On August 31, total U.S. government debt surpassed $16,000,000,000,000—that�s $16 trillion—for the first time, according to the Treasury Department. The exact amount of the debt on August 31 was $16,015,769,788,215.80, a full $25,000,000,000 � that�s $25 billion—more than what it was the day before on August 30. So the debt is now much more…
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Last week, Moody’s cut Greece’s credit rating to the lowest level on its scale, citing risk of default despite the recent write-off deal. Moody’s said the rating decision was “prompted by the recently announced debt exchange proposals for Greece, which imply expected losses to investors in excess of 70%.” The sovereign debt crisis in…
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Just last October, Greece received a huge injection of bailout funds to help avert bankruptcy but the country remains on the brink of default. Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos plans to gather the nation’s political leaders in an attempt to garner consensus on the necessary budget cuts. But the party chiefs have only agreed…
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I could not resist posting this beautiful graph of the current state of the momentousness US debt. The graph is particularly useful for eyeballing the historical path of U.S. debt to GDP. Often pundits will say that our current debt-to-GDP ratio is not unreasonable because it is not too high relative to the period…
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At the Pentagon yesterday, President Obama released a press statement concerning his new military strategy. The document was clear with regard to Iran, stating “U.S. policy will emphasize Gulf security, in collaboration with the Gulf Co-operation Council countries when appropriate, to prevent Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon capability and counter its destabilizing policies.”…
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In a NBER working paper, Martin Feldstein argues that the Euro “should now be recognized as an experiment that has led to the sovereign debt crisis in several countries, the fragile condition of major European banks, the high levels of unemployment, and the large trade deficits that now exist in most Eurozone countries.” The…
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New president Mario Draghi takes the reigns of the ECB, lowering the benchmark rate 25 basis points to 1.25 percent. The move is touted as a step to avert a looming recession and offset the tension caused by the ongoing sovereign debt crisis. Draghi takes office in a climate of extreme uncertainty. Greece is…
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The New York Times has a wonderful info-graphic depicting the costs of 9/11 by Shan Carter and Amanda Cox. As the author’s point out, the United States has spent an estimated $7 million for every dollar Al Qaeda spent planning and executing the attacks – approximately one-fifth of the current national debt. Notably, these…
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Gary Becker, University of Chicago Nobel Laureate in economics, has a must read article in today’s Wall Street Journal. The article echos much of what we here at MGC have been arguing – government failure as a cause of the recession, failure of stimulus and monetary policy to boost economic recovery, the necessity of…
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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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