Archive for August, 2011

A Look Into the National Debt


Tuesday August 30th, 2011   •   Posted by Stephanie Freedman at 10:18am PDT   •   2 Comments

John Steele Gordon talks numbers in�the Wall Street Journal article “A Short Primer on the National Debt” : In absolute numbers, the total public debt as of Aug. 11 was $9.924 trillion, and the intra-government debt was $4.666 trillion, for a total of $14.587 trillion. That’s well over 300 million times the country’s median…
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A Page from the Book of Zug


Monday August 29th, 2011   •   Posted by Emily Skarbek at 11:51am PDT   •   1 Comment

Imagine a place called Zug where luxury shops abound, government pays its bills, and there are so many jobs that employers sometimes have a hard time finding people to fill them. Imaginary, you say? Zug is not a figment of my imagination. Zug exists. And it is just as prosperous as you can imagine!…
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2012: Pay Political Campaigns or Start Paying the Debt?


Friday August 26th, 2011   •   Posted by Stephanie Freedman at 10:53am PDT   •   0 Comments

I read an interesting article today and wanted to hear people’s feedback. The Digital Journal ran a piece called “Pay Down the National Debt Instead of Contributing to Political Campaigns” The article �announces: Today, the Association to Reduce the National Debt launched the �Campaign Dollars to Debt Reduction� program to give Americans an alternative…
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MyGovCost is Proud to Present MyGovCost Mobile!


Thursday August 25th, 2011   •   Posted by Stephanie Freedman at 4:33pm PDT   •   0 Comments

MyGovCost has just�launched�MyGovCost mobile! Whether it be a conversation at work, an event, or any circumstance where you are unable to access a�computer, you now have the ability to obtain the calculations wherever you are! Just go to “mygovcost.org” on your mobile device and you should be automatically redirected to the mobile version of…
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Moody’s Downgrades Japan


Wednesday August 24th, 2011   •   Posted by Emily Skarbek at 10:01am PDT   •   0 Comments

Today Moody’s downgraded Japan’s sovereign rating to Aa3. Guess what happened? Nothing much. When S&P released it’s decision on Aug. 5 to cut the U.S. to AA+ with a negative outlook, the S&P 500 Index swung by at least 4.6 percent in the four trading days following the change and gold prices rose 5…
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A New Record: U.S. Deficit to Hit $1.5 Trillion!


Wednesday August 24th, 2011   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:54am PDT   •   1 Comment

The Congressional Budget Office has come out with its final projection of the U.S. federal government’s budget deficit for the current 2011 fiscal year. The bad news? It’s about to set a brand new record (emphasis ours): For the federal government, the sharply lower revenues and elevated spending deriving from the financial turmoil and…
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A Look into the Two Sides of the Stimulus Debate


Tuesday August 23rd, 2011   •   Posted by Stephanie Freedman at 8:52am PDT   •   1 Comment

Today,�The Economist is facilitating�a discussion between the two sides of the stimulus debate. On one side of the spectrum is Richard C. Koo, Chief economist at Nomura Research Institute, who opens his argument with: Monetary policy is largely useless in this type of recession because those with balance sheets underwater are not interested in…
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Downgrading America’s Politicians


Monday August 22nd, 2011   •   Posted by Emily Skarbek at 12:41pm PDT   •   0 Comments

Article published in the Sacramento Bee: Washington is injecting uncertainty and instability into an economy that otherwise can be quiet resilient in the face of change. Many businesses are doing well and making profits. But the economy isn�t growing because businesses are uncertain about the how to best use those profits, and other resources….
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Super-Downgrade Me!


Thursday August 18th, 2011   •   Posted by Emily Skarbek at 10:52am PDT   •   1 Comment

Since last summer, the top 3 ratings agencies (S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch Ratings) have made 196 “super-downgrades” on municipal bonds, according to research popularized in today’s Wall Street Journal. Super-downgrades are defined as cuts of at least three grade-letter scores on the traditional scale used by the firms. For example, when the US treasury…
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The National Debt “Death Spiral”


Wednesday August 17th, 2011   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:20am PDT   •   5 Comments

A Credit Default Swap (CDS) is a special kind of insurance policy that can be purchased by individuals or institutions that invest in debt securities to protect themselves from losses if the issuer of the debt chooses to default on their obligations. The annual cost of this special kind of insurance policy is called…
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