Debt & Deficits

Little has been done in the past six years to restructure economies and cut debt i.e. learn the lessons of 2008. Because we’ve partially recovered from that traumatic period, that’s led to complacency. All the while, the debt that caused the bust in the first place has compounded and threatens to undo the world again. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

With stocks at record highs and the U.S. economy improving, the European debt crisis seems like a distant memory....[While] Europe is no longer the market’s focal point, however, that doesn’t mean the euro zone’s financial problems have gone away.

The financial markets were in distress lately because of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's suggestion that the Fed might taper off its quantitative easing programs starting at the end of this year and ending in 2015. Here are five reasons why markets shouldn't worry too much about the Fed leaving the stage:

It seems that the past few years of falling interest rates have lulled a big part of the global economy into financing with variable-rate debt...[As such,] when interest rates go up (as they did last week), there’s a world-wide reset in interest costs that, best case, amounts to a tax increase on individuals and businesses and, worst-case, threatens to blow up the whole system.

Fearing that the flow of nourishing mother milk from the Fed could dry up, a resolutely unweaned Wall Street threw a hissy fit and the dummy out of the pram last Thursday. The end of QE is seen as the beginning of the end of super-easy policy and potentially the first towards normalization. There is only one problem: it won’t happen. Here's why.

Last Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke promised to end his bond-buying addiction - cold turkey - in mid-2014. That is, as long as the economy is strong enough. As a result, investor fortitude was pushed to the brink. Stocks sold off hard, sending the S&P 500 Index down 1.4%. Before you head for the exits, too, let's get a little perspective.

The U.S. government is in what is known as a "debt death spiral". They must borrow money to repay prior debts. It is as if they are using their Visa Card to make an American Express payment. The rate of new debt additions dwarf any rate of growth the economy can possibly achieve. The end is certain, only its timing is unknown, and, once interest rates begin to rise, and they will, it's game over.

When Congress and the Obama administration let a 2% payroll tax cut expire on January 1 as part of the fiscal cliff deal, economists predicted a consumer retreat, [but such has not been the case - at all. It seems that] soaring housing and stock market prices are likely putting Americans in the mood for spending - but where’s the money coming from?

Whether you are an investor, concerned citizen or merely someone trying to understand the current economic situation, you should be worried. Watch this video to get an outstanding overview of what is occurring. It is probably the best short explanation as to why the end of this economic death spiral is so hard to call.

Out of control spending by a government is always the cause of hyperinflation. The debt ceiling had been the last remaining roadblock to unlimited federal government spending. By suspending the debt ceiling, the U.S. government has given itself a blank cheque, taking one giant leap down the road leading to the hyperinflation of the US dollar. Words: 632