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Episode-817- The Real Nature of the Debt Crisis

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All eyes seem to focus on one number, the US National Debt owed by the federal government.  The number is alarming no doubt as of this episode it is currently 15.2 trillion dollars.  That’s 134,000 per tax payer.  The bigger issue though is that our states collectively owe over 2.8 trillion just in municipal bonds (based on late 2011 estimates).

Debt is one thing but “unfunded obligations” are even worse.  Join me today to fully understand the stark reality of our economic future and why you need to be preparing right now to be a self sufficient as possible going forward.

Join me today as we discuss…

  • How the middle class is the back bone of a nation’s economy
  • 30 Signs the middle class is dying
  • How the nation, states, cities and people are really corporations
  • When push comes to shove at the state/city level what will be cut
  • Why balance the books can’t fix the economic problems at this point
  • A look at a few states doing “good” and doing “not so good”
  • Why even those “doing good” are on the way to major pain
  • Why preparedness is the only viable solution at this point

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

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Comments

Episode-817- The Real Nature of the Debt Crisis — 36 Comments

    • Our countrie’s net worth is over 100 trillion dollars–to say we can’t pay down the debt is a bit ludicrous. Anarchy isn’t a solution. Unless people in this country realize we have to pay down the debt, beginning today, we will end up with no country and no future. That means that Revenue (taxes+everything else–tarriffs, mining and agricultural leases, among other things) will have to rise substantially above 21 percent of gdp–as high as 25-30% just to keep our heads above water)
      One thing that could be done for sure is to stop our global empire ideas and hegemonic domination of the rest of the globe. We need to focus on america, not on market share in the third word.

      • Net worth is a paper statistic and very . . VERY slippery. This is why any investor/entrepreneur looking at businesses looks at income statements and balance sheets very carefully. Those for the United States suck . . . epically.

      • I’ll amend my comment. The Federal government hold ans ENORMOUS amount of land on its balance sheet. It could (and should) liquidate it to pay debt. Personally I’d like to see some serious, no bullshit, free cities projects emerge within the US.

    • @Frank very well spoken except when he says his name. I eventually was able to get Stefan out of it but I listened like 20 times and never understood his last name. When you know it though you do hear it that way, kind of like song lyrics I guess.

      • The last name origin is of Northern France “Normandy” to be more specific but has English roots as well. I think he lives in Toronto. It is a common name up here in Prince Edward Island

      • I used to listen to Stefan quite a bit. He has great ideas and his political persuasions are similar to mine (voluntarist – although I would be fine with very limited government). I stopped listening because he had to much anger and hate in his heart. Basically where he advocates people separating from their parents who maybe were abusive to you when you are younger (not sexually). I just think he doesn’t understand that people are seriously flawed and there is nothing you can do about it except to use gentle persuasion and understanding that people are not going to understand the world as you do. He also advocates that you stop associating with friends with a statist mindset. I also don’t think that is good. But most of his material is really good and he has a way with words, so, I suppose one has to do the same with him as everything else, take the good and leave the bad.

        Last thing. Stefan is from, or at least lives in Canada, not England (at least I think that is what Jack said).

      • He’s from the UK, lives in Canada.

        I can understand your evaluation of Stefan. He is very hardcore. I think he had a pretty rough childhood (something I heard second hand). Child abuse, psychology, and their cascading effects through society are major interests of his. He also has an apparently quite strong objectivist underpinning to his libertarianism. I hit him up from time to time, and I’d have to say I think he’s lightening up in tone. He can also be surprisingly funny at times in a wicked sarcastic wort of way.

    • I listen to him as well and also agree that he would make a great interview. He could cover not only libertarianism but many other topics as well.

  3. I’m glad to hear someone speaking the truth. There is definately a downhill trend in the upper middle class, we have watched it rapidly progress in recent years. Keep spreading the word!!!

    -The Tennessee Prepper

    • You are Welcome, It really lets you know how big the American economy is compared to the rest of the world. Unfortunately I just stumbled upon it recently myself.

  5. One sure fire way to escalate the collapse, it would seem, is for more & more people to go “self sufficient”. When you don’t earn money, you don’t pay taxes. I can’t help pay for someone on welfare when I’m not earning a paycheck…

    • Jessie, yes and no. The more self sufficient the less you require, hence the less burden you are to said systems.

  6. Stefan Molyneux, of FreeDomain radio, one of the emerging libertarian media outlets out of New Hampshire (Keene, if I’m not mistaken). He’s on Facebook, and you should be able to contact him there.

