So what do yall think the new currency is going to be?

[DrEvil]

Still here.

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness."

- Carl Sagan

[Elihu]

:wave: Still here.

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness."

- Carl Sagan

he was right

[Elihu]

limit intake from headlines and news sources. zerohedge makes me nautious, noshis, nauzius?

note to self practice own advice

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... -recession
This Is Not About Tariffs': Ray Dalio Fears "Something Worse Than A Recession"
Founder
Bridgewater Associates, world's largest hedge fund
1975
1300 employees
125billion assets

compare

BlackRock
1988
21,000 employees
$11.5 trillion
New York City
Laurence D. Fink

that's almost one third of the national debt

[Elvis]

This Is What They Don't Tell You About Money And Gold


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb_cxeICQKE

[Elihu]

https://www.usdebtclock.org

36 Trillion around Christmas I'm guessing?

aaaaaaand 37. clipped me by 14 billion while i wasn't even looking.

back in October I failed to follow through and chronicle 36. So there we go. end of june 37, we'll mark 38 and that will give us a good speedometer reading.

sorry all, i got a little excited when the drumpf broke into the checkbook room. fools thought he wanted to do something about the cash volcano. turns out, he just wanted it for himself.

again, elvis and the like minded economic theories are not wrong from a certain point of view. the absolute size of the number is not really the point. theoretically it could go to infinity. the problem is, the bigger the debt gets relative to everything else, the more corrupt the humans become. and then we go barbarian with the technology and then destroy ourselves. se la vie.

i assume we're all post-political by now. sure, we all believed in things and thought they were worth getting excited about. can we agree now, at this point though, that the only way to stop murdering people for popularity sake is to cut off the "money". we all know that's not going to happen. and no, "good guys" can't ride in and fix it. it is newQlr now. it corrupts anyone who touches it.

[Elvis]

the bigger the debt gets relative to everything else, the more corrupt the humans become

The national "debt" is an historical record of all the dollars the US govt has spent into the economy but not taxed back out.

Does the existence of Treasury bonds cause corruption? Seems very doubtful.

On the other hand, high interest payments exacerbate wealth inequality
Solution?
- Lower the interest rate.
- Stop selling bonds when deficit spending.

All federal spending is deficit spending until some is taxed back.

[Elihu]

All federal spending is deficit spending until some is taxed back.

[/quote]

37 trillion where do you surmise it has all gone?

[Elvis]

All federal spending is deficit spending until some is taxed back.

37 trillion

where do you surmise it has all gone?

[/quote]

Every penny of it is sitting in accounts at the Fed.


A Treasury bond exists as a term savings account at the Fed. The Treasury creates a $100K Treasury bond by crediting a bond account at the Fed with $100K.
When it does this, it's creating dollars "out of thin air." That's how national govts create money: by adding numbers to bank accounts.

The bonds are sold at Treasury auctions to Primary Dealers—25 or so large banks and brokerages.
The primary dealers are obligated to bid on and buy the Treasury bonds on offer.

The Primary Dealers exchange reserves (dollars that only banks & the govt use) for an equal sum of bonds.
The Fed provides any needed reserves for the purchases to be completed.

The $100K proceeds are credited to the Treasury General Account and that sum is spent according to Congressional appropriations.
Meanwhile, the purchaser still has $100K in the bond account at the Fed. Thus, $100K has been added to the private economy.

When the bond matures, the $100K is shifted from the bond account back to a reserve account, all at the Fed.
The bond is thus "paid off"—$100K has been returned to the holder (who by now has bought the bond in the secondary market).
No taxes are ever involved in the redeeming of Treasury bonds — not now, not in the future.

Taxation comes after the spending, to offset unwanted effects of the spending, such as inflation (mandatory), wealth inequality, etc. (societal choices).
Basically, income tax on consumers removes excess demand that would sooner or later cause high inflation.

[Elihu]

you make it sound so simple. i wonder why they are all so confused?

over the past six months, the U.S. Treasury market has shown mounting signs of stress, reflecting a growing disconnect between fiscal policy and investor confidence.

Multiple long-duration bond auctions have seen weak demand, with bid-to-cover ratios falling and yields coming in higher than expected, indicating that buyers are becoming more reluctant to absorb the government’s growing debt load. Despite market expectations for Fed rate cuts, long-term yields have remained stubbornly high or even risen,.........

The message appears to be clear: as Treasury issuance ramps up to fund new government spending, buyers are demanding more compensation—or simply not showing up.

This dynamic is fueling a growing sense that the U.S. is entering a regime of fiscal dominance—a condition where monetary policy becomes increasingly constrained by the government’s need to finance itself cheaply.

In the past, the Federal Reserve could raise or lower rates based purely on its dual mandate of inflation and employment. Today, that independence is being tested. With deficits projected to exceed $2 trillion annually even before Trump’s bill takes full effect, and interest costs threatening to consume a dangerous share of federal revenues, the Fed may find itself boxed in. It’s easy to imagine a scenario where bond yields spike further, financial conditions tighten, and the Fed is pressured to step in—not to fight inflation, but to ensure the government can keep borrowing.https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bond-canary-big-beautiful-coal-mine

Basically, income tax on consumers removes excess demand that would sooner or later cause high inflation.

how much freedom do you feel you have? all you want? or could you use more?

they're not competent to run such a machine my friend, they never were or will be. we can read the end game on the wall. MMT is a dream because it is a "system" humans lack the faculties to run so it heads toward disaster. am i reading the situation wrong?

according to MMT, if the right academic walked in there, elbowed out the idiots and partisans, and flipped the correct switch, every ailment would heal. is that about right?

