Tag Archives: debt and deficit

Labor’s Building the Australia Devolution

21 May

Labor’s  “Building the Australia Devolution” continues.

Three weeks ago – $2.2bn more debt.

Two weeks ago – $2.4bn more debt.

Last week – $2.75bn more debt.

Next week – $2.5bn more debt.

Labor seem determined to shatter the glass of their newly revised $250 Billion debt ceiling.  At this pace, possibly by around the 3rd week of August.

That’s just after Aug 2nd, when the US Treasury reckons the US could default on its debts.

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Grand Theft Pēnsiō

19 May

Further to yesterday’s first instalment in an ongoing series covering governments’ confiscation of retirement savings around the world – and how Barnaby has warned it is coming to Australia (“No Super For You!“).

From Bloomberg:

Workers will be limited in tapping their 401(k) retirement plans for loans under legislation two senators plan to introduce today that’s designed to counter the erosion of retirement assets.

“During these difficult economic times, we are increasingly seeing 401(k) funds being treated as rainy-day funds,” Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, said in a statement obtained by Bloomberg News. “A 401(k) savings account should not be used as a piggy bank for revolving loans.”

Now why would the US Government really want to stop their citizens – 1 in 7 (44 million) of whom are living on food stamps – from accessing their own retirement savings?

As we saw yesterday, the US Government hit its $14.3 Trillion borrowing limit on Monday. It is tapped out.

So the US Treasury has announced that it is now taking Federal workers’ 401K pensions – the equivalent of our super funds – to service the governments’ bills and postpone a debt default. Something that Barnaby Joyce warned could happen, back in late 2009.

It is pretty clear that this latest development has nothing to do with protecting “workers” retirement assets.

It’s about quarantining those funds, so that the US Government can follow the lead of Argentina, Hungary, and Ireland, and begin pilfering non-Federal worker retirement savings too.

If you don’t believe it could happen here, consider Barnaby’s warning last week:

… the public servants will not be happy when we use their retirement savings, put aside in the Future Fund, to pay off some of Labor’s massive debt.

Consider too, that Gillard Labor has already introduced legislation in last week’s budget, aimed at “encouraging” our super funds to “invest” in government “infrastructure”. That is, in Labor-managed spending programs.

Think pink batts. And school halls.

And finally, consider the words of PM-in-waiting and Minister for Superannuation, Bill Shorten:

Superannuation is our sovereign wealth fund

Labor have their eyes on Australian workers’ $1.3 Trillion in super savings already.

Don’t think it can’t happen here.

UPDATE:

From Sovereign Man:

There are certain times in life when a man is faced with overwhelming adversity… times when he has no reason to adhere to society’s norms anymore. It is in these instances that the true quality of his character comes shining through.

One of these situations is when he’s broke. Dead, flat broke. Some people, even when staring deep into their own financial abyss, still hold to their moral principles, honor their obligations, and keep their word.

For others, the boundaries of morality are quickly blurred into shades of gray, and things like fraud, thievery, and deception become perfectly legitimate tactics in their minds.

Speaking of broke, faced with what is tantamount to the official insolvency of the United States of America, policymakers have opted to seize funds from the retirement accounts of public sector workers in order to keep the government running.

Wow. America’s leaders are willing to engage in cannibalistic thievery in order to continue funding government operations.

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Swan Hides Budget Risk

17 May

Well done Michael Stutchbury.

But you’re not forgiven until you retract the smear. And join the chorus now recognising that Barnaby was right about the risk of US debt default.

From The Australian:

The confused reaction to Wayne Swan’s budget stems from its refusal to properly spell out the risks of relying on Australia’s China-fuelled terms of trade remaining close to their 60-year or even 140-year highs.

This commodity price bonanza has delivered eight years of tax cuts, a big expansion in middle-class welfare, billions of dollars of wasteful spending – and this year’s $50 billion budget deficit.

Yet all our previous commodity export price spikes have swiftly reversed, typically ending in double-digit inflation and recession.

A must read.

