Comments on: Welcome To A Paper Economy

By: DICKERSON3870

DICKERSON3870 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:01:30 +0000

NOT ACTUAL MONEY IN THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND ; MORE LIKE IOU’s (Treasury Notes as I understand it.)

By: Rickbrew9x

Rickbrew9x — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:09:57 +0000

What I forgot to point out above was that the reason the German government’s first priority was to rebuild the social security system was that was that the government would have fallen had it not made that its first effort.

That political reaction is the essential protection of the social security system.

By: Rickbrew9x

Rickbrew9x — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:01:43 +0000

Boy, if we could only bet, er invest, in the Obama administration.

Think some enterprising bank would take the opposite side and sell CDSs?

By: Rickbrew9x

Rickbrew9x — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:55:09 +0000

Hey! Don’t forget the three-legged stool. You still have the base of your retirement in Social Security. The other two legs are retirement plans and personal savings.

As I have pointed out for nearly 40 years, after the hyperinflation in Germany in 1922 destroyed the German social security system, the very first think the new German government did was to rebuild the system and guarantee that no one who had previously been covered lost their coverage.

Social Security is not intended to make anyone rich. It protects us all from the downturns in capitalist societies. Which is why it is mandatory and its funding is based on taxes instead of investment income.

By: acquarius74

acquarius74 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:21:21 +0000

The best opinion I’ve seen regarding whether a Social Security Trust Fund exists and whether it has been raided is in an article by Dean Baker in online Truthout dated 16 June 2006 (link below).

The big scare about this was pumped up by GW Bush in trying to get his Soc Sec privatization accepted. Excerpt: “….The logic is simple; if the public is convinced that the Social Security program can’t be sustained then there is no alternative to privatization.

For example, last year (2005) President Bush visited the site where the bonds (Treasury) are stored and announced that these bonds were “just sheets of paper.”

I read about Bush’s statement at the time and can’t believe now that I believed him! Every statement from him has been a monstrous lie to ramp up fear in order to scare the public (and congress) into furthering his mad schemes.

http://www.truthout.org/articl.....trust-fund

By: Knut

Knut — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:55:15 +0000

Repeat after me: ‘liquidity trap.’ The money is simply piling up under the banks’ equivalent of a mattress, and it won’t come out until the economy starts turning around. The tricky part of this operation will occur when that happens,as the Fed will then have to make the extremely delicate decision to reverse the money pump by selling the securities and other assets it has acquired in exchange for the money it printed. This will raise interest rates in the early phase of a recovery. If the Fed doesn’t do that, we run the risk of an asset inflation, which will make people feel good for a while, just like a nice shot of heroin, but will eventually trigger the Great Inflation.

There are no good outcomes to the mess Greenspan got us into. None. Except, maybe, universal health care.

By: SanderO

SanderO — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:00:15 +0000

We don’t.. it was sold.

By: afisher

afisher — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:06:39 +0000

Only one other comment about Panditt, CEO of Citibank, on Charlie Rose tonight. When he said that they could not have forseen the financial crisis as their Risk Management Model stress test did not forcast such a housing decline. Such audacity astounds me! Are bankers are only reading internal reports? Academic economists such as Dr. Andrew Lo of MIT have been sounding this alarm since 2004-5 and even went so far as to send a KISS report to Treasury and presented this evidence to bankers (who ignored it – well actually just thought it was not interesting). Dr. Lo also recently testified to Congress (on CSPAN – if anyone wants to see it). So now Paulsen is also going to bail out banks again when all those credit card defaults start happening next year. So if anyone considered that they would be getting a check in the mail…don’t hold your breathe, all the money is going to banks and businesses, we just get to pay the bills!
Don’t know if anyone cares to be more upset…but I highly recommend the website ProPublica. If you haven’t checked it out…be sure an take your blood pressure medicine (or a stiff drink) first,

By: JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin

JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:34:09 +0000

Hey, at least this garbage didn’t happen in 2007. Mr. Obama is on the case, seriously. I’m actually not as worried about it as others.

President Obama is really the president now, even though no one in the mainstream will say it.

By: JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin

JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:31:11 +0000

If we just prevent gays from marrying, all this will solve itself!