Friday, August 14, 2009
Equity and debt
Via Glenn Reynolds, "Most Americans Want Unused Stimulus Money Returned to Taxpayers." Candidly, I'd be happy if we simply gave it back to the bond holders.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Aug 14, 11:16:00 AM:
He'd never do it, but if the president announced tomorrow that he and the Congressional leadership intended not to proceed with the "stimulus" porkfest, his popularity numbers would skyrocket.
By , at
Fri Aug 14, 12:05:00 PM:
By the way, TH, this is off-topic for today's giggle is pretty good: What's the definition of "political correctness"?
By , at
Fri Aug 14, 12:42:00 PM:
I am also for "giving it back to the Bond Holders"! A Tremondous YES! on that. That is common sense.
He who owns our debt---controls this country. Our hands are tied because China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia own our debt. To some extent they can control us.
Why do you think our Alaskan Oil is being shipped to Japan, and not to America? Do you not think that in the past meeting between Geithner and the Vice President of China, that some deal was worked out because of our Debt? Why do you think that former President Clinton handed over satelite and rocket guidance technology to the Chinese? So they would continue to buy our debt? What did Geithner give to China---our coal reserves?
"Gas, ass or grass, no one rides for free" and the Chinese, Saudis, and the Japanese are NOT riding for free.
That is NOT taxpayer money---it is bond holders money!
It is time to start paying it back and NOW! What is missing is common sense.
By 
Georg Felis, at
Fri Aug 14, 01:51:00 PM:
Far better it not get taken from our pockets in the first place. Any money taxed from us and sent to Washington, always comes back the worse for wear (and much smaller).
By Roy Lofquist, at
Sat Aug 15, 02:56:00 AM:
Tigerhawk,
I agree with your opinion that it would be better to return it to the bondholders. I believe that this poll supports your sentiment.
The pollsters consistently ask the wrong questions. There is a conventional wisdom as to what particular policy questions reflect the actual feelings of the polity - the great unwashed, the hoipoloi in harsher terms. Their conclusions are based upon assumptions as to the meaning of the questions which have no metrics to support them. SWAG - scientific wild ass guess. They then present them as numbers accurate to three significant figure, the accuracy of which is justified by statistical mathematics which assume accurate input. GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.
I recently had a brief e-mail exchange with Michael Barone about this subject. I wont characterize the correspondence except to say that his opening remark was "As a recovering pollster myself...".
I am quite certain that if the question were framed as "gov't spend the money or returned it to the people who they took it from" then you'd get the same result - maybe within two significant figures.
Regards,
Roy
By , at
Sun Aug 16, 12:44:00 AM:
WLindsay, surely you jest. In exchange for the perfectly worthless bits of paper we give China and the oil producing states we receive real, tangible manufactured products and oil. This is probably the biggest and best con of all time. Don't blow the whistle on it.
In the end our currency will collapse and we'll pay back these loans with Wiemar republic dollars, printed like friggn Monopoly money. Tough news for the oil producing kleptocracies and the Chinese communists/mercantilists, but hey, they brought this shit on themselves.
In the interim, protect yourself by diversifying out of dollar assets, buy some gold, silver, oil, and lead.
Let the good times roll!
