$188 million an hour is not enough
The US government borrows $188 million every hour of every day. Mark Steyn quotes a Republican Treasury Secretary on the need to borrow even more:
Secretary O’Neill popped up the other day on Bloomberg Television to compare debt-ceiling holdouts to jihadists. “The people who are threatening not to pass the debt ceiling,” he said, “are our version of al-Qaida terrorists.”
Guess who buys $132 million of the $188 million. That’s correct, the Federal Reserve, and it’s working out splendidly.
May 2nd, 2011 at 12:17 am
Looks to me like the Fed has painted itself into a corner.
If they quit buying debt ie printing money, interest rates soar, as nobody wants to buy their junk anymore. Imagine rocketing interest rates would affect Uncle Sam’s budget, not to mention, the economy.
The solution of course is to slash spending, but that doesn’t look possible for another two years at least.
That leaves printing money, the path of least resistance. As has been well-documented at Dinocrat, this is damaging the economy, but as I have mentioned before the inflation blame can be deflected away from Government. Just this week 0bama blamed the oil price rise on ‘Speculators’ as even Boehner announced the oil companies should “pay their fair share’ in taxes. Rhetoric like this does not bode well for any meaningful fiscal course changes.
There are more glimmers of hope at the state level. Just this week Massachusetts voted with veto proof majorities to strip unions of bargaining rights.
I dunno though, the bridge is out over the gorge and the train is still hurtling along at 90 mph. I am doubtful it can be stopped in time.