Public radio station WLRN aired a program describing the phenomenon of habituation, a fancy word for “getting used to.”
The program described how good experiences always seemed at their best early on. Then, as the experiences continued, people habituated to them, and they seemed less enjoyable.
Similarly, bad experiences were at their worst in the beginning but later seemed to moderate with time.
Example: I live in a country club that, by any rational evaluation, could be considered akin to paradise. The Florida climate and club grounds are beautiful. We have five outstanding restaurants on the grounds, plus fifty more within 15 minutes by car. There are nearby shopping centers, and a Costco is 10 minutes away, plus easy access to a freeway, a toll road, and two airports.
We are offered two in-club golf courses and many others nearby. Twenty-five soft tennis courts, a dozen pickleball courts, a great spa fitted with every exercise machine, coaching, steam rooms, and all sorts of classes are here for every member.
Enjoy cards? We have gin, poker, and bridge at all levels. A library in the clubhouse and a public library is ten minutes away. And don’t even ask about the ever-smiling, ever-courteous, ever-friendly service people. So, yes, it’s paradise.
And yes, after a while, people become so habituateds to paradise that they complain when things are not precisely perfect, and sometimes even when they are.
I’ve noticed that the people who complain most are those who have been here for a short while. The newcomers are awed by the service and the surroundings. And the long-termers, say fifteen years or more, are habituated to how the club operates.
I’ll admit this is just an observation and not statistically proven. (Also, there are regional differences in the effect of habituation, with Midwesterners and Canadians seeming more stoic).
Habituation can occur in various aspects of human behavior and emotion:
Lying: A person who frequently lies might initially feel a strong emotional response such as guilt or anxiety. Over time, as they continue to lie, they may become habituated to these feelings and no longer experience them as intensely.
Stealing: Similar to lying, a habitual thief might initially experience a rush or fear of getting caught. With repeated acts of stealing, these intense feelings may diminish, making it easier for the individual to continue the behavior and for his associates to countenance it.
Marriage: In the context of marriage, habituation might refer to the phenomenon where partners become so accustomed to each other’s presence and habits that they may take each other for granted, leading to a decrease in overt expressions of love or appreciation.
Enjoyment: Read a book, see a movie, hear a joke—usually, the first time is the best.
Love: The intense passion and excitement that characterize the early stages of a romantic relationship often give way to a more stable and less intense form of affection as partners become habituated to each other.
Pain: Chronic pain sufferers can sometimes become habituated to their pain, meaning that their psychological response to the pain decreases even though the physical sensation may remain constant.
Anger: Frequent exposure to situations that trigger anger can lead to habituation, where the individual’s emotional response to such triggers becomes less intense over time. Visualize our current vs. past responses to mass shootings.
Fear: Habituation is often used in therapy to help individuals overcome phobias. By gradually and repeatedly being exposed to the feared object or situation without any negative consequences, the individual’s fear response can diminish.
Hope: While not typically discussed in the context of habituation, it’s possible for individuals to become habituated to hope if they are repeatedly exposed to situations where their hopeful expectationsare met, potentially leading to a decreased emotional response to positive outcomes.
Habituation is related to expectations and is a normal and often adaptive process. But it can also contribute to negative behaviors if it reduces the emotional impact of harmful actions.
If someone regularly lies, cheats, or steals, the latest instances seem to draw less reaction from those who know them.
The recent debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump provides an example.
Biden enumerated his accomplishments; Trump lied and smirked.
Both drew yawns from the media because they were nothing new.
Biden’s twenty-second stumble and hoarse voice were all the media could remember of the entire ninety-minute debate, and that is what they promulgated.
Interestingly, the opposite of habituation can occur under certain circumstances. It’s called sensitization, and it, too, can be related to expectations. Pain, for example, can be felt more intensely in subsequent experiences.
Visualize a dentist’s drilling. The patient might begin to flinch even before the drill touches.
SUMMARY
Habituation plays a greater part in our lives than we often realize. The same circumstance may elicit different emotional responses, depending on whether and how we have experienced them earlier.
