FACT #1: The official national debt now stands at $12.68 trillion — an amount equal to about 88.5% of all the goods and services our economy produces in an entire year.
FACT #2: Contingent obligations for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, and pensions now stand at an additional $108 trillion over and above the “official” national debt. (?)
FACT #3: State, county and local governments are nearly $3 trillion in debt. Many can’t pay and will ultimately demand that Washington assume responsibility for that debt as well.
FACT #4: Total federal, state and local government indebtedness now stands at a mind-blowing $123.6 trillion.
FACT #5: Last year, Washington added $1.4 trillion to the debt. In this fiscal year, the Obama administration will add another $1.6 trillion!
FACT #6: In addition to funding the current trillion-dollar-plus deficits, the U.S. Treasury must borrow MORE each year to replace bills, notes and bonds that are maturing.
FACT #7: This record-shattering borrowing by the Treasury has resulted in a Mt. Everest of Treasury obligations being dumped onto the market, which naturally depresses bond prices and drives interest rates higher.
FACT #8: In a desperate attempt to keep interest rates low, the Bernanke Federal Reserve has created $1.25 trillion out of thin air to buy mortgage-backed securities … another $300 billion to buy U.S. Treasuries … and yet another $170.6 billion to buy other government bonds — a total of nearly $1.7 trillion in all.
FACT #9: From September 10, 2008 to March 10 of this year, Bernanke increased the nation’s monetary base from $850 billion to $2.1 trillion — a 250% increase in just 18 months.
FACT #10: Despite this massive money-printing, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note has STILL risen by more than one-fifth — from 3.2% to 3.86% — since December.
FACT #11: Because of this massive money-printing, the U.S. dollar has lost nearly 10% of its value in the past 12 months alone.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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