6 posts tagged “bailout”

Here is a link to the Reason Foundation's Bailouts and Bull:

Link to Bailouts and Bull

Link to the Bailout Game

A Tale of a Citibank Employee [A Joke]

The youthful and enthusiastic Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.  The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.  The next day the farmer drove up and said: “Son I have some bad news, the donkey died.”

Chuck replied: “Well; just give me my money back.”

The farmer said: “ Can’t do that; I have spent the money already.”

Chuck added, “O K then just bring me the dead donkey.”

The farmer asked, “What ya gonna do with the dead donkey?”

Chuck replyed, “I’m going to raffle him off.”

The farmer said, “You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!”

Chuck countered, “Sure I can, just watch me. I just won’t tell anybody that he’s dead.”

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, “What happened with the dead donkey?”

Chuck said – “I raffled him off.  I sold 500 tickets at $2 apiece and made a profit of $998 before subtracting the $100 for the dead donkey.” 

The farmer asked: “Didn’t anyone complain?”

Chuck replied: “Just the guy who won, so I gave him his $2 back.”

Chuck went on to work for Citibank’s investment banking unit where he designed and sold packaged product investments including S & P triple-A rated collateralized mortgage obligations, CDOs and CMBs.  They were easy to sell to Morgan Stanley and especially easy to dump at Wachovia and Lehman Brothers. It was a huge success while it lasted!

On the day that the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter, a great physician in South Carolina was stopped on the road by a traveler asking directions. The traveler asked directions to an insane asylum. The Physician responded: “Take any road you choose this state is one vast asylum.”

America is now one vast asylum.

You often hear about the "$10 trillion national debt". This is a phenomenal sum, to be sure. But it doesn't even come close to what our REAL obligations are.

The "national debt" conveniently leaves out the government's obligations for Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and similar obligations. Add these figures to the mix and the U.S. is in the hole by about $70 TRILLION!

And this is just the projected SHORTFALL. That puts a different spin on things, now doesn't it?

These obligations are impossible to meet through taxation. And they will never be met by cuts in government spending (the entire government would have to be practically eliminated... which doesn't sound like a bad idea!)

This leaves only two basic options...

Either the U.S. government eventually defaults on foreign loans and obligations to retirees

Or we hyper-inflate the currency and pay back previous obligations with fresh new money created from thin air

Which route do you think politicians will choose? They have already chosen, and the process is now underway.

Is your retirement protected? Are you prepared for the inflation that is inevitable?