Geithner Asks Congress to Raise $12.1 Trillion Debt Limit

[1TtidnaB]

12.031.000.000.000 dollar is americas debt now.

12.031 trillion dollars.

It seems USA soon will become a victim of the economic politics it has preassured upon the world since WW2.

US cant keep this up, enjoy your last years as a superpower, in 50 years its all about the chinese, russians - and offcourse like always the europeans.

USA = the milking cow Europe created as a hand to wipe shit with.

[Zeldovich]

So, if savings are growing and banks aren't lending despite low interest rates, then how does the economy recover? Every stop to think about that?Demand has to be stimulated either throw fiscal or monetary policy.

[DavidKretzmann]

Interest rates should be rising now, not held at 0% to .25%. High interest rates encourage saving which is exactly what we need today. Are we really better off today because the Fed artificially lowered interest rates to 1% in 2003 and 2004? We got some decent growth for a few years, but the collapse turned things into a much worse situation and caused much more pain.

If you "stimulate" demand, you stimulate unsustainable growth, just like we've had over the past several years.

[Zeldovich]

What the Fed failed to do was target nominal GDP. That would have avoided most of this mess. "Unstimulate" isn't a word, but the way.

The recent rate cuts starting in 2007 were seen as expansionary monetary policy by most, but it was actually contractionary given the rate of decline. markets priced in the coming fall in GDP, as indicated in the TIP spreads. If the Fed had set an explicit nominal GDP target, consumption and the reallocation of resources could have occurred much slower.

[Zeldovich]

The losses on housing are in the 2 trillion dollar range in a 14 trillion dollar economy. And those have been spread out over 3 years now. That shouldn't crash the whole financial system and cause two quarters of 6% GDP declines.

The earlier expansion of the monetary base would have lowered real wages, keeping unemployment down, while lowering the real value of private and public debt. Just about everyone would have had to make sacrifices. The workers work more for less money,

[Zeldovich]

creditors who made bad loans ear less real interest and principal, home owners see the real values of their homes fall, and foreign lenders take a hit as well, because they made bad investments here. Having 9.7% unemployment is just stupid. How can we best pay off our private and public debts this way? We need balance sheet repair, so we all must sacrifice.

[DwightSimpson]

We bite the bullet!!! One way or another, we bite the bullet!!!! By declaring bankruptcy.

[akidseducation]

ctrader09 ~~Your 100% right about China.

David, wishing more teens were like you! Its your generation that needs to bring back the real America!

[ctrader09]

have you listened to peter schiff? i think you would enjoy his work. he called this whole mess and more importantly he predicted what the government would do to try to stop it and how it would just make the problem worse. he cares about his country so much that he is considering running for senate. type in "peter schiff was right" on youtube and you will see what i mean. he is potentially running in CT, spread the word!

[akidseducation]

Yes, I've read his book! ;o) I also donated money to his campaign, even though I'm thousands of miles away from CT! Wish we had more like him!

[ctrader09]

just wait for the next shoe to drop: the bond bubble, when china will throw in the towel and wise up and realize we are not paying back this debt nor do we intend to. then the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT will need a bailout!

[hooverdog1957]

No way China is going to throw in the towel. We are on the same sinking ship together. If we go down so does China. They are in with the banksters to keep the Ponzi scheme going.

[ctrader09]

hooverdog, a lot of people think that the world economy is dependent on this one, and it is, but only for assets (U.S. Treasury Bonds) that will be worthless. when they become worthless China will decouple the U.S. The U.S. is the caboose not the engine of economic growth, and we will be until we start making things again and exporting them to other countries. The fundamental difference between China and the U.S. is that they are wealthy and the U.S. is not.they are producers and we are consumer

[ctrader09]

it will actually be a relief to china when they decouple the U.S. out of the picture because they will be able to consume their goods themselves instead of exporting them to countries who won't pay it back. remember, whenever you have goods imported you have to export to balance the equation. we haven't done that. the party is over for the U.S. and Chinese people will see their standard of living go up while Americans will see their standard of living go down

[thinkrevolution]

Great video