Moratorium on the National Debt....

[unkachuck]

While we were playing Republican and Democrat, the crooked financial wizards in banking, on wall street and in Washington were stealing us blind. They've stolen our retirements, homes, jobs and futures. Obama then hires the same crowd who brought us wars and this economic 'meltdown' to save us from them. And what have they done besides feathering their nests, covering their tracks and doubling our National Debt? Zip.

I propose we no longer recognize or pay on the National Debt; wipe the books clean, go bankrupt. Let those who ran up the National Debt pay it off. And let our generation who tolerated and encouraged these criminals, suffer the greatest consequences. With no National Debt to pay, we'll have the tax resources to fund an end to the crisis we've inherited. Without easy world money, we'll have to produce things once again. What say you?

[TexasObserver]

1. That is an insane, completely unrealistic idea.

Who do you think hold the debt and expects payment of interest rates the government has promised to pay?

Who do you think suffers if the debt is not paid?

[unkachuck]

4. that's corporate propaganda....n/t

[TexasObserver]

6. No, that's not being foolish.

Again, who do you think is paid interest on that national debt?

Yours is a ridiculous idea, and if you can't even identify the holders of the debt, how can you say we'll just repudiate the debt and go forward?

[unkachuck]

8. I can honestly say....

....I've yet to receive my first nickel of interest....you should make wiser investments....

[TexasObserver]

9. That's because you don't have a dollar invested in anything.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Buy yourself a 30 year Treasury bond...

Which at today's price, will cost you $1034.69. You'll get $45.00 a year for 30 years in interest payments and when the bond matures, you'll get $1,000.00 back.

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/rates/index.html

I've yet to receive my first nickel of interest.

You can't expect to get paid if you don't own the bonds.

[TexasObserver]

14. You mean telling our citizens to buy bonds then reneging on those bonds is a bad idea?

Ideas like repudiating the national debt are the reason independents rightly ridicule many on our side of economic argument. It's completely insane, and fails to account for the immediate and offsetting loss in value to those holding the debt, many of whom are US citizens.

Tell grandma her US bonds are worthless! That'll work.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. I have a feeling Mr. unkachuck doesn't understand the bond market and..

does not grasp the concept of "the riskless investment".

I'm sure you know Texas, but the largest holder of United States Government debt securities is the American people.

[TexasObserver]

22. Agreed!! That US citizens own most of this debt.

So grandma and grandpa have faithfully bought US issued bonds for decades, and we'll just tell them "eat it, suckers, we're the US government and we're reneging because some guy thinks it's a good idea!"

[unkachuck]

15. "You can't expect to get paid if you don't own the bonds."

....thanks anyway, but I'll make my money in reduced taxes when we stop paying on the National Debt....

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Best of luck with that.

The trend is for higher taxation, not lower.

Don't hold your breath.

[sharp_stick]

2. I'm sure

the Chinese and everyone else we owe money to would go for that. C'mon guys, give us a do-over I promise we won't fuck it up again.

[unkachuck]

5. "...the Chinese and everyone else we owe money to would go for that."

....who cares, we've got the strongest military in the world.

[sharp_stick]

31. I have to hope you're joking

but around here you never know. If we ever got into it with the Chinese you'd be counting the dead in the millions on both sides.

[TexasObserver]

10. And it's only good for once, because you'll never be able to borrow money again.

Do these people understand that the people who buy debt instruments from the US are the people who have ALREADY paid for the debt that the national debt represents? They loaned the US money so the US could spend the money in its budget. Now they get interest paid on their debt instruments. If we repudiate the debt, we're screwing the very people who financed our deficits for decades.

[unkachuck]

11. "...so the US could spend the money in its budget..."

....to cover taxes not being paid by corporations and individuals so we could buy trinkets....I guess that will have to end....

[Swede]

16. The dollar would collapse,no more foreign oil,the economy collapses.

Anarchy and death in the streets.

[unkachuck]

18. yes, the dollar would collapse....

....oil would cost more, and then we'd be on our way to a green economy....and don't forget about our military ace....

[Swede]

23. Your scenario is a million times worse than what is going on now.

[valerief]

3. Do away with a monetary economy. We should switch to a resource economy. nt

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. Abolish the "Federal" Reserve

and throw every last one of those criminals in prison for life.

Same with the "defense" industry.

Get rid of those two steaming piles of bullshit, and there won't be any "debt".

I don't owe either of them a penny, and neither do you.

[Towlie]

12. The National Debt equals a stack of $100 bills taller than the diameter of the Earth.

The http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=thickness+of+a+dollar+bill&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1g-m1">thickness of a dollar bill is usually stated to be 0.0043 inches, which presumably also applies to $100 bills.

As I write this, the http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/">National Debt Clock shows $11,901,336,589,132. As you read this the total will of course be greater than that:



Doing the math, the height of a stack of $100 bills equal to the National Debt works out to 8,077 miles.

Google gives the http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=diameter+of+the+earth+in+miles&aq=0p&oq=diameter&aqi=g-p1g9">diameter of the earth as 7,926.3352 miles.

Therefore, the National Debt equals a stack of $100 bills taller than the diameter of the Earth, Q.E.D.

With that in mind, doesn't it seem that sooner or later we'll have to quit pretending and face the fact that it's never going to be repaid?

[TahitiNut]

17. Interesting. I'm often amazed at the cluelessness of folks.

The Social Security Trust Fund is composed of Treasury debt obligations ... and folks here just want to wipe it all out? Insane. Crazy, batshit insane.

[unkachuck]

21. stop the Washington shell game....

....fund it from payroll and general revenue....

[TexasObserver]

24. It's pretty shocking, isn't it?

It doesn't surprise me that some people have no understanding of the national debt, and therefore think repudiating it would have any desirable results. It would only reduce the annual budget by the amount currently attributable to payment on the debt. And the cost would be to all those people who bought those instruments. Each person who owned them would therefore see their personal wealth drop by the amount of their bond holdings. This would mean they'd all start defaulting on obligations, lose homes, lose assets, and generally suffer economic disaster. Mainly senior citizens or non Wall street interests that would get hit.

It does surprise me that anyone would post and promote such an insane notion.

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. +2

[philly_bob]

26. UNREC see Reply #1. Crazy idea, maybe a last resort before complete collapse.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. Sure, just let me know when you plan on doing this first so I can buy other currencies

[lonestarnot]

28. You're obviously nuts.

[Wounded Bear]

29. How libertarian of you...

:shrug:

[varelse]

30. I think we're stuck with it

and I don't believe you have a clear idea of the consequences of attempting to walk away from it, either. Not likely to happen.