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Debt & Tax Clock
Slavery Clock
I started the debt clock some years ago and I still think it's a good reminder that the government shouldn't continue its spending spree. In the most recent update I added taxes with all figures projected forward to today based on 2008 Stats Canada numbers. Oh, and just to be clear, this clock measures the total of federal, provincial and municipal debt & tax.
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Debt, Government & Economic News
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| Why isn't the stimulus stimulating? | ||
| "It's no secret that the Obama administration is deeply troubled by the continuing rise in unemployment. The national unemployment rate has risen to 9.4% from 7.2% in December and 5.5% in May 2008. The number of employed workers has fallen to 132 million from 135 million in December and 137.5 million in May 2008. Unemployment animates Democrats the way taxes animate Republicans--it's the issue that is important to them above all others. It's also the issue on which the Obama administration believes voters will primarily judge it in 2012. The recent dip in Obama's poll ratings could easily become a collapse if the economy doesn't turn around soon." [06/27/09], Government | ||
| Exit ahead? not so fast | ||
| "Notwithstanding the so-called green shoots that appear to be popping up in various series of economic statistics, other numbers show things to be withering, if not rotting outright. What's more these data are not seasonally adjusted or otherwise fudged. They're tax receipts, and nobody pays taxes on phony, phantom jobs or earnings." [06/24/09], Economy | ||
| A lost decade for jobs | ||
| "Without a decade of growing government support from rising health and education spending and soaring budget deficits, the labor market would have been flat on its back." [06/23/09], Economy | ||
| Ghost cities may be bulldozed | ||
| "The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature." [06/18/09], Government | ||
| California's economy: too big to fail? | ||
| "Though few experts think California will default on its debt - following the example New York City set in 1975 and Cleveland in 1978 - the mere possibility is troubling for the credit markets. "If California truly defaults, I am sure it will shake the faith of bondholders and noteholders in the overall municipal finance system," says Dan Boyd, senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. "That would undoubtedly lead to higher issuance costs to additional state and local government loans."" [06/17/09], Government | ||
| No bond safe from Obama | ||
| "Bondholders have a new risk to contend with -- the Obama administration's policy of 'shared sacrifice.' The government's approach to the bankruptcies of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC illustrates how this new, unstated policy works: Bondholders are told to give up legal rights, and cash, as part of a government-mandated tradeoff that favors a politically connected special-interest group. The big threat is that this policy will extend to all bonds, including Treasury and municipal debt, not just corporate obligations." [06/03/09], Government | ||
| The peril of 'buy American' | ||
| "It's not surprising that Democrats in Congress could not resist adding a 'Buy American' provision to the fiscal stimulus bill earlier this year. It might seem sensible (or at least politically useful) to ensure that taxpayer dollars would be used exclusively to support American jobs. But as states and municipalities start spending stimulus money, the idea is starting to look as counterproductive as it should have looked from the beginning. It is sparking conflict with American allies and, rather than supporting employment at home, the 'Buy American' effort could ultimately cost American jobs." [06/03/09], Government | ||
| As GM goes so goes California | ||
| "Though the country has rightly focused on the mortgage mess, retirement obligations still loom as a daunting obligation. Thanks to plunging stock markets, which have decimated retirement accounts, they are more pressing than ever." [06/02/09], Government | ||
| The need for failure | ||
| "First, the very notion of "too big to fail" is dangerous. It suggests that there is an insurance policy that says, no matter how risky your behavior, we will make sure you stay in business. It encourages banks to get bigger (or more interconnected), and it subsidizes risky behavior." [05/27/09], Government | ||
| The road to bankruptcy | ||
| "At the end of his book's harrowing account of mortgage mistakes and credit card crises, Edmund Andrews writes: "While our misadventure had certainly been more extreme than those of many other Americans, our situation was not all that unusual." And indeed the book reads like the story of an American Everyman, easily sucked in to the alluring world of easy credit as he struggled to blend a new family. The terrifying implication is that it could happen to you--to anyone who leads with their heart and not their head. But en route to that moral, it turns out the story has been tidied up a little. Patty Barreiro, Andrews' wife, has declared bankruptcy twice. The second time was while they were married, a detail that didn't make it into either the book or the excerpt that ran in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine." [05/21/09], Debt | ||
| The climate-industrial complex | ||
| "Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets." [05/21/09], Government | ||
| Dangerous toys, strange bedfellows | ||
| "Overnight, a bunch of cheerful believers in good government found themselves on the wrong side of a do-gooding law. Under the terms of the new rules, their lead-free, hand-crafted toys were now illegal until proven clean." [05/19/09], Government | ||
| Stimulating trade wars | ||
| "If you thought "buy American" provisions were a thing of the past, think again. Canadians are bellowing and U.S. companies trying to employ Americans are shutting down. Someone didn't think this through." [05/18/09], Government | ||
| Soak the rich, lose the rich | ||
| "Here's the problem for states that want to pry more money out of the wallets of rich people. It never works because people, investment capital and businesses are mobile: They can leave tax-unfriendly states and move to tax-friendly states." [05/18/09], Government | ||
| Geithner's gift to Wall Street | ||
| "Imagine if you were not really in the market for a house but the government came along and said that it would finance 94% of a home's purchase price with a mortgage rate of less than 3%. Still not interested? Wait, Uncle Sam has some additional sweeteners: if you do the deal and buy the house for only 6% down, you also get the equivalent of rental income every month to the tune of at least an annualized yield of 10% of the purchase price. But wait there's still more: if, say, after two years, you decide you don't want the house any longer, you can just walk away from it. No need to pay the balance of the mortgage (it won't affect your credit rating), and you can keep the rental income received to date." [05/18/09], Government | ||
| My personal credit crisis | ||
| "At any other time in history, the idea of someone like me borrowing more than $400,000 would have seemed insane. But this was unlike any other time in history." [05/16/09], Debt | ||
| Chrysler and the Rule of Law | ||
| "Fleecing lenders to pay off politically powerful interests, or governmental threats to reputation and business from a failure to toe a political line? We might expect this behavior from a Hugo Chavez. But it would never happen here, right? Until Chrysler." [05/13/09], Government |
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