It partly has to do with expectations. Something that falls within the parameters of our expectations might cause less emotion than something unanticipated.
A joke with a new twist is funnier than one you’ve heard before. Horror movies and music rely on expectations for emotional impact. All the arts do.
We are programmed to pay more attention and be more emotional with the new and different and to ignore the usual. It is the appeal of games(each is different), infidelity (a different partner), and news. It supports curiosity. All lack the habituation that would dull our responses.
Habituation is why Trump’s lies and criminality don’t draw the public outrage that historically has followed other politicians’ misdeeds.
Habituation desensitizes. It’s why there was no outcry when Trump’s lawyer, accountant, and other associates have been jailed for doing what Trump ordered.
Though the public is habituated to Trump’s transgressions, his associates’ crimes are new.
Here are some definitions. Which American political party do they describe?
1. Fascism is a political ideology characterized by authoritarian ultranationalism, centralized control, suppression of opposition, and often a dictatorial leader.
It emphasizes bigotry, extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political/cultural liberalism.
2. White supremacy is an ideology based on the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races and should, therefore, dominate society.
This belief system underpins various forms of racial discrimination and segregation.
3. Christian nationalism is a cultural framework that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.
It is an ideology that emphasizes the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and should continue to uphold Christian values in its laws and society.
Christian nationalists may believe that being a Christian is an important part of being a true American and that the government should recognize the U.S. as a Christian nation.
The movement can include various subgroups and ideas, such as the New Apostolic Reformation, which seeks a transformation of the U.S. into a Christian nation through what they see as a spiritual battle.
The term “white Christian nationalism” is sometimes used to describe a worldview that combines elements of white supremacy with Christian identity, often with a focus on political power and cultural dominance.
See: In their own words: How Americans describe ‘Christian nationalism’
Google Trends data shows a significant rise in searches for the term following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Searches for the term peaked in July 2022 after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., declared in an interview that “We need to be the party of nationalism, and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists.”The survey asked 2,540 respondents who have heard at least “a little” about Christian nationalism: “In your own words, what does the phrase ‘Christian nationalism’ mean to you?”
Many describe “Christian nationalism” in terms of Christian dominance in society, while others associate the concept with racism, authoritarianism, bigotry and exclusion.A smaller portion of Americans describe it as the positive influence of faith and morals in society.
In a related news story:
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landryis defending the state’s mandate to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, explaining that the United States was founded upon “Judeo-Christian” principles.
There is nothing more religious than the 10 Commandments, and as is the case with all things religious, there are disagreements, interpretations, and claims of righteousness.
Which 10 Commandments will Gov. Landry post, and what about religions that don’t believe in the 10 Commandments?
There are multiple versions of the Ten Commandments, some of which are in fierce contention. Among the most notable is the “graven image” commandment. For centuries, arguments have raged about whether worshipping images of Jesus, Mary, and various saints violates thiscommandment.
Not all religions subscribe to the 10 Commandments as they are presented in the Bible.
For instance, Islam does not accept the Bible’s absolute authority, including the Ten Commandments, because it believes that the text has been corrupted over time. Hinduism has “the Yamas,” which serve a similar purpose to the Ten Commandments but are different in content and scope.
Are they, who follow these religions. less American?
Then, there is the Talmud, which lists 613 commandments. Which should be shown as the ten?
The U.S. Constitution addresses religion in the very First Amendment, which contains two clauses related to religion:
The Establishment Clause: This clause prohibits the federal government from creating an official church or favoring one religion over another.
It states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
The Free Exercise Clause: This clause protects individuals’ rights to practice their religion as they please, without interference from the government. It says, “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The purpose of these clauses is to prevent the government from sinking into a theocracy, the problems of which are:
Lack of Religious Freedom: The state endorses one religion, often leading to the suppression of other religious practices and beliefs
Potential for Intolerance: Theocratic societies may be intolerant towards immigrants, different cultures, or ethnic groups, especially those who do not share the state religion
Risk to Personal Freedoms: Disagreeing with the government can be seen as disagreeing with the divine authority itself, placing personal religious ideas or freedoms at risk.