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How Australia Will Look When The SHTF

15 May

Want a glimpse of Australia’s future?

Watch this shocking story from America’s 60 Minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwrO6jhtC5E

Pretty distressing, right?

It was exotic “mortgage-backed investments” that triggered the GFC in America. And as you just saw, they are still very much at the heart of their terrible ongoing crisis, where 1 in 7 (44 million) are now living on food stamps.

Just as in the USA and other countries, our Labor government responded to the GFC by “stimulus”.  And, by propping up our “safe as houses” bankstering system.

This is the same “best in the world” bankstering system that has just $2.67 Billion in On-Balance Sheet Assets, versus $15 TRILLION in Off-Balance Sheet “business”.  The bulk of that off-the-books “business” is exotic “derivatives” bets on interest rates, and foreign exchange rates.

How exactly did Labor prop up our bankstering system?

Amongst other things, by using taxpayer’s money to “invest” billions in … yep, Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS).

$16 Billion, to be precise.

But $16 Billion wasn’t enough. Just last month, Wayne Swan authorised the AOFM to “invest” another $4 Billion in these “mortgage backed investments”:

Click to enlarge

According to numerous sources including The Economist magazine, Australia has the most overvalued housing in the world.

And earlier this month, we learned that house prices fell by the most in 12 years in the March quarter.

That $20 Billion pumped into Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities is not looking such a great “investment” now, ‘eh Wayne.

Let there be no mistake.

Rudd/Gillard Labor did not “save us” from the GFC.

They simply kicked the can down the road a couple of years.

And in doing so, all they have achieved is to dramatically weaken our government’s financial position.

Nearly $200 Billion in gross debt.

$20 Billion in “mortgage-backed investments”.

A $50 Billion budget deficit – that’s for this year alone.

A $50 Billion increase in our national debt ceiling, to $250 Billion.

And borrowing more than $2 Billion a week.

But look on the bright side.

When GFC 2.0 strikes, we’ll not need to worry about what’s hitting the fan.

Because thanks to Labor … and the banksters … we’re already in the ____ right up to our necks.

Barnaby is right.

UPDATE:

For more shocking revelations on this story of bankstering corruption of the mortgage finance markets – and now even the courts of law – see this exposé by Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi:

The foreclosure lawyers down in Jacksonville had warned me, but I was skeptical. They told me the state of Florida had created a special super-high-speed housing court with a specific mandate to rubber-stamp the legally dicey foreclosures by corporate mortgage pushers like Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase. This “rocket docket,” as it is called in town, is presided over by retired judges who seem to have no clue about the insanely complex financial instruments they are ruling on — securitized mortgages and laby­rinthine derivative deals of a type that didn’t even exist when most of them were active members of the bench. Their stated mission isn’t to decide right and wrong, but to clear cases and blast human beings out of their homes with ultimate velocity. They certainly have no incentive to penetrate the profound criminal mysteries of the great American mortgage bubble of the 2000s, perhaps the most complex Ponzi scheme in human history …

And if you missed it, check out Matt’s infamous exposé of one of the big banks at the heart of the ongoing mega-fraud, Goldman Sachs:

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who’s Who of Goldman Sachs graduates …

What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy …

Goldman Sachs is the puppeteer of our very own Emissions Trading Scheme leading proponent, former GS Australia chairman Malcolm Turnbull MP.

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CIA: The ALP Are Donut Punchers

14 May

While our lamestream media continue to look the other way, the CIA says that our Labor government is right up there with the Greeks at punching donuts:

There is no doubt Australia is one of the most heavily indebted countries. A list compiled by the American Central Intelligence Agency puts us at No. 14 on the foreign debt scale with about $1.2 trillion owing to offshore lenders.

When you consider our relatively small population, and our strong but comparatively tiny economy, that means we are punching well above our weight in the spendthrift stakes. In fact, total foreign debt easily outstrips national income. The CIA reckons we owe the rest of the world 132 per cent of our annual gross domestic product.

