Category: Government Spending
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Biden Seeks Inflation Scapegoats; Gold Advocate Wins GOP Primary / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
Elevated inflation readings and stock market turmoil continue to inflict pain on investors. Some are hoping for a quick turnaround. Others are just looking for a place to hide.
Unfortunately, there have been virtually no safe havens from the broad-based carnage outside of the energy sector and gold.
Gold has been one of the best performing assets this year by virtue of holding up better than stocks, bonds, and cryptos. But the yellow metal came under some heavy selling pressure in futures markets this week.
Metals markets seem to be trading more in line with economic slowdown fears and margin calls on Wall Street than with inflation. That will likely change when the recent spate of panic selling subsidies.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Biden Seeks Huge Spending, Globally Coordinated Tax Hikes / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
As a new administration took power in Washington this week, investors weighed new opportunities as well as new risks.
The Biden administration promises to undo much of the policy agenda President Donald Trump had implemented. However, those expecting a new era in American politics are likely to be disappointed – or relieved, depending on their perspective.
Joe Biden is anything but new or transformational. He seems to view his mandate as that of reassembling the Obama-Biden administration for a third term.
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Saturday, December 26, 2020
Tackling US Infrastructure and Unemployment Crises: The “American System” Solution / Economics / Government Spending
By: Ellen_Brown
A self-funding national infrastructure bank modeled on the “American System” of Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt would help solve not one but two of the country’s biggest problems.
Millions of Americans have joined the ranks of the unemployed, and government relief checks and savings are running out; meanwhile, the country still needs trillions of dollars in infrastructure. Putting the unemployed to work on those infrastructure projects seems an obvious solution, especially given that the $600 or $700 stimulus checks Congress is planning on issuing will do little to address the growing crisis. Various plans for solving the infrastructure crisis involving public-private partnerships have been proposed, but they’ll invariably result in private investors reaping the profits while the public bears the costs and liabilities. We have relied for too long on private, often global, capital, while the Chinese run circles around us building infrastructure with credit simply created on the books of their government-owned banks.
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Wednesday, July 01, 2020
Politicians Prepare New Money Drops as US Dollar Weakens / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
The gold and silver market rallied earlier this week to record slight new multi-year highs before giving back some of those gains late Wednesday and into Friday morning.
Concerns about rising COVID-19 infections weighed on industrial commodities and stocks. New York and Texas announced they would suspend further reopening plans, while a spike in cases in Arizona raised alarms among public health officials.
However, other data shows that death rates continue to decline – evidence that the novel coronavirus is far less lethal than previously thought. And the rebound in infections is coming primarily from the ongoing increase in testing and reporting.
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Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Will Inflation “Save” Social Security? / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
Uncle Sam is going broke. That’s not exactly news – at least not to anyone who has been paying attention to the sorry state of federal finances.
Yet to most Americans, the ballooning national debt ($22.3 trillion and counting) isn’t a problem that impacts their daily lives. They won’t directly perceive the cost of another trillion dollars in borrowing in the government’s next fiscal year.
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Wednesday, December 05, 2018
Showdown Looms on US Federal Spending, Border Wall / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
U.S. government agencies could run out of operating funds starting on midnight this Friday, December 7th.
At issue: President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. He wants Congress to commit $5 billion for construction of a wall along portions of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The migrant caravan that recently attempted to crash the border near Tijuana has helped rally Republicans to support his request.
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Saturday, August 04, 2018
Breaking Down the US Budget Deficit / Interest-Rates / Government Spending
By: Rodney_Johnson
Second-quarter U.S. GDP jumped by an annualized 4.1%, putting a spring in the step of the Trump administration and the congressional leadership.And why not?
Those two groups are responsible for turbo-charging the U.S. economy through tax reform, which cut taxes by more than $1 trillion, putting a ton of cash in the hands of corporations and consumers.
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Monday, February 19, 2018
How Inflation Reduces The Real Value Of Social Security Net Of Medicare Premiums / Economics / Government Spending
By: Dan_Amerman
For most retirees age 65 and over, the spending power which they rely on from government retirement programs is their Social Security benefits after their Medicare Part B premiums have been withheld.
Because Social Security is in theory supposed to be fully inflation indexed, many people believe their standards of living in retirement will be fully protected from inflation. However, when we look at what matters the most, which is the purchasing power of Social Security net of Medicare premiums - that particular number has never been intended to keep up with the rate of inflation, as a matter of design.
Current retirees have received a rude wake-up call in recent years, with the increases in their Medicare Part B premiums consuming almost all of their very small increases in Social Security benefits. This is a process that is, however, still in its early stages. Particularly if higher rates of inflation are indeed returning, then the impact on retiree standards of living may be swift, powerful and sustained.
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Saturday, February 03, 2018
Here Come Bigger Paychecks! / Politics / Government Spending
By: Rodney_Johnson
So far in 2018, New England froze over and the government shut down. And it’s only January!But just like with Christmas, there are some things that never happen fast enough. One of them is any change that gives workers bigger paychecks. With February just around the corner, that change is coming fast!
The IRS has published the new withholding tables reflecting the recent tax reform. By the pay period ending February 15, employers should have built these rules into their payroll calculations.