Centralized Power: Theocracies often have centralized structures of power, which can limit debate and dissent in policy-making.
Societal Compliance: Compliance is often achieved through religious means, which can include the threat of spiritual consequences for non-compliance.
Theocracies quickly evolve into dictatorships, which are especially difficult to change because the leader claims to speak for God.
After reading the above, you can answer the title question for yourself: Which American political party is this, and is it what you want for America?
The sole purpose of government is to improve and protect the people’s lives.
Why else would we, the people, turn over control of our lives to a government?
Why else would we. the people, give our precious money and limited power to a small group that tells them what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do?
But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has different purposes, according to their site:
1. Furthering international monetary cooperation for consultation and collaboration on international monetary problems. 2. Facilitating the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contributing thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment, real income and productive resources. 3. Promoting orderly exchangearrangements among members, and to avoiding competitive exchange depreciation. 4. The elimination of foreign exchangerestrictions which hamper the growth of world trade. 5. Making the resources of the Fund temporarily available to members to correct maladjustments in their balance of payments without measures destructive of prosperity. 6. Shortening the duration and lessening the degree of disequilibrium in the international balances of payments of memberss
Nowhere are improving and protecting the people’s lives mentioned. It’s all about the governments and their money.
That is why the IMF never met an austerity it didn’t love.
It almost always recommends some form of austerity as a cure for what it deems “excessive” government debt.
Here’s what austerity means:
Reducing Expenditure: Governments may cut spending on public services, welfare benefits, and salariesfor public sector workers. This can include limiting the terms of unemployment benefits, reducing government employees’ wages,or cutting programs for the poor.
Increasing Revenue: This can be achieved by raising taxes, targeting tax fraud and evasion, or privatizing government-owned businesses to raise capital.
Economic Impact: Austerity measures act like contractionary fiscal policy, which can slow economic growth. This is because they reduce the amount of money circulating in the economy, which can lead to lower consumer spending and investment.
Debt Management: The primary goal of austerity is to reduce the risk of default on government debt. High levels of debt can lead to creditors demanding higher interest rates, making it more expensive for a country to borrow money.
Cut benefits, increase taxes, slow growth, and ensure the government pays its obligations to other governments. That is about as pro-government and “non-people” as you can get.
It can be said sweetly and nobly as President John Kennedy with his “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” speech.
Ah, those lofty words that sound so patriotic and easy on the ear, but are a prescription for an impoverished nation living under a dictatorship.
I prefer to ask politicians, “What will you do for us in return for your salary, lifestyle, and the prestige we have given you?”
Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
The IMF functions as an employee of governments and not of the people.
Based on history and its own statements, the IMF may have a different maxim: The sole purpose of people is to improve and protect their government.
That is true in America. Here, the federal government has infinite money but still demands taxes from the people.
Here, politicians decry federal deficits, though the government can pay any invoice merely by pressing computer keys.
Here, our government pretends to struggle with funding benefits for the poor, though it has no trouble funding tax breaks for the rich.
“Improving and protecting the people’s lives” seems to be the last thing the IFM and U.S. politicians worry about.
U.S. government budget deficits and an escalating debt load pose “a growing risk” to the global economy, marring an otherwise stellar economic performance, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.
Translation: The federal government is putting more dollars into people’s pockets than it is taking out, and as a result, the economy is doing great.
The “growing risk” is that somehow the poor will discover the government’s infinite ability to fund benefits, and demand more and better.
The United States over the next several years faces “a pressing need” to reduce its debt burden, which could require broad-based income tax increases and cuts in popular entitlement programs, the fund said at the conclusion of its annual review of the U.S. economy.
Translation: This “pressing need” often has been described as a “ticking time bomb,” which has been “ticking” for eighty-four years without exploding.
Our Monetarily Sovereign (MS) government has infinite dollars.
Why then does the IMF want, the government unnecessarily to take more money from the people and cut benefits to those who need them.
The required fiscal adjustment will mean “difficult political decisions over the course of multiple years,” the fund said, warning that an unchecked rise in debt could eventually sap U.S. growth and snowball into global financial distress.
