“Kotlikoff estimated the present value of the unfunded liabilities in 2012 as $222 trillion. I know of no estimate that places this lower than about $70 trillion. Note: these are unfunded liabilities, not total expenditures on the programs. There is no way statistically that this can be paid off. Liberals can dance around the figures, and pretend that ‘we’ are going to grow our way out of this. We are not going to grow our way out of this. The government is going to default its way out of this. It is indicative of the complete bankruptcy of the present political order that no national leader will face up publicly to these facts. This is true throughout the Western world.”
Tag Archives: Welfare-Warfare State
Ron Paul: Will Congress Endorse Obama’s War Plans? Does it Matter?

“According to recent media reports, the military does not have enough money to attack Syria and would have to go to Congress for a supplemental appropriation to carry out the strikes. It seems our empire is at the end of its financial rope. The limited strikes that the president has called for in Syria would cost the US in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey wrote to Congress last month that just the training of Syrian rebels and ‘limited’ missile and air strikes would cost ‘in the billions’ of dollars. We should clearly understand what another war will do to the US economy, not to mention the effects of additional unknown costs such as a spike in fuel costs as oil skyrockets.”
Syria strike could bring Raytheon payday

“A U.S. attack on Syria could translate into big bucks for defense giant Raytheon, which makes the Tomahawk cruise missile that’s said to be President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice. Reports that the White House is planning an attack to punish Damascus for the use of chemical weapons sent Raytheon’s stock price to a 52-week high this week — and have reawakened grumblings in Congress that the military doesn’t buy enough Tomahawks. Raytheon has delivered 252 missiles this fiscal year and 361 last fiscal year. And any Tomahawks fired at Syria would almost certainly represent a future increase in orders for the missiles, which can go for about $1 million apiece.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/syria-strike-could-bring-raytheon-payday-96045.html
France will ‘prove’ Syria regime behind chemical attack

“France will hand over evidence to lawmakers on Monday proving President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was behind last month’s chemical weapons attack in Syria, a government source told AFP. ‘It will be a set of evidence of different kinds that will allow the regime to be clearly identified as responsible for the August 21 chemical attack,’ the source said. Another government source said the evidence would include ‘declassified secret documents’ and that ‘some of them could be made public’. France has become Washington’s main ally in the Syria crisis after the British parliament in a shock move rejected plans for military action mooted by Washington.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/02/french-lawmakers-to-see-proof-syria-regime-behind-attack/
Mark Steyn Correctly Worries about Obama’s Looming Syrian Adventure

“The problem with the American way of war is that, technologically, it can’t lose, but, in every other sense, it can’t win. No one in his right mind wants to get into a tank battle or a naval bombardment with the guys responsible for over 40 percent of the planet’s military expenditures. Which is why these days there aren’t a lot of tank battles. The consummate interventionist Robert Kagan wrote in his recent book that the American military ‘remains unmatched.’ It’s unmatched in the sense that the only guy in town with a tennis racket isn’t going to be playing a lot of tennis matches.”
Hollande Undeterred By UK: “France Will Participate. It Is Ready” For Syria
“After France refused to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but was quickly aided by the US in the military intervention against Islamist militants in Mali earlier this year, Hollande is vehement of the need to ‘punish’ Damascus, ‘France will participate. It is ready.’ Sounds like a resounding ‘we’re in,’ right? It seems Hollande is dead set on lower French unemployment… by making every jobless person a soldier in Syria (packing at least one backup white flag of surrender). But, don’t get too excited since, with lukewarm public support, Hollande has said he will summon the French parliament to vote on the debate… on September 4th.”
Japan’s debt-funding costs to hit $257 billion next year
“Japan expects to spend a record $257 billion to service its debt during the next fiscal year, a document obtained by Reuters showed, underscoring the huge burden created by the government’s borrowings. That will be up 13.7 percent from the amount set aside for the current fiscal year, reflecting the ministry’s plan to guard against any future rise in long-term interest rates. Years of fiscal stimulus to revive a stagnant economy and surging social welfare costs for a rapidly ageing population have led to Japan running a record 1,000 trillion yen ($10 trillion) in public debt, double the size of its economy and the biggest among major industrialized nations.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-japan-economy-debt-idUSBRE97Q05H20130827
Marc Faber on Gold & Debt
PM Volatility Masks Impending Rise In Metals And Miners: Don’t Sell Out
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“During the 12-year PM bull market, gold has tracked the increase in the US debt ceiling. The break of the past 15 months closely resembles the 2008 correction in PM prices that occurred even as the debt ceiling got a massive lift, one that the current incumbency has increased. With the national debt nearly $7 trillion above the level of January 1, 2009, PM prices have resumed their secular rise, increasing 18% since the June 26 lows. It resembles the initial rise of PM prices early in 2009. If gold continues to approximate the rise of this debt as it has for twelve years, by 2016, it will hit $3500/oz.”
The NSA and Its “Compliance Problems”

“For ordinary citizens, ‘compliance problems’ with the law are better known as ‘crimes’ (or possibly civil wrongs) and these lead to judgment debts, fines, and possibly even jail time, depending on the severity of the lack-of-compliance. But for government officials such notions are irrelevant — legal compliance problems are just something you file a report about, and send to another bureaucrat higher up in the government chain, so that he can bury it on his desk. Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. The notion of the rule of law is the wellspring of an endless stream of hypocrisy in the modern social-democratic welfare-warfare state.”

