Opinions on US debt

[~ True Legend ~]

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned a failure to raise the US's debt ceiling could have dire consequences.

Janet Yellen warns of debt ceiling 'catastrophe'

The US Treasury Secretary warns Congress it must act to raise the country's borrowing limit.

www.bbc.co.uk

Without an agreement to increase what the federal government can borrow, it could run out of money by early June.

At that point the federal government might not be able to make wage, welfare and other payments.

On Tuesday, President Biden will meet Republican leaders to ask them to agree to raising the current $31.4tn (£25.12tn) limit.

Congress typically ties approval of a higher debt ceiling to stipulations on budget and spending measures.

Last month the House of Representatives passed a bill to raise the ceiling, currently roughly equal to 120% of the country's annual economic output, but included in the bill sweeping spending cuts over the next decade.

President Biden wants Congress to agree to raise the debt ceiling, with no conditions. President Biden has said he will not negotiate over the increase and will discuss budget cuts after the issue is resolved.

Failure to find cross-party agreement on the issue could result in a "constitutional crisis" Ms Yellen said.

The Biden administration is considering whether there is scope within the constitution for the president to continue issuing new debt without the approval of Congress, but will this week strive to avoid that scenario.

In the end, the threat of a default on government payments including debt obligations has always led to compromise. The US has never defaulted, an event that would upend global financial markets and have far-reaching economic impacts.

But delaying a resolution also had negative consequences, Ms Yellen said in a letter to Congress last week.

"We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States," she wrote.

@fords8 @Web Diva I'd be interested to hear your views
Of course anyone else too, but given that I know you are both based in the US

 

[fords8]

They need to stop handing out cash.

President Biden has said he will not negotiate over the increase and will discuss budget cuts after the issue is resolved.

We all know this will never happen.

This has been being talked about for a while. They won't do **** until the last minute. And what was promised, will not see the light of day.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

They need to stop handing out cash.

We all know this will never happen.

This has been being talked about for a while. They won't do **** until the last minute. And what was promised, will not see the light of day.

I don't know much about the US. Handing out cash in what sense? Just keen to understand
How would you say the USA compares to the UK in terms of government benefits etc?

And yes,

But delaying a resolution also had negative consequences, Ms Yellen said in a letter to Congress last week.

"We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States," she wrote.

 

[fords8]

How would you say the USA compares to the UK in terms of government benefits etc?

I don't know much about the UK.

I don't know much about the US. Handing out cash in what sense? Just keen to understand

They hand out money for a broken finger nail. I was planning on doing a rant about this subject. I may piss some people off. lol I just want to have time to write something good on the subject.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

lol I just want to have time to write something good on the subject.

Where does your time go fords? You sure do spend a lot of time on this forum and on PF, and on a number of other forums like OtZ and OT, haha.

 

[fords8]

Where does your time go fords? You sure do spend a lot of time on this forum and on PF, and on a number of other forums like OtZ and OT, haha.

I do! Most of the time I just leave the sites open in tabs. And I see you made admin on one site. Congrats!

 

[~ True Legend ~]

I do! Most of the time I just leave the sites open in tabs. And I see you made admin on one site. Congrats!

Thank you <3 I don't know how or why it happened honestly. I didn't ask. I don't even know the site owner, hehe

 

[~ True Legend ~]

@fords8 let's see if we can make it to 50 members within the next 3 months. 100 for a bonus
Oh, and don't include my cheat accounts LOL. I know you've not deleted them as a higher member count looks good on the forum , ya cheeky monkey

 

[~ True Legend ~]

@fords8 let's see if we can make it to 50 members within the next 3 months. 100 for a bonus
Oh, and don't include my cheat accounts LOL. I know you've not deleted them as a higher member count looks good on the forum , ya cheeky monkey

@fords8 dammit i shouldn't have reminded ya. I see you've deleted them now

 

[Shortie]

This seems to be classic giving out money even to those who do not deserve or do anything to warrant being given it and yet they still do it even though they are in debt and shouldn't be.

I really hope something is done soon as it's not looking good at the moment.

 

[Jason]

They have been saying the government would run out of cash many times and it hasn't happened. In my view, the US is too big to fail. In fact, the last true failure was after the 1929 crash.

 

[Demon_skeith]

It truly pains me to be a USA citizen and see how much debt we continue to rack up, it's so high... I don't even know if it can be paid off within my lifespan or our children's, even if we took steps to pay it off. Though I think there are other countries with similar debt, so I wonder how long before it all comes crashing down.

 

[NeoMetallix]

They have been saying the government would run out of cash many times and it hasn't happened. In my view, the US is too big to fail. In fact, the last true failure was after the 1929 crash.

If you look at history, they already have run out of money. Dollars used to be backed by gold and gold was money, the bills were just to redeem gold. In 1934 they ran out of money so they had to confiscate American's gold and make it illegal to own to pay for things.

Then in 1971 they had to sever all ties with gold because they didn't have enough gold to back what they needed for the Vietnam war. This is why we now have fiat currency with no real value that can be created out of thin air.

It truly pains me to be a USA citizen and see how much debt we continue to rack up, it's so high... I don't even know if it can be paid off within my lifespan or our children's, even if we took steps to pay it off. Though I think there are other countries with similar debt, so I wonder how long before it all comes crashing down.

We have a debt based monetary system. Believe it or not but every bill, coin, and digit in our bank accounts exist only because someone or some entity borrowed it into existence. Currency is created as debt and the only thing backing up its purchasing power is the ability to create more debt. If you used all the currency to pay off debt, we'd still have debt but no currency.

Here is a very good mini documentary that explains how everything works.

 

[Demon_skeith]

Oh I'm aware our debt out paces what we have for money, we will never pay it off even if someone tries or all the trillion/billionaires got together to make it happen. But everything has limits, and that debt will crush America one day.

 

[NeoMetallix]

Oh I'm aware our debt out paces what we have for money, we will never pay it off even if someone tries or all the trillion/billionaires got together to make it happen. But everything has limits, and that debt will crush America one day.

Exactly, but it doesn't have to be that way! At the very least congress could abolish the Federal Reserve and the treasury could create their own notes interest free. Right now, currency is created by a privately owned banking cartel. The Federal Reserve isn't a government agency.

What would be even better would be going back to sound money that puts a restraint on the federal government so they cannot spend more than they have. Their deficit spending is why inflation is so high and why previous generations had it better. They spent OUR currency in our parents generation and they are spending our grandchild's currency right now.

 

[Jason]

I think things are in the hands of God. I can't really worry about it. However, I know if things truly "went down" like it did in 1929, the world scene would collapse on a apocalyptic scale, as it did then. You'd see a rise in extremism, war, poverty, all that mess.

 

[Demon_skeith]

Exactly, but it doesn't have to be that way! At the very least congress could abolish the Federal Reserve and the treasury could create their own notes interest free. Right now, currency is created by a privately owned banking cartel. The Federal Reserve isn't a government agency.

What would be even better would be going back to sound money that puts a restraint on the federal government so they cannot spend more than they have. Their deficit spending is why inflation is so high and why previous generations had it better. They spent OUR currency in our parents generation and they are spending our grandchild's currency right now.

Sounds messy, we would most likely need a lot of old people who've held power to go to the grave and maybe some strong young people who want to changes things could make it happen.