Translation: “Difficult political decisions” are those that screw the people while sounding like the IMF is helping them.
For instance, raising Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment taxes with the false explanation that these taxes are needed to “save” the benefits.
These decisions are difficult, but we politicans, being heroic, are ready to sacrifice your lives to make the rich richer.
The rise in debt stimulated U.S. growth and “snowballed” into the people’s financial success. So, cut the debt.
“Now is a good time,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the fund’s managing director. “The U.S. economy is very strong, and it is in good times where you can do more to prepare yourself for risks in the future.”
Translation: The U.S. economy is very strong because the government has increased spending.
Therefore, now is a good time to weaken it by taking money out of the economy. GDP=Federal and Non-federal Spending + Net Exports.
You can be sure that if the economy was suffering, Ms. Georgieva would offer the same prescription: Austerity. It’s what they always recommend, regardless of the circumstances.
President Biden has ruled out at least one of the fund’s suggested remedies: Higher taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year.
Translation: The IMF wants to take dollars out of the pockets of the poorer people.
Apparently, these people should ask not what the country can do for them but what they can do for the rich people.
But debt aside, the IMF statement praised the U.S. economy for “a remarkable performance” in recent years.
Inflation has largely been brought under control without the sharp increase in unemployment that many economists had expected.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth remains above expectations and is expected to continue.
Translation: We, the IMF, are completely clueless about how high levels of federal deficit spending can cause these remarkable outcomes, but whatever the reason, we want it stopped.
“The U.S. is the only G-20 economy whose GDP level now exceeds the pre-pandemic level. This is good for the U.S. and it is good for the global economy,” Georgieva told reporters.
Translation: The federal debt (that isn’t federal and isn’t debt — See: National Debt ) is up, and all this good stuff is happening. We of the IMF don’t understand why, and we want it stopped.
Despite the U.S. debt bulge, financial markets remain untroubled. The return that the government must offer to entice investors to purchase 10-year treasury securities hovers around 4.2 percent, below rates that were typical before the Great Recession.
Translation: The IMF is shocked that financial markets are untroubled by sales and profit growth.
Jerome Powell: “Look how well I’m driving.”
The U.S. government doesn’t really don’t care how many treasury securities are purchased.
Those dollars mean nothing to a government that has infinite dollars.
The government sets the interest rate at any level the Fed chooses.
It’s what the Fed does to make people think it is driving the car when, in fact, it is just going along for the ride.
The U.S. economy also is attracting an increasing share of global capital, according to Georgieva.
Before the pandemic, 18 percent of funds invested outside national borders was placed in the United States.
Today, the U.S. share of mobile finance is 33 percent, she said.
Translation: The so-called “federal debt” that bothers the IMF doesn’t seem to bother knowledgeable investors.
Debts and deficits will be an early challenge for the next president. In early 2025, Congress must lift the statutory debt ceiling or see the United States default on its debt.
Lawmakers also must decide by the end of 2025 to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts or allow them to expire, thus increasing taxes on most Americans.
Translation: Debts and deficits will grow the economy, but politicians, economists, the media and IMF will argue that the debt and deficits should be reduced. It’s what the very rich want us to say.
In April, as part of a separate review, IMF officials chided the United States for government deficits that stimulated the economy, saying they effectively made it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
Translation: Deficits grew the economy and enriched the private sector, but how is the Fed going to justify its existence if it can’t manipulate interest rates?
The IMF’s slogan should be: The sole purpose of people is to protect and improve their government and the rich people.
On Thursday, citing potential upside risks to inflation, the IMF said the Fed should wait to cut interest rates until “at least late 2024.”
Translation: Otherwise, it will be too easy for those who aren’t rich to buy cars, houses, refrigerators, furniture, and every other product whose price is increased by high interest rates (i.e., all products).
Thursday’s IMF statement is just the latest warning on the U.S. debt picture.
On Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development said that adding debt at a time of higher interest rateswill limit the ability of the United States to meet other needs, including defense, an aging population, and future economic shocks.