    • No. He’s up in Canada (or at least he was). He visits events in NH though which is probably a louder center of libertarian activism, especially of the anarchic variety.

  7. Thanks to today’s podcast I now have a better understanding of the municipal bond crisis. Prior to today I had not thought this phenomenon through to the point where I had anything more than an inkling of the grave implications of this crisis. Thanks Jack.

  8. Wow. Jack you have to check out these documentaries. as soon as you were saying USA Inc. and the rest as corporations. I was reminded of this documentary named Corporation Nation. all about 3 hours in length. lots of data

    The Corporation Nation
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkfMuvVuETQ

    The Great Pension Fund Hoax – Corporation Nation 2
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhkWueEjewM

    The Corporation Nation 3
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjxU8bqXHn8

    CAFR SCHOOL: School Districts And The Lottery
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbBN1j5XtPE

    I’m still making sense of this or even trying to. … so forgive me for not giving a proper description. … basically USA is a corp and all the states counties etc are all mini corps. they’ve invested tax dollars into corporation and are hiding the books. in so many words.

    Id also recommend reading this; http://breakfornews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6569&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 to help you. this Rumpl4skn fella is one of my favorite reads on the internet. no nonsense cuts thru the bs kind of guy.

    I was listening to todays podcast, this afternoon and wished I was near a computer to post this.

    remember CAFR.

  9. Wow. This show was a juggernaut.

    I have to admit I was not feeling the first 20 minutes (with Stefan Molyneux) but I realize that Jack was building up a few points in order to arrive at the latter 2/3rds of the podcast; which, when it arrived, hit me like a sledgehammer.

    The final 50 minutes of this show are epic. Nice job of explaining a very complex weave of concepts (and realities), Jack.

    I’ve read in other places that the Mayor of Harrisburg, Pa is a complete crackpot. Hopefully she will be thrown out of office very soon.

    Thanks for the link to that online debt clock (and the State debt clocks). I was looking through a few of them. Interesting that New York and Mass both had debt to GDP ratios of around 25%. Most other states seemed to have debt to GDP rations between 15% – 20%. There were a few notable exceptions (Wyoming, for example), but even States that I thought would be doing well (like North Dakota and Iowa) had high debt to GDP ratios.

    Of course, it goes without saying that the US Federal debt to GDP ratio is beyond pathetic (it now exceeds 100%). *sigh*

  11. I’m glad that you do shows like this. The corporation analogy helped me make better sense of the role that city, county, and state play in the big picture and why their collapse can occur before the federal government’s would. Thanks

  12. It’s funny that you had this show, as I was having a conversation about this very topic a couple of days ago. What amazes me is the utter stupidity of the non-hiring corporate world — do they really not realize that they need a strong middle class in order to survive for the long term? Poorly stated, our economy is co-dependent web, but the people with money and power don’t want to see that. The fall of the middle class, the “class erosion” is going to be the ultimate downfall of the wealthy. FOOLS.

  13. Jack,
    FYI. I believe this show is a reading from the website, http://www.zerohedge.com if you want to give proper credit to the source of this info. The guy ran through that sourcing pretty fast but for people that are familiar with Zero Hedge know the guys is usually spoton in his comments.

    • @Big Jim it is from zerohedge which the presenter says when he introduces the comment, all “proper credit” has been given.

    • Doug Casey, another anarchist (there are more than most people realize, including some very popular figures) and Stefan Molyneux are pals. Doug Casey is closely associated with Zerohedge.

  14. I also agree that Stephan Molyneux would make a great guest for the the show. But for the record he is not out of Britain or New Hampshire, he is located just outside of Toronto, CANADA!! Thats right, we have now brought you more than maple syrup. 🙂

    • He’s originally from the UK. He lives in Canada. He visits events in the US, namely NH and San Diego.

  16. Okay, I have been officially trout – slapped.

    1/13/12> http://mises.org/media/2311/Gold-Peace-and-Prosperity

    There are solutions!
    Written in the clearest possible terms with the goal of explaining the basics of paper money and its effects of inflation, business cycles, and government growth, this monograph by Ron Paul first appeared in 1981, and it has been in wide distribution ever since.

    • The source was zerohedge which he gave. I don’t believe MD Creekmore compiled the list he just published it.

  18. Pingback:30 Signs that the Middle Class is Dying | Our Eventual Homestead

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