Mish critiqued Social Security also:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-security-there-is-no-trust-there.html
Just make sure you take your frustrations to the mid-term elections…
i wonder if anyone would care to speculate on what will happen to gov. pensions like the retirement of military personnel. also what about va benefits.
my assumption is that these will be the last things to go down but if they do …i seem to remember a march on washington in the thirties by some former military types…i think the swhtf …
just think of a large group of true believer graduates of our military academies, vietnam vets iraq and afghanistan vets etc. being told it was all a big mistake. our local va hospital is outsourcing some procedures to the private sector. sounds expensive
but maybe not
[quote]Friend, please tell me you don’t normally receive your news from the CBC. I trust them as much as I do the NYT, which is not at all. The Canadian Government seriously needs to cut funding to these bleeding-heart clowns. They don’t even do "Hockey Night in Canada" right anymore (check back issues on McLean’s on this very topic).
[/quote]
I try to get my news from a wide variety of sources. What I like to do is scan the headlinds everywhere from CBC, CTV, CNN, BBC, AsiaTimes, TehranTimes, local news and of course the great daily digests posted here. I actually don’t mind the CBC and find they have some decent radio (minus their overuse of puns) and news coverage. I find they cover a broader range of topics as they don’t seem so worried about offending their sponsors (besides the Liberals of course). When it comes to radio I just can’t stand commercial radio and foremost actually chose my local listener supported radio.
Cheers
I realize that there is a separate payroll tax for Social Security. That money is being used for current expenses in the "combined budget". The way that is done is by the government "borrowing" from the separate Social Security payroll tax by putting "IOUs" in the SS "bucket". The catch is that the IOUs are Treasury securities (T-bills, Treasury Certificates, Treasury Bonds, each with their own maturity dates). These have to be paid off by the govenement just like any other Treasury security that is held by private people or governments.
Good management at this time would be for the government to "roll over" some of these securities that pay high interest rates for current securities now that the rates are lower. The important thing to remember is that all Treasury securities are guaranteed by the US governement no matter who has them. When they mature the government pays them off with either current revenue or sells more securities to pay off the old ones. This is standard procedure in government or business.
So is there concern that the US government would not pay off the Treasury securities that replaced money taken from the SS"buket" but it would pay off all the other Treasury securities? Aren’t all Treasury securities equal? They all have to be paid off on the matury date. Why be more worried about the Treasury securities that are "on file" for Social Security?
Bart Haggin
Bart -
I think it’s more of an issue that the US Government CAN"T pay than wouldn’t pay off their obligations.
At least not without taxing generations that haven’t been born yet - and that’s just to meet current obligations, much less what will be incurred over the next several years - until SS implodes.
joe2baba, there’s no question they will reduce pensions and all other operational outflows if necessary (that’s why this social security issue isn’t as big of a deal as claimed here…sorry, but everybody already knows the outflows will be shutdown/reduced as soon as necessary). you’re probably right that pensions will be one of the last budget items cut because the govt needs its security apparatus to keep itself alive. but avoiding default on treasuries is priority #1…all other demands for federal money is subordinate. they can handle riots and social unrest and marches on DC from academy graduates…it’s not hard to stop those. but they can’t handle national foreclosure imposed by our creditors (asia).
above it was asked about the inverse correlation between the $ and equities. it’s just capital flows based on appetite for risk…as desire for safety goes up, capital flows out of equities and emerging markets (higher risk currencies) and moves into high-grade fixed income and safe vehicles like $. when desire for risk/return goes up, it flows the other way.
[quote=bikemonkey] btw, has anyone else noticed what appears to be a lack of coverage on the G-20 riots?
[/quote]
The only "rioting" was one or two jerks breaking windows of the defunct RBS bank, following provocation by police. Meanwhile at another location you can see hideous police brutality against peaceful protesters, video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t244-zEENSs . Naturally there is no mention of this in the ms media which just goes on about police "expecting" violence instead.
Don’t overlook the Print to Pay option. Until something implodes. Or perhaps that’s what you mean by taxing unborn generations.
Is this an April Fool joke?
Nope.
That article is 100% real.
Thanks for asking.
Chris
Friend, please tell me you don't normally receive your news from the CBC. I trust them as much as I do the NYT, which is not at all. The Canadian Government seriously needs to cut funding to these bleeding-heart clowns. They don't even do "Hockey Night in Canada" right anymore (check back issues on McLean's on this very topic).
"I hate it when people have a quote placed in this block as if it were profound" -Gadfly
Try it for a while – you may change your mind.
Of course, I’ve heard similar comments about NPR here in the States, and have about the same reaction
Jim