Translation: We have no idea what this means. The U.S. government has proved it has infinite moneyto meet all needs, including defense, an aging population, and future economic shocks. But, the IMF felt compelled to make a statement, however wrong.
Years of repeated tax cuts have narrowed the government’s revenue base at a time when it faces escalating spending commitments for programs such as Social Security and Medicare, as well as rising interest charges, the OECD said.
Translation: Federal taxes do not fund federal spending. Even if it collected zero taxes, it could continue spending forever.
But then, it couldn’t take dollars from the poor for social benefits or just limit those benefits altogether.
That is not what our real patrons, the rich, want.
As a share of the economy, corporate income tax payments are now less than half what they were in 1967, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Interest expenses on the national debt over the same period have doubled to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product.
Translation: The government is taking comparatively less money from corporations, and adding more money to the economy in interest. This is working spectacularly, so it must be stopped???
The OECD, a group of more than three dozen advanced economies, called for a “sustained but steady multiyear” budget effort to curb debt.
Only Italy, Greece and Japan have higher gross debt-to-GDP ratios, the OECD said in its annual assessment of the U.S. economy.
Translation: Because the IMF is are clueless about the fundamental differences between a Monetarily Sovereign (MS) government and a monetarily non-sovereign government, it lumps Italy, Greece, and Japan into our comparison.
Italy and Greece, not being MS, must rely on the (EU) European Union to provide them with money. Japan, being MS, doesn’t need any help.
Government debt held by the public, which excludes Treasury securities in the Social Security Trust Fund, is equal to 99 percent of total U.S. output and is expected to hit 122 percent in 2034, according to the CBO.
Translation: The useless Debt/GDP ratio is the phony number of last resort for those who don’t understand MS; therefore, the IMF tries to fool you with it.
Many economists say the government’s growing debt burden must be addressed with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.
Stabilizing the debt relative to the size of the economy is “a really important goal,” Jared Bernstein, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said at the Brookings Institution this week.
Someone please tell Mr. Bernstein that federal debt is two things, neither of which has any meaning relative to the size of our economy (which is GDP).
The two meanings of federal debt are:
The historical net total of federal deficits— the difference between federal spending and federal taxes. Simply add all the spending the government has ever done and subtract all the income the federal government has ever received. That’s the debt.
The current total of all outstanding Treasury Securities (T-bills, T-notes, T-bonds, etc.)
With regard to #1, the “debt” would have some meaning if the federal government was monetarily non-sovereign: it doesn’t use a currency it issues. This resembles city, county, and state governments, as well as businesses, you, and me.
It’s relevant because we monetarily non-sovereign types might have difficulty paying all those outstanding bills. The Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government has no such difficulty because it has the infinite ability to create dollars.
Regarding #2, Treasury Securities are accounts wholly owned by the depositors. The government doesn’t owe the contents of those accounts because it never takes ownership of the money. It just holds the dollars for safekeeping.
This resembles bank safe deposit boxes. The contents are not part of bank debt because the bank never owns them.
By contrast, city, county, and state notes and bonds are in accounts owed by the respective cities, counties, and states, which rely on income to pay them off.
The U.S. federal government is not like state/local governments, not like euro governments, not like businesses, and not like you and me.
It uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign. It cannot, unwillingly, run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. As real experts have said:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency. There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody. The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print the money to do that.”
Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.”
Statement from the St. Louis Fed: “As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills. In this sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets to remain operational.”
Press Conference: Mario Draghi, President of the Monetarily Sovereign ECB, 9 January 2014 Question: can the ECB ever run out of money? Mario Draghi: Technically, no. We cannot run out of money.
Because the U.S. federal government has the infinite ability to create its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar, it never borrows dollars.
Contrary to popular wisdom, T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds do not represent borrowing. They simply are deposits, the purpose of which is to provide a safe place to store unused dollars and to help the Fed control interest rates.
The government never touches those dollars, which remain the property of the depositors. Not only can our Monetarily Sovereign government not run short of dollars, but federal deficits are necessary to grow the economy, as evidenced by the formula: GDP = Federal Spending + Nonfederal Spending + Net Exports.