That’s not too far behind Greece which, at 165 per cent, finally appears to have tipped the balance and is heading towards bankruptcy (more politely expressed these days as a debt refinancing).

Yes, the ALP are good at punching O’s.

As are our “safe as houses” Big Four banks.

Bend over Australia, and grab your ankles.

This won’t hurt a bit.

Trust us.

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Labor’s BAD: Getting Worse Every Week

14 May

Labor’s  “Building the Australia Devolution” continues apace.

Two weeks ago – $2.2bn more debt.

Last week – $2.4bn more debt.

Next week – $2.75bn more debt.

At this pace, they could shatter the glass of their newly revised $250 Billion debt ceiling by around the 3rd week of August.

That’s about a fortnight after Aug 2nd, when the US Treasury reckons the US could default on its debts.

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US Treasury: August 2 Deadline To Avoid Debt Default

14 May

This Monday, the US government will hit its $14.3 Trillion debt ceiling.  By August 2nd, it could default on its mindboggling debts. So says the US Treasury (below).

Remember when Barnaby was widely ridiculed for warning that the US could default on its debts, and for suggesting that Australia needed a contingency plan?

He lost his new job as Opposition Finance spokesman as a result.

October 2009 (emphasis added):

The Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce is openly canvassing an economic upheaval that would dwarf the current global financial crisis, triggered by the US defaulting on its sovereign debt within the next few years.

In unusually pessimistic comments for a senior political figure, Senator Joyce said the US Government was running such large deficits and building up so much debt that it was in a similar position to Iceland or Germany before World War II.

… Senator Joyce insisted yesterday that the dangers to the global economy from the run-up in US private and public sector debt were real and should be debated.

“It is the elephant in the room,” Senator Joyce said.  “This is a huge risk that Australia faces. What is the game plan, what happens if it comes unstuck?”

December 2009 (emphasis added):

The opposition finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, believes the United States government could default on its debt, triggering an “economic Armageddon” which will make the recent global financial crisis pale into insignificance.

Senator Joyce told the Herald yesterday he did not mean to alarm the public but there needed to be a debate about Australia’s “contingency plan” for a sovereign debt default by the US or even by a local state government.

“A default by the US means complete economic collapse around the world and the question we have got to ask ourselves is where are we in that,” Senator Joyce said.

His warning came as the Rudd Government ramped up its attack on Senator Joyce as an economic extremist…

Senator Joyce said the chances of a US debt default were distant but real and politicians were not doing the electorate a favour by refusing to acknowledge the risk.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

From the New York Times, May 9, 2011 (emphasis added):

Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday that Republicans would insist on trillions of dollars in federal spending cuts in exchange for their support of an increase in the federal debt limit sought by the Obama administration to prevent a government default later this year…

[Senate leader] Mr. Schumer and Roger C. Altman, an investment banker and former Clinton administration Treasury official, said the consequences for the nation’s economy could be dire if the government defaulted for the first time in its history or if the debt-ceiling talks were pushed to the brink.

“If America were to default, even for 24 hours, that would have an unprecedented and a catastrophic impact on global financial markets and on American markets,” Mr. Altman said.

From Reuters yesterday, May 13 2011 (emphasis added):

The United States is set to reach its $14.3 trillion debt limit on Monday, and will only be able to avoid default until Aug. 2, according to the U.S. Treasury. Efforts to forge a bipartisan deficit-reduction package as a step towards Congress raising the borrowing limit are in turmoil.

A thicket of plans to cut the deficit, which is expected to hit $1.4 trillion this year, have emerged in recent days with virtually no chance of passage in Congress.

The US Treasury now joins Southern Cross Equities’ Charlie Aitken, ANZ chief Mike Smith, global currency expert Savvas Savouri, ABC’s Inside Business and Business Spectator Alan Kohler, credit rating agency Standard & Poors, CNBC, Deutsche Bank, and Barack Obama, in conceding that Barnaby Was Right.

Does Labor have a contingency plan for a US debt default?

Hardly.

