patrick.net

good night

The US Treasury must rollover 1 trillion dollars of short term debt this year and 1 trillion next year.

This is because they took advantage of low interest rates in years past to finance the national debt with short term paper.

Because of this, bond yields will continue to rise for years to come; even if the fed stops raising interest rates. This means that mortgage interest rates will continue to rise as it becomes more and more difficult to float all that paper.

The debt service for the national debt will cause massive spending cuts or taxes to rise. Where will the money come from if taxes rise?

Here's a thought. Before Regan took office, corporations were paying 32% of all revenues collected. Today corporations contribute only 7%. Should corporate contributions be ratcheted back up to pay for the shortfall?

nice castle in the czech republic...

etymological factoid: the term 'real estate' comes directly from 'royal estate', i.e. making lands owned by the crown available to you serfs to occupy under sufferance... e.g. the brazilian unit of currency is the 'real', which is the same as the 'royal' or 'crown' etc of other countries...

Perhaps Australia has inefficient middlemen that mark up the prices of locally produced items.

they would have to be completely on the gouge, given that the wine has to pass through sydney to get overseas anyhow...

something on the news just now, there's a billion litres of unsold australian wine in storage just now, an extra 40,000 hectares were planted in the 90s partly in response to the 54c:$1 exchange rate, so now there's an oversupply. winemakers are offering $180 a tonne for grapes, which apparently is less than the cost of growing/picking...

anyone want to buy a billion litre wine lake cheap? we'll all be awash in booze...

nomadtoons2 Says:
Ray,
Wow, at least you heard back from that guy. I’ve written to the Mayor of Alameda, several newspapers, and of course all the senators and the Govna’ a few times, and nobody except one of the newspapers got back to me, and the person who emailed me from the paper was doing so because he too was pissed that a newspaper editor can’t afford anything in town. I think most local politicians would rather just look the other way and stay out of it, which is probably wise because either stand they take will ultimatly put mud on their hands.

Ray W Says:
nomadtoons2;
I think most local politicians would rather just look the other way and stay out of it, which is probably wise because either stand they take will ultimatly put mud on their hands.

congratulation to ray w and nomadtoons(2) for making an effort and trying to engage politicians. i'm presently getting up the state 'Centre For Affordable Housing' whose director makes more than 100K and is supposed to be an incredibly capable wheeler/dealer, and they have built or brokered nothing in 3 years of existence.

Jason Says:
There is not just one housing bubble, but two bubbles stacked on top of each other.

My God, a futurist article that's not about sabre-rattling and naming all the allies and enemies and mandating global supremacy... they're going soft...

For starters, we have to recognize that the very reason capitalism exists is to have asset price increases.

i don't agree. capitalism is about accumulating capital to fund enterprise, which would be expected to be some form of production, including paying wages to workers working in the enterprise. so the idea that the assets in the form of plant 'need' to appreciate is specious. further, i would not count housing to be an acceptable transactable 'capitalistic asset class' in the first place, as it is primarily human shelter.

the idea that 'asset' prices should increase no doubt comes from the ubiquitous american sport and pasttime of trying to buy shares low and sell them high for a capital gain, with no regard for the actual productive value of the underlying company...

p.s. I liked the cartoon on that article
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/2006/0112.pdf
with the christmas stockings - giant stockings for the 'charismatic CEOs', corporate profits and tax cuts for the rich, and wages and pensions down for ordinary workers, and still no decent universal health care - pure american unfettered market capitalism at work...