April 26, 2024

Ron Paul – The U.S. Is Already Defaulting On The Debt

Ron Paul, the embodiment of common sense and classic American values, spoke today about the U.S. debt crisis in an interview on The Daily Ticker.

Rep. Paul made the point that few people see any real value in U.S. government debt securities and are holding them only as a temporary place to keep their money.  “That’s why people are going to gold as a reserve and a place to put their money”.

Ron Paul said that Washington does not understand how dangerous a situation the Country is in and that “nothing will change”.  Default on the debt would be “a big deal” and Paul thinks that Congress will raise the debt limit and that all payments on U.S. debt will made.

Ron Paul noted, however, that governments like our “always default, the default is we pay our debts with money with less value.  Bernanke is actually working very hard at this, he wants the price inflation to go up so that the dollar goes down in value.  So we get to the point in two years or so that you can take the national debt of $14 trillion and turn it into $7 trillion or real value.  They want the dollar devalued – that’s how countries default.  So the default is ongoing and that is very dangerous…”.

Meanwhile, President Obama said “America is stressed out”.  Yes, Mr. Obama, the country is stressed out – by failed economic policies propagated by the elite political class and special interest groups in Washington who serve Wall Street and the Big Banks rather than the American public.

America has reached the tipping point from policies that have given us a crash in housing values, no job gains over the past decade, zero return on our savings, higher inflation, dollar debasement and a decline in real incomes.   Middle class households who have not allocated a substantial portion of their savings to gold or silver have seen their wealth decimated.

In a rare display of candor, Treasury Secretary Geithner admitted in an interview this week that  “It’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.”  Now if only the politicians would be honest with us,we might be able to establish a better plan for a path to recovery other than unlimited money printing.

 

Russia Joins China In Rejecting U.S. Debt, Buys Gold Instead

China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, has been concerned about the safety of its U.S. treasury debt holdings for years.

In March 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jinbao warned Washington that “We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S.  Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.”

Premier Jinbao’s  was right to worry about the safety of China’s U.S. debt holdings.   Since March 2009, the U.S. debt has increased by more than $3 trillion and Congress is now being pressured by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to increase the national debt limit by another $2 trillion.  The parabolic increase in U.S. debt, along with recent downgrade warnings on U.S. debt from the credit rating agencies, must be keeping the Chinese up at night.

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia also decided that holding U.S. debt has become too risky.  In comments to Dow Jones, Arkady Dvorkovich, chief economic adviser to Russian President Medvedev, said “The share of our portfolio in U.S. instruments has gone down and probably will go down further.”  According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia has already reduced its holdings of U.S. debt from $176 billion last fall to $125 billion in April of this year.

Besides diversifying into other currencies such as the Canadian and Australian dollar, Russia has also been substantially increasing its purchases of gold.  Recent reports from the World Gold Council and IMF show that Russia recently bought 50 tons of gold bringing its total gold holdings to almost 670 tons.

If Russian economic advisor Dvorkovich looks at the above chart of U.S. debt, he may well decide to run to the exits and dump all of Russia’s U.S. debt holdings.

The United States has truly entered the Bizarro stage of national finance.  As the exponential increase in U.S. debt moves the Nation ever closer to a debt crisis, Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner are predicting dire consequences if Congress does not increase the U.S. debt limit.  Should it really be a surprise that two of the world’s biggest holders of U.S. debt are heading for the exits?

 

BIZARRO WORLD -COURTESY COMICTREADMILL.COM