Saturday, January 5, 2013

"Can't Afford More Protracted Slowdowns..."

So says the President.  According to the President: "We still need to do more...."   Praising what is the most abysmal job creation record in a recovery in American history, Obama cited 2 million new jobs last year.  Reagan had more than 1 million new jobs in a single month during the much deeper recession in 1981-1982.  But, Reagan was touting tax cuts while Obama is touting tax increases.

As the US debt spirals out of control -- it may already be unfixable -- the President pushes for more spending and more debt.  He seems to have a plan.  Bankrupting the US seems to be where the President would like to take us.  It is far too late to believe that he is unaware of the level of the debt and the level of the deficits.  He knows that we are on track to reach $ 22 trillion in debt before he leaves office with an economy stuck in the mud.  He is aware of all of that.  Our debt to GDP ratio will equal that of Greece when Obama leaves office.

Obama is also aware that within less than a dozen years, medicare and social security will run out of money.  What is the plan?  To ignore it. The "Ostrich" plan  Extend and pretend.  The only thing Obama seems to have learned from the housing collapse is how to repeat the experience with a sovereign debt collapse.

You will know when the game is over when rates begin to rise.  That process has begun.  Watch the ten year treasury, already up 50 basis points in just the last few weeks.  Unanticipated inflation is on the way and higher rates are ahead.  This will make the debt situation hopeless without some method of repudiating the debt, social security promises, medicare promises or all of the above.

The hypocrisy of the Obama Administration is without historical precedent in the US.  The country is going bankrupt and quickly.  We are not that far away from Greece.  States like California and Illinois are already on the "Greek Cliff."  The country as a whole is not far behind.

The recently agreed "compromise" on the fiscal cliff only moves the country closer to the day of reckoning.  There is no stomach in either political party for facing the looming disaster that faces the US.