Thursday, July 4, 2024
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Why I'm Voting Against Labour - Peter Hitchens
Not many people would be interested in British politics. On the surface, it would not seem relevant to them. However, this discussion reflects how the world has moved toward socialism and how politics has failed to fix this.
Peter Hitchens is starting to sound more like his highly erudite late brother Christopher Hitchens who often overshadowed him. Peter is deeply religious and conservative. His brother was a very outspoken anti-religious atheist who was also a moderate liberal. He frequently spoke about the horrors of religion, especially regarding Islam.
Fwd: The world's and Nation's Debt
From: Larry
Governments owe an unprecedented $91 trillion, an amount almost equal to the size of the global economy and one that will ultimately exact a heavy toll on their populations.
Debt burdens have grown so large — in part because of the cost of the pandemic — that they now pose a growing threat to living standards even in rich economies, including the United States.
Yet, in a year of elections around the world, politicians are largely ignoring the problem, unwilling to level with voters about the tax increases and spending cuts needed to tackle the deluge of borrowing. In some cases, they're even making profligate promises that could at the very least jack up inflation again and could even trigger a new financial crisis.
The International Monetary Fund last week reiterated its warning that "chronic fiscal deficits" in the US must be "urgently addressed." Investors have long shared that disquiet about the long-term trajectory of the US government's finances.
Debt is "not free anymore," he told CNN.
"In the 2010s, a lot of academics, policymakers and central bankers came to the view that interest rates were just going to be near zero forever and then they started thinking debt was a free lunch," he said.
"That was always wrong-headed because you can think of government debt as holding a flexible-rate mortgage and, if the interest rates go up sharply, your interest payments go up a lot. And that's exactly what's happened all over the world."
'Conspiracy of silence'
In the United States, the federal government will spend $892 billion in the current fiscal year on interest payments — more than it has earmarked for defense and approaching the budget for Medicare, health insurance for older people and those with disabilities.
Next year, interest payments will top $1 trillion on national debt of more than $30 trillion, itself a sum roughly equal to the size of the US economy, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Congress's fiscal watchdog.
The CBO sees US debt reaching 122% of GDP a mere 10 years from now. And in 2054, debt is forecast to hit 166% of GDP, slowing economic growth.
So how much debt is too much? Economists don't think there is a "predetermined level at which bad things happen in markets," but most reckon that if debt hits 150% or 180% of gross domestic product, that means "very serious costs for the economy and society more broadly," said Dynan.
The world is sitting on a $91 trillion problem. 'Hard choices' are coming | CNN Business
18 minutes ago
Tax revenue is a record at about 4.5 trillion the federal budget in 2019 was 4.6, it is now about 6.3. If we had the same spending as 2019 we'd have a balanced budget. We have a spending g problem
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
PANIC! Will Democrats REPLACE Biden?
I listened to this on the radio last night. He makes good points.
It appears that the Biden camp has doubled down. Since he can't possibly finish his next term, the responsible thing is for him to suspend his campaign for president.
Monday, July 1, 2024
Re: Why France is voting against immigration...France fires and vandalism after Sunday vote
I've always have been concerned about population pressure. Of course culture and war matter, but increasing population leads to migration.
The evidence suggests that when the drought ended in Africa 50,000 years ago, humans expanded their range by about a mile per year. Within a couple of thousand years they made it to Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Humans are like gasses. They expand to fill the container they are put in.
On Jul 1, 2024, at 7:57 PM, Larry wrote:
Best wishes,
John Coffey
On Jul 1, 2024, at 7:57 PM, Larry wrote:
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