When we don’t have sufficient federal deficits, we have depressions and recessions:
1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807.
1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819.
1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837.
1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857.
1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873.
1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893.
1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929.
1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began 2001.
Periodically, we publish yet another shrieking claim that the U.S. federal debt is “unsustainable”and a “ticking time bomb.”
This lie has been told to you every year (really, almost every day) since 1940, and that bomb has never exploded, nor will it.
Rather than repeat the entire list of the thousands of lies to which you have been subject, I will list samples here as a reference and add periodically, at the end, new “federal debt is a ticking time bomb“ lies as I encounter them.
Read these and see that even respected economists replace facts with intuition:
September 26, 1940, New York Times: The federal budget was a “ticking time-bomb which can eventually destroy the American system,” said Robert M. Hanes, president of the American Bankers Association.
By 1960, the debt was “threatening the country’s fiscal future,” said Secretary of Commerce Frederick H. Mueller. (“The enormous cost of various Federal programs is a time-bomb threatening the country’s fiscal future, Secretary of Commerce Frederick H. Mueller warned here yesterday.”)
In 1984: AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said. “It’s a time bomb ticking away.”
In 1985: “The federal deficit is a ticking time bomb, and it’s about to blow up,” U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. (Remember him?)
Later in 1985: Los Angeles Times: “We labeled the deficit a ‘ticking time bomb‘ that threatens to permanently undermine the strength and vitality of the American economy.”
In 1987: Richmond Times-Dispatch – Richmond, VA: “100TH CONGRESS FACING U.S. DEFICIT’ TIME BOMB‘”
Later in 1987: The Dallas Morning News: “A fiscal time bombis slowly ticking that, if not defused, could explode into a financial crisis within the next few years for the federal government.”
In 1989: FORTUNE Magazine: “A TIME BOMB FOR U.S. TAXPAYERS“
In 1992: The Pantagraph – Bloomington, Illinois: “I have seen where politicians in Washington have expressed little or no concern about this ticking time bomb they have helped to create, that being the enormous federal budget deficit, approaching $4 trillion.“
Later in 1992, Ross Perot said, “Our great nation is sitting right on top of a ticking time bomb. We have a national debt of $4 trillion.”
In 1995: Kansas City Star: “Concerned citizens. . . regard the national debt as a ticking time bombpoised to explode with devastating consequences at some future date.”
In 2004: Bradenton Herald: “A NATION AT RISK: TWIN DEFICIT A TICKING TIME BOMB“
In 2005: Providence Journal: “Some lawmakers see the Medicare drug benefit for what it is: a ticking time bomb.”
In 2006: NewsMax.com, “We have to worry about the deficit . . . when we combine it with the trade deficit, we have a real ticking time bomb in our economy,” said Mrs. Clinton.
In 2007: USA Today: “Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen.“
In 2010: Heritage Foundation: “Why the National Debt is a Ticking Time Bomb. Interest rates on government bonds are virtually guaranteed to jump over the next few years.
In 2010: Reason Alert: “. . . the time bomb that’s ticking under the federal budget like a Guy Fawkes’ powder keg.”
In 2011: Washington Post, Lori Montgomery:”. . . defuse the biggest budgetary time bombs that are set to explode.”
June 19, 2013: Chamber of Commerce: Safety net spending is a ‘time bomb’, By Jim Tankersley: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is worried that not enough Americans are worried about social safety net spending. The nation’s largest business lobbying group launched a renewed effort Wednesday to reduce projected federal spending on safety-net programs, labeling them a “ticking time bomb” that, left unchanged, “will bankrupt this nation.”
On June 15, 2014: CBN News: “The United States of Debt: A Ticking Time Bomb“
On January 27, 2017: America’s “debt bomb is going to explode.” That’s according to financial strategist Peter Schiff. Schiff said that while low interest rates had helped keep a lid on U.S. debt, it couldn’t be contained for much longer. Interest rates and inflation are rising, creditors will demand higher premiums, and the country is headed “off the edge of a cliff.”