[Elihu]

i should add, that "they" are not going to do your MMT thing, or my freedom thing. after the blow-up, if we are still sitting here, we will each be saying "well if they had only done my thing....." that's my beef with myself and my "government". People's necessities cannot successfully be delegated. there is no competent delegee

[Belligerent Savant]

.
My primary objection with this presentation of MMT/similar policies (or rather, the idealized interpretation of it, as presented here) is that it's folly/absurd to persist in the delusion that there is any real intent by those with overriding power/influence in allowing for the implementation of any system that may significantly benefit the majority, or in any way offer the majority a semblance of 'equal footing' -- or even a far stone's throw of 'equal footing' -- with the upper 1%.

There will be no "voting" process that will circumvent the above within this current System.



There are alternatives, however. But those alternatives are largely outside the constructs of the current System, or otherwise require dexterity and/or adaptation that can allow for working to a degree within this System while also maintaining outlets, or potential outlets, outside of its confines. Agency/self-sufficiency will be an important factor.

[Elihu]

it's folly/absurd to persist in the delusion that there is any real intent by those with overriding power/influence in allowing for the implementation of any system that may significantly benefit the majority, or in any way offer the majority a semblance of 'equal footing' -- or even a far stone's throw of 'equal footing' -- with the upper 1%.

he's right about that. once a corruption train gets started, it's one way, uni-directional. to do anything magnanimous with the proceeds is contra-indicated. that would immediately take the wind out of the graft sail. no matter how many programs enacted they all deplete the poor people further and further. it doesn't matter who's elected. that's why this phenomenon is linked to "money". extracting fake money out of people or forcing them to live on it misappropriates their time and efforts to help themselves. sucks the life out of them iow.

even if our political heroes were saints and angels, they couldn't do anything to help even if they wanted to. which they don't.

There are alternatives, however. But those alternatives are largely outside the constructs of the current System, or otherwise require dexterity and/or adaptation that can allow for working to a degree within this System while also maintaining outlets, or potential outlets, outside of its confines. Agency/self-sufficiency will be an important factor.

game on, Godspeed everybody

[Elihu]

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... -iran-hype
While we are all having our attention directed towards the war with Iran, we should always be looking at the “why.” Keeping in mind the absolutely true adage that all wars are bankers’ wars, I noted this from ZeroHedge.

US PLANS TO EASE CAPITAL RULE LIMITING BANKS' TREASURY TRADES

So while we’re being directed towards the Middle East, I note the easing of the capital rule on banks. This — together with the war — are absolutely totally part of the same equation, despite the fact that not one in a 100 folks will ever know it or realize it, and for that very reason it will progress. Here is the problem…

The US government has quietly initiated a stealth liquidity backdoor for banks by easing capital requirements on Treasury trades. This means:

*Banks no longer need to reserve as much capital when holding or trading US government debt, making banks dodgier than they already are.

*They can now soak up more Treasury issuance without showing increased risk on their balance sheets, making banks dodgier than they already are.

*This injects artificial demand into the Treasury market and helps paper over collapsing organic demand while making banks dodgier than they already are.

This is not a mere policy shift. It’s a quiet declaration of structural stress.

What this really means is that the Treasury market, the backbone of the current financial system, is now so fragile and overburdened with issuance that it can no longer function without regulatory distortion.

The US government is now issuing a whopping $1–2 trillion in new debt every quarter.

Foreign buyers like China and Japan are net sellers.

Domestic demand for treasuries is not keeping up.

Yields are becoming increasingly unhinged from real risk.

I’d always thought they’d tap the boomers’ capital sitting in pension funds, mandating percentages to be allocated to “safety” or some such hogwash, but this is a new one that I admit I did not see coming — they’re turning banks into forced buyers by changing the rules. Sneaky buggers!

It won’t be called yield curve control, but this is exactly what it is… and it stinks of desperation.

So where does the Iran distraction come in? Exactly here:

War is a cover for liquidity expansion. War equals narrative control. War is a moral justification for massive capital deployment. And war means optical deferral of systemic accountability (they screwed up biggie, but can’t admit to it, because by doing so we’d get a revolution). Far better to send the peasants into a meat grinder (worked in Ukraine).

The Iran “surprise” hype machine serves a dual purpose:

* Emotionally spike public attention away from the fact that the US is suffering from domestic insolvency.

* Creates a narrative for justifying increased military spending and debt expansion, all under the guise of national security. The deep state truly is in control.

They’re not trying to hide the debt anymore. They’re trying to normalize the next phase of collapse by staging urgency elsewhere.

The United States is entering a phase where the legitimacy of the dollar system depends entirely on manufacturing belief. And when belief wanes, control mechanisms shift from fiscal logic to memetic warfare.

This is why capital rules are being gutted in silence, all the while state media channels scream about “world-changing surprises” (Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill) and existential threats (Russia bad, Iran bad, yadda, yadda, yadda). It is simply another step in the process of a failing empire.