Figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated). The government’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. Total public debt subject to limit Sep 23 18,112,975 Statutory debt limit 18,113,000 Total public debt outstanding Sep 23 18,151,073 Operating balance Sept 23 164,941 Interest fiscal year 2015 thru Aug 234,680 Interest same… [Read More]
Newsflash! Bernie Sanders Fans: All That “Free Stuff” Will Break the Middle Class
John Hawkins, Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Similarly, it could be said that for liberals, how the real world works is indistinguishable from magic. They want “free” birth control, health care, college, “Cash for Clunkers,” free housing for the poor and paid time off… [Read More]
Dead last: NJ debt hits $52,300 per taxpayer, study shows
New Jersey ranks worst in the country for state debt, according to a new nationwide study. Each state taxpayer would need to pay $52,300 to erase New Jersey’s existing bills — including public pensions and retiree health benefits — reports Truth in Accounting , a think tank in Chicago. Among “sinkhole states,” New Jersey was followed by… [Read More]
US Interest Rate Rise Could Trigger Global Debt Crisis
Global debt levels are dangerously high and central banks cannot keep the game going indefinitely, warns the high priest of orthodoxy. Debt ratios have reached extreme levels across all major regions of the global economy, leaving the financial system acutely vulnerable to monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve, the world’s top financial watchdog has… [Read More]
Congress Fiddles While the Economy Burns
Ron Paul, Congress spent the majority of last week trying to void the Iranian nuclear agreement. Reports that the official unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent may appear to vindicate the policies of easy money, corporate bailouts, and increased government spending. However, even the mainstream media has acknowledged that the official numbers understate the… [Read More]
As Pope visit nears, U.S. Catholic Church faces financial strain
When Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States this month he will face a national Catholic Church whose finances are staggering under a shrinking membership and huge payouts to sex-abuse victims, threatening to undermine its social influence. With the Church still absorbing the roughly $3 billion cost of a clergy sex abuse… [Read More]
Clinton Calls on GOP To Let Puerto Rico Use Chap. 9 Bankruptcy
Congress needs to give authority to let “severely distressed” public corporations and municipalities restructure their debts, Hillary Clinton says at event in Puerto Rico “”Not a single Republican has stepped up in Washington to support the leaders in Puerto Rico. And they’re not offering any alternatives either. And that is unacceptable” NOTE: Puerto Rico’s Public… [Read More]
Trump: Republican threats over U.S. debt limit ‘worth the fight’
Pell Grants: Billions Go to Students Who Don’t Graduate, Analysis Finds
Billions of taxpayer dollars go to college students who never end up with a diploma in their hands, a new report found. Pell grants–which are given to low-income families and, unlike student loans, do not need to be paid back–are the costliest education initiative in the nation. But little official data exists on whether they… [Read More]
The Global Economy Is Officially Melting Down
Joshua Krause | The Daily Sheeple, As much as the financiers on Wall Street and the officials at the Fed would like the party to keep going, it looks it’s finally about to stop. Years of bailouts and monetary expansion have created one of the most inflated and artificial economic booms in history, and now… [Read More]
Santa is Four Months From Christmas – But a Week From Bankruptcy
Revenue crisis leaves Father Christmas in need of a gift. Santa Claus has been given a week to pay his creditors. Finland’s shrinking economy has hit Dianordia Oy, the company that offers kids from all over the world an opportunity to meet Santa Claus. Just four months before Christmas, the firm faces bankruptcy as it struggles to repay… [Read More]
Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy is a Preview of Things to Come Stateside
Jesse Hathaway, The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico owes more than $70 billion—about $19,729.43 per resident—in debt to creditors and investors. First to note the territory’s fiscal problems were the credit rating agencies, which downgraded the territory’s bond status to “speculative,” the first of three steps along the junk-bond path to loan default. Over the… [Read More]