patrick.net

Patrick says

Patrick,
These are our lords and masters and actually they are frankly frauds and thieves.

We need to kick them out - the sooner, the better.

I don't think anyone will just leave a position where they can print everyone else into the poor house because of a few kicks..

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The Federal Reserve policies contributed to the federal debt to GDP ratio reaching current level of 121, whereas it was around 106 right before the pandemic.

And I read using an AI application that about $660 billion was spent on federal debt service in 2023, compared to

$773 billion for the Pentagon
$887 billion for Medicaid
$302 billion for Veteran Affairs (about $151 billion of this went to VA disability and income security/pension payments)

I wonder how much in 2024 will go to federal debt service given that the "effective" or "average" interest rate for issued Treasuries has been steadily increasing since the Federal Reserve increased the Fed Funds rate from 0.25% (around spring 2022) to currently 5.5%, which is the highest its been since around 2001.

Wolfman at Wolf Street blog website has a recent and excellent article about federal debt compared to tax receipts.

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Congressional Budget Office forecasts that federal debt service will reach about $870 billion for fiscal year 2024.

Hence debt service will be greater than the Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2024.

Compare that to $497 billion for fiscal year 2022 when interest rates were much lower (7 year Treasury avg was about 2.5% in 2022 compared to currently 4.5%).

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” - Thomas Jefferson

https://rudy.substack.com/p/we-did-it-all-over-again

People who could 'get by' on their SS checks just a few years ago have been pushed into not getting by any more.

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I was looking at the $870 billion forecast for federal debt service and the debt to GDP ratio of 122% (compared to 100% to 105% from 2013 to 2020).

I wonder if the uni party (all Democrats and few Republicans) are planning to let the Trump tax cuts expire and to not renew any of them.

The uni party thinks this will help to reduce deficits and consequently decrease debt service payments and the debt to GDP ratio.

That depends if they can keep spending increase no greater than the annual inflation rate.

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AD says

The uni party thinks this will help to reduce deficits and consequently decrease debt service payments and the debt to GDP ratio.

Restoring SALT deductions won't reduce the deficit.

https://rudy.substack.com/p/the-bezzle

To the economist embezzlement is the most interesting of crimes. Alone among the various forms of larceny it has a time parameter. Weeks, months, or years may elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. (This is a period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled, oddly enough, feels no loss. There is a net increase in psychic wealth.) At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in—or more precisely not in—the country's businesses and banks. This inventory—it should perhaps be called the bezzle—amounts at any moment to many millions of dollars. ...

People think they're going to get paid X, but they're only going the get X/2, either through outright default, or the sneakier default of inflation. ...

No one in Congress objected to the Fed’s “new inflation strategy” of seeking above-2% inflation for an extended period of time. This was a financial war crime. ...

“One of the most profound comments that I’ve heard over the past couple of years was with a labor leader who represents low-income service workers…She said to me, inflation is worse than a recession. That is contrary to conventional economic thinking." - Kashkari ...

Yet there is never any accountability at the Federal Reserve for their horrific policy errors which permanently harm hundreds of millions of Americans.

https://barsoom.substack.com/p/so-were-winning-now-what

Beyond the cultural war, is the economic war - and this one we are losing for sure. America alone has $175T (with a T!) worth of debt, and the rest of the world is similarly bankrupt. Balaji has a good post here on it:




This debt is all a function of the fact that no modern state has held itself, or been held in any way, economically accountable. If any of them were a business, they would’ve defaulted a hundred times over by now, and would have been shut down, so that someone more competent could come in and run the show. But that’s not the way it works (to the detriment of you and I). At that high level, the state is in bed with the global central banking cabal, who simply conjure money and debt up out of thin air, resulting in the never-ending destruction of the current and future purchasing power of the money we use to buy goods and services - and the eternal indebtedness of our future generations.

This “inflation” as they like to conveniently call it is not the price of things increasing, but rather the decrease in purchasing power of the unit of account (the money/currency) you’re trading for the good or service. Do you think that McDonald’s has somehow become less efficient at producing burgers than they were 50 years ago? Of course not! But the price of a Bic Mac has gone up tenfold.

THAT IS NOT NORMAL! The Big Mac uses shittier ingredients today, and much of the distribution and production process is streamlined and automated, so if anything, it should now cost twenty cents, not $7.

So long as there’s a money printer, it will dull and even negate whatever other victories we enjoy on the cultural and political fronts.

Patrick says

12 oz * 10 =120 oz * ~$2400=
Avg. Home price = $288k not $400k

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

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Median US home sold for $85,000 in 1985

Median US household income was $24,000 in 1985, yet the average 30 year mortgage rate was 12%

back in 1985 my family rented a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom villa (new construction with patio and amenities like pool, gym, clubhouse, etc) for $425 a month in South Florida ; local minimum wage was around $4.50 an hour, so a single wage earner making $7 an hour could easily afford to rent it for their family

I rented a 1 bedroom garage apartment in very good shape in Panama City Beach for $300 a month back in 1993 and entry level local wage was around $5 an hour

there is now no rentals in Panama City Beach where you can earn the entry level local wage of $15 an hour (for service workers like hotels, fast food, etc) and be able to rent a 1 bedroom apartment ; 1 bedrooms go for $1450 a month

people who lived in Panama City Beach were not house poor back in the 1990s and still were able to average $5 an hour for 40 hours a week and have plenty of money left over

sources:

https://www.huduser.gov/periodicals/ushmc/winter2001/histdat08.htm#:~:text=1984,140%2C400

https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1987/demo/p60-156.html#:~:text=Median%20household%20income%20in%201985,the%20Bureau%20of%20the%20Census.

https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/historical-mortgage-rates/