February 16, 2018 America’s Debt Bomb By Andrew Soergel, Senior Reporter: Conservatives and deficit hawks are hurling criticism at Washington for deepening America’s debt hole.
April 10, 2019,The National Debt: America’s Ticking Time Bomb. TIL Journal. Entire nations can go bankrupt. One prominent example was the *nation of Greece which was threatened with insolvency a decade ago. Greece survived the economic crisis because the European Union and the IMF bailed the nation out.
SEP 12, 2019, Our national ticking time bomb, By BILL YEARGIN SPECIAL TO THE SUN SENTINEL | At some point, investors will become concerned about lending to a debt-riddled U.S., which will result in having to offer higher interest rates to attract the money. Even with rates low today, interest expense is the federal government’s third-highest expenditure following the elderly and military. The U.S. already borrows all the money it uses to pay its interest expense, sort of like a Ponzi scheme. Lack of investor confidence will only make this problem worse.
JANUARY 06, 2020, National debt is a time bomb, BY MARK MANSPERGER, Tri City Herald | The increase in the U.S. deficit last year was about $1.1 trillion, bringing our total national debt to more than $23 trillion! This fiscal year, the deficit is forecasted to be even higher, and when the economy eventually slows down, our annual deficits could be pushing $2 trillion a year! This is financial madness. there’s not going to be a drastic cut in federal expenditures — that is, until we go broke — nor are we going to “grow our way” out of this predicament. Therefore, to gain control of this looming debt, we’re going to have to raise taxes.
February 14, 2020, OMG! It’s February 14, 2020, and the national debt is still a ticking time bomb! The national debt: A ticking time bomb?America is “headed toward a crisis,” said Tiana Lowe in WashingonExaminer.com. The Treasury Department reported last week that the federal deficit swelled to more than $1 trillion in 2019 for the first time since 2012. Even more alarming was the report from the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicting that $1 trillion deficits will continue for the next 10 years, eventually reaching $1.7 trillion in 2030
August 29, 2020, LOS ANGELES, California: America’s mountain of debt is a ticking time bomb The United States not only looks ill, but also dead broke. To offset the pandemic-induced “Great Cessation,” the U.S. Federal Reserve and Congress have marshalled staggering sums of stimulus spending out of fear that the economy would otherwise plunge to 1930s soup kitchen levels. Assuming that America eventually defeats COVID-19 and does not devolve into a Terminator-like dystopia, how will it avoid the approaching fiscal cliff and national bankruptcy?
April 16, 2021, NATIONAL POLICY: ECONOMY AND TAXES / MARK ALEXANDER / The National Debt Clock: A Ticking Time Bomb: At the moment, our national debt exceeds $28 TRILLION — about 80% held as public debt and the rest as intragovernmental debt. That is $225,000 per taxpayer. Federal annual spending this year is almost $8 trillion, and more than half of that is deficit spending — piling on the national debt.
Now, the national debt is approaching $31 trillion,which is $12 trillion more than when Donald Trump took office in 2017 and more than half of that debt was tacked on in his final year. Then we’ve had the disastrous year and a half of Joe Biden.
Now, the Fed is now hiking its rates and that spells even more trouble for the national debt and the economy at large.
December 4, 2022 America’s ticking time bomb: $66 trillion in debt that could crash the economy By Stephen Moore, The national debt is $31 trillion when including Social Security’s and Medicare’s unfunded liabilities. Wake up, America.
That ticking sound you’re hearing is the American debt time bomb that with each passing day is getting precariously close to detonatingand crashing the US economy.
With the U.S. reaching its debt limit of $31.4 trillion on Jan. 19, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged lawmakers to increase or suspend the debt ceiling.
April 22, 2023The Debt Ceiling Debate Is About More Than Debt, Jim Tankersley, WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California has repeatedly said that he and his fellow House Republicans are refusing to raise the nation’s borrowing limit,and risking economic catastrophe, to force a reckoning on America’s $31 trillion national debt. “Without exaggeration, America’s debt is a ticking time bomb that will detonate unless we take serious, responsible action,” he said this week.
