. The Anisazi, Maya, Easter Island and even the State of Montana know(knew) full well the consequences of using resources until they were gone. Empires come and go in search of resource wealth. The “pain” will come. We will either choose wisely or out of greed. Never the less the way societies function today is unsustainable making change inevitable.