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Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Medicare Premiums Are A Shared Pool - Coming Changes That Will Transform Retirement / Politics / Government Spending
By: Dan_Amerman
A critical component of financial planning for retirement is that many healthcare expenses are a shared expense for those 65 and older, as a matter of current law and design. A 65 year old pays the same Medicare Part B premiums as a 95 year old, and someone in perfect health pays the same premiums as someone with multiple serious health issues.
By law, 25% of total Medicare Part B expenses are funded by Medicare premiums, which are usually withheld from monthly Social Security benefits. So, when the average expenses of Medicare increase on a per person basis - then so do the premiums.
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Saturday, May 06, 2017
Donald “Big Government” Trump Approves Of Even Bigger Budget Than Obama / Politics / Government Spending
By: Jeff_Berwick
Yesterday, the House passed another massive yearly “Omnibus Appropriations” spending bill which came in at a whopping $1.163 trillion! That’s more than Obama spent last year.
American’s who thought Donald Trump was really going to bring hope and change must really be shocked to see spending as yuge, or yuger than Obama’s.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Another Potential US Government Shutdown... Oh My! / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
The U.S. Congress runs up against their self-imposed borrowing limit once again this week. During the last tussle over the borrowing cap in October 2015, Congress agreed to schedule this week's political theater to occur well after last Fall's elections.
They didn't even bother to guess how much additional headroom would be needed. They just suspended the debt limit altogether. Neither Democratic nor Republican leadership wanted voters focused on borrowing and spending when they went to the polls.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
US Budget - There’s Almost Nothing Left To Cut / Politics / Government Spending
By: John_Mauldin
Every politician in every campaign talks about getting rid of government fraud and waste.
If we could only cut out all of that wasted spending, we would have money either to lower taxes or to spend on something more useful.
Except there is nothing to cut that is of any meaningful consequence.
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Wednesday, December 07, 2016
The Imminent Multi-Trillion Dollar Surge In Social Security & Medicare Costs / Economics / Government Spending
By: Dan_Amerman
For decades we have known that the time would come when Social Security & Medicare costs would begin a rapid and explosive growth upwards. That time is no longer the distant future - but something that will take place next year, and the year after, and the year after. The long expected storm is now upon us, and as can be seen below, the amounts involved are staggering and they will arrive much faster than most people realize.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
US Government Spending - 3 Big Stories Not Being Covered – Part III / Economics / Government Spending
By: Andy_Sutton
The third and final (for now) portion of this series might be a tad anticlimactic. If so, we apologize. Most people know America is in debt beyond comprehension. A small subset of people understand that the numbers published by the government are missing a whole bunch of important items and use accounting methods that would land most business people in prison. An even smaller subset understands the idea of generational accounting.
Monday, July 25, 2016
Hubris, Instability and Entertainment - The Only Thing That Grows Is Debt / Politics / Government Spending
By: Raul_I_Meijer
John McDonnell, UK Shadow Chancellor of the Treasury (at least it sounds important) appealed to his -Labour- party on Sunday morning TV to “stop trying to destroy the party”, and of course I’m thinking NO, please don’t stop, keep at it, it’s so much fun. When you watch a building collapse, you want it to go all the way, not stop somewhere in the middle and get patched up with band-aids.
It’s alright, let it crumble, it’s had its day. And if it’s any consolation, you’re not alone. Nor is that some freak coincidence. ‘Labour’-like parties (the ‘formerly left’) all over the world are disintegrating. Which is no surprise; they haven’t represented laborers for decades. They’ve become the left wing -and even that mostly in name only- of a monotone bland centrist political blob.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Here We Go Again: U.S. Government Ramps Up Borrowing As Private Sector Slows / Economics / Government Spending
By: John_Rubino
This morning, US existing home sales plunged and the Chicago Fed’s national activity index turned negative. Both are obvious signs of a slowing economy.
Anticipating this kind of news, Credit Bubble Bulletin’s Doug Noland in his most recent column analyzed the Federal Reserve’s quarterly Z.1 Report for signs of changing financial trends, and found something potentially serious. The following three charts tell the tale:
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Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Social Security The Long Slow Default / Politics / Government Spending
By: MISES
Kirby R. Cundiff writes: When an investor buys an annuity or another retirement product from an insurance or mutual fund company, the contract is constant and enforceable through the United States court system. When a United States taxpayer is forced to pay for a government backed retirement system such as the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program (OASDI) — also known as Social Security — the “contract” can be, and is, changed on a regular basis by the United States government, and those changes are generally not to the benefit of the taxpayer.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Another Government Ponzi Scheme Starts to Crack - Do You Depend on It? / Politics / Government Spending
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
Government employees get to do a lot of things that would land an ordinary citizen in prison.
For example, it’s legal for them to threaten and commit offensive, rather than defensive, violence. They can take property from others without their consent. They spy on anyone’s email and bank accounts whenever they please. They go into trillions of dollars in debt and then stick the unborn with the bill. They counterfeit the currency. They lie with misleading statistics and use accounting wizardry no business could get away. And this just scratches the surface…
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Thursday, September 24, 2015
City Governments Blowing Billions - How to Stop a Pickpocket / Politics / Government Spending
By: Casey_Research
By Justin Spittler
Los Angeles wants to blow billions of tax dollars…
The Olympics are a spectacle. The athletes are incredible to watch. But hosting the games is a usually a big money-loser for the venue city.
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