November 3, 2023 The Fuse on America’s Debt Bomb Just Got Shorter,J Antoni Heritage Organization. The Treasury is now on track to borrow almost as much in just six months as it did in the previous 12 months. That’s nearly a doubling of the deficit. Because the federal debt is $33.7 trillion, just a 1 percent increase in yields adds $337 billion to the annual cost of servicing the debt over time. Absent spending reform, eventually no one will be willing to hold the bomb anymore, and the yields on U.S. debt will begin to resemble those in Argentina.
February 2, 2024How Florida can help defuse the nation’s debt bomb By BARRY W. POULSON,professor emeritus of economics at the University of Colorado Boulder and DAVID M. WALKER,former comptroller general of the United States. Washington’s out-of-control spending, combined with fiscal and monetary policies have resulted in trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits, over $34 trillion in federal debt, over $125 trillion in total federal liabilities and unfunded obligations, and excess inflation. Excessive spending and loose monetary policy increase inflation in the short term, and mounting debt burdens serve to reduce future economic growth and shift the economic burden and consequences of mounting debt burdens to future generations.
February 8, 2024Legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones says a ‘debt bomb’ is about to go off in the U.S.: ‘We’re fast-pouring consumption like crazy’. The U.S. economy may seem like it’s firing on all cylinders, but underneath the surface, a “debt bomb” could be on the verge of exploding, according to billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. The esteemed investor said in an interview with CNBC that he couldn’t deny the economy was strong, but that it was actually “on steroids” due to massive government spending and borrowing.
Jones is not the only one to call attention to the growing deficit issue in the U.S. On Sunday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell took a rare dive into politics, telling CBS’s 60 Minutes that the national debt was “growing faster than the economy,” and calling for lawmakers to get the federal government “back on a sustainable fiscal path.” Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said she is not yet worried about the increasing national debt as long as the government keeps in check the net payments it makes on its debt relative to GDP.
Those payments are projected to rise from 2.5% last year to 2.9% next year, according to the Office of Management and Budget—below their level in the early 1990s. Jones told CNBC that the strong economy could postpone the effects of the government’s deficit spending, but only for a little while. “The only question is … when does that manifest itself in markets?” he added.
“It could be this year, it could be next year. Productivity may mask and it might be three or four years from now. But clearly, clearly we’re on an unsustainable path.”
June 21, 2024 My Weekly Column: Our debt crisis is a ticking time bomb by Randy Feenstra: On June 18th, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) – the government agency tasked with monitoring our nation’s fiscal health – confirmed my serious concerns with President Biden’s reckless spending agenda.
His administration’s fiscal policies have not only caused cumulative inflation to skyrocket by over 20% since he took office, but they have also accelerated our accumulation of debt to levels that are beyond unsustainable. Instead of changing course, he recently released his budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which has a $ 7.3 trillion price tag and looks to raise taxes on our families, farmers, and businesses to the tune of $5.5 trillion.
The CBO estimates that his debt “cancelation” policies will cost taxpayers nearly $400 billion over the next ten years. I strongly oppose these bailouts. Iowans who never attended college entered the workforce early or helped put their kids through school should not be forced to pick up the tab for President Biden’s costly and unfair executive orders.
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The latest installment contains the same old lies (“unsustainable,” “cost taxpayers” 0they’ve been telling since 1940.
They have been wrong for all those years. If we wait long enough, something will happen to prove them right, perhaps in a thousand years?
Today, this makes “only” 84 years of the debt nuts be ignorant.
The federal deficit yields economic growth year after year. When deficits are insufficient, we have had recessions, which were cured by increased deficits.
When deficits decline, we have recessions (vertical gray bars), which are cured by increased deficits.
If respected economists keep predicting something terrible is imminent year after year, yet exactly the opposite happens, at what point do they reexamine their beliefs?
At what point does the public say, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me repeatedly for 84 years; shame on me”?
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
classrooms, explaining that the United States was founded upon “Judeo-Christian” principles.:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-671519300-e1ecfe47b0734333a9ac17eb46f6f398.jpg)
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 