5.13.2009
A New Beginning: The NRA Takes Its Safety Off
A New Beginning: The NRA Takes Its Safety Off: Yeah, I totally agree, a US ban on assault weapons would be ridiculous. That's not the problem, and it wouldn't solve anything. But it's not as simple as telling the Mexican government to get their act together. It's an interesting thing because the US involvment with other countries has always been a hairy issue. But I agree, we should be doing our part on our side to stop these drug cartels. I don't think we're not doing our part though. The real question I think is this: how is this affecting the US, and what should we do about it? The drug trade is a huge problem, but you can't just shut it down. If it were that simple we would have done it by now. It's kind of like trying to kill weeds. You can pull them all up but eventually a seed is going to land and start the infestation all over again. I think what we need to do is worry about how we treat the weeds. How would we do that? No answers from me right now, but that's the direction we should be heading I think.
5.08.2009
Credit - the imaginary currency of our demise
As I was wondering what to write my next blog entry on, I was doing some research on what's going on, and eventually wandered around to the topic of national debt. What is it?
Read this article and educate yourself.
There are three parts to our national debt of $11,226,807,485,330.04 (the current amount as of 2 days ago (by the way, it's gone up $18 billion in the past 6 days)): the public, or national debt, the intragovernmental debt and the debt owed by the Social Security Trust Fund. The part I'm concerned about (although it's all very concerning) is the public debt.
There are two parts to the public debt: internal debt and external debt. The internal debt includes what the U.S. owes the states and individuals, while the external debt includes what the government owes foreign countries and foreign individuals. The types of securities held by the public include, Notes, Treasury Bills, Bonds, United States Savings Bonds, and State and Local Government Series securities, and TIPS. Internal debt can be seen as what the government owes itself: when we buy bonds, the government is essentially borrowing our money. I don't think that should concern us as much as external debt.
Our government has borrowed money from over 31 different countries and owes a total of over $3 trillion. China and Japan own about 44% of the U.S. external debt. Does that scare you? The United States is spending money it doesn't have. But what is more scary then that is what the Obama administration is doing with our tax dollars.
According to CNN, the new administration has spent over $2 trillion "rescuing our economy" out of an allocated $10 trillion. But where most of this money is going, I would say over 70% of it, is toward making credit more available, preventing foreclosure, and taking over failed banks. We are fueling debt on an individual, corporate, and national level. Obama is not concerned with evening our debts, only with spreading our tax dollars throughout the economy to promote "equality." There are noble hopes with his plans, but I don't think America is really thinking about the process that will make them happen. We are spending money we don't have, and the result is inflation and recession. We need to be meeting the needs of the unfortunate but without the debt. Internal debt will for the most part work itself out, and Social Security is a GOOD THING. But the fact that we are building our economy on credit, and the fact that China and Japan could practically buy us should scare us. Why doesn't it? Are we that driven by immediate gratification that we would stoop to any level to buy what we want? The consequences we are dealing with are real, and the need is genuine. But what started it was the normalization of debt. Let's stop this self-perpetuating cycle and spend our tax dollars first on getting our debts paid.
Read this article and educate yourself.
There are three parts to our national debt of $11,226,807,485,330.04 (the current amount as of 2 days ago (by the way, it's gone up $18 billion in the past 6 days)): the public, or national debt, the intragovernmental debt and the debt owed by the Social Security Trust Fund. The part I'm concerned about (although it's all very concerning) is the public debt.
There are two parts to the public debt: internal debt and external debt. The internal debt includes what the U.S. owes the states and individuals, while the external debt includes what the government owes foreign countries and foreign individuals. The types of securities held by the public include, Notes, Treasury Bills, Bonds, United States Savings Bonds, and State and Local Government Series securities, and TIPS. Internal debt can be seen as what the government owes itself: when we buy bonds, the government is essentially borrowing our money. I don't think that should concern us as much as external debt.
Our government has borrowed money from over 31 different countries and owes a total of over $3 trillion. China and Japan own about 44% of the U.S. external debt. Does that scare you? The United States is spending money it doesn't have. But what is more scary then that is what the Obama administration is doing with our tax dollars.
According to CNN, the new administration has spent over $2 trillion "rescuing our economy" out of an allocated $10 trillion. But where most of this money is going, I would say over 70% of it, is toward making credit more available, preventing foreclosure, and taking over failed banks. We are fueling debt on an individual, corporate, and national level. Obama is not concerned with evening our debts, only with spreading our tax dollars throughout the economy to promote "equality." There are noble hopes with his plans, but I don't think America is really thinking about the process that will make them happen. We are spending money we don't have, and the result is inflation and recession. We need to be meeting the needs of the unfortunate but without the debt. Internal debt will for the most part work itself out, and Social Security is a GOOD THING. But the fact that we are building our economy on credit, and the fact that China and Japan could practically buy us should scare us. Why doesn't it? Are we that driven by immediate gratification that we would stoop to any level to buy what we want? The consequences we are dealing with are real, and the need is genuine. But what started it was the normalization of debt. Let's stop this self-perpetuating cycle and spend our tax dollars first on getting our debts paid.
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