Is the debt issue phony? It sure sounds like a lot, doesn't it? $17 trillion in federal government debt. Wow. It's a big, scary number, no doubt about it, ...and it's a lot bigger than in years past, but is it really that bad? Could it be that our debt profile has been grossly exaggerated? I think so. Let me explain why I think that is the case.

Q: Don't laugh at me, but what is a deficit? A: It's actually not a dumb question. Here's why.

It’s been exactly two years since Standard & Poor’s did the unthinkable and downgraded the U.S. government’s debt rating...and yet, it’s as if it never happened…

Anyone that thinks that the U.S. economy can keep going along like this is absolutely crazy. We are in the terminal phase of an unprecedented debt spiral which has allowed us to live far, far beyond our means for the last several decades. Unfortunately, all debt spirals eventually end, and they usually do so in a very disorderly manner.

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.

The US Treasury Bond market is the longest unbroken bull market known to the financial world [thanks in large part to the Fed who is] buying up every penny of newly issued government debt. [In doing so] this issuance of debt is following the exact path of the Jean-Paul Rodrigue' "bubble model". Words: 290; Charts: 4; Tables 1

The United States debt limit is explained in this 3:09 satirical video which takes a look at the national debt from a family perspective. Very amusing - very insightful - very troubling.

16 point 7 trillion dollars. That is our current national debt. 12 point 8 trillion dollars. That is the amount households carry in mortgage and consumer debt. We are now addicted to debt to lubricate the wheels of our financial system. There is nothing wrong with debt per se, but it is safe to say that too much debt relative to how much revenue is being produced is a sign of economic problems. At the core of our current financial mess is how we use debt as a parachute for any problem. [Unfortunately,] addictions are never easily cured and we have yet to come to terms with our insatiable appetite for debt. Words: 850

The price of gold, on a quarterly basis, is 86% correlated - yes, 86%! - to total government debt going back to 1975... and a shocking 98% over the past 15 years! [As such,] it would seem like a no-brainer investment thesis to buy gold... as a proxy for the not-otherwise-investable thesis that US total government debt will increase in the future. [But there is more - and it is disappointment for gold bugs - read on!]

Why are so many politicians around the world declaring that the debt crisis is "over" when debt-to-GDP ratios all over the planet continue to skyrocket? The global economy has never seen anything like the sovereign debt bubble that we are experiencing today. This insanity will continue until a day of reckoning arrives and the system implodes. Nobody knows exactly when that moment will be reached, but without a doubt it is coming. Are you ready? Words: 1270