They don’t even have a plan on how to achieve a single year of budget surplus.  Instead, they are increasing Australia’s debt ceiling by another $50 Billion to $250 Billion.

And counting their budget chickens way before they’re hatched.

The “surplus” that Labor are proudly talking about as though it is fact, is nothing more than a “forecast”.  One based on Labor “estimates” of years of continuous record-high minerals prices and record-high terms of trade … in other words, on a never-ending China boom.  Even the Americans are laughing at them!

This not going to end well.

Barnaby is right.

UPDATE:

Add American centrist think tank Third Way to the growing list.  They will release a study on Monday regarding the likely impacts of a US default.

From Reuters again:

The Treasury Department is expected to hit its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit on Monday, making it unable to access the bond markets again.

The Treasury Department says it can stave off default until August 2 by drawing on other pots of money to pay its bills.

Treasury officials have warned of “catastrophic” consequences if Congress does not approve a further debt-ceiling increase by then, but have declined to say exactly what would happen.

The Third Way report, based on a survey of existing economic research, spells out the details…

“Defaulting on our debt is not an abstract idea that might affect a few institutions on Wall Street; it would harm tens of millions of Americans in profound and lasting ways,” the report says.

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Barnaby: Let’s Take A Closer Look At Our Spiralling National Debt

13 May

Barnaby writes for The Punch (emphasis added):

Let us first consider what Wayne Maxwell Swan said on the 10th of March 2009. He stated that “the emerging economies of China and India are now expected to slow markedly”. Because of this, Wayne Maxwell Swan stated “it will be necessary to increase Government borrowing”.

The result was Wayne Maxwell Swan increased by $125 billion the amount able to be borrowed by reason of the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 and the Loans and Securities Act 1919. This resulted in the nation’s credit card having a $200 billion limit.

Now as we know, China did not go into recession so neither did we, in fact China hardly missed a beat but Australia has now gained the ignominy clearly spelt out by Dr Ken Rogoff of Harvard when he noted the countries with the greatest cumulative increase in real public debt since 2007.

The order of infamy is as follows: Iceland is first, Ireland is second and Australia is third. Spain, Greece, Portugal and the US all experienced lower increases in their debt. I know that these other countries are already in crisis, so we start from a lower base but at this rate that will be a fleeting grace.

On Tuesday night’s budget, Labor sneaked in an Amendment of the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911. Here is the most telling statement for where our nation is going under this Green-Labor-Independent Alliance. Under Part 5 Section 18 subsection 1 “omitting ‘$75’ and substituting ‘250’ ”.

Now that is in billons ladies and gentlemen and it is real money that really has to be paid back. If we have all this money stashed away under the lower net debt figure that is always quoted by Labor, then why not use some of this mystery money to pay off what we owe to the Chinese and others who we are hocked up to the eyeballs to.

The reason why we can’t is at least $70 billion that makes up ‘net’ debt is tied up in the Future Fund and student loans.

Of course, the public servants will not be happy when we use their retirement savings, put aside in the Future Fund, to pay off some of Labor’s massive debt. But that is what you must agree to if you believe in net debt. Likewise, you have to believe that you can track down all the students to pay all their HECS back immediately if you believe in net debt. Good luck patrolling the creeks and streams of Northern NSW looking for them.

So we are on the road and racing to serious problems. It is there in the figures. Debt ceiling issues in the US have now started visiting us in their primal form in Australia. I have been banging on about this, trying my best to warn about this, and generally vilified because of it and believe me, vindication is not what I was seeking.

We must realise what is happening or our nation will be like a bad accountancy client oblivious to the mechanism of their financial demise and the associated immense humiliation and hurt that comes because of it.

People generally do not understand the deficit and surplus concept, often believing that a surplus means all the debt has been paid. The surplus or deficit is broadly the profit or loss of the operation or the business of government.

Like a shop on the skids, the last three years profit and loss statements from 2010 have shown a $54 billion loss then a $49 billion loss which will be followed by another $22 billion loss. This was achieved while receiving record prices for our main sale items of coal and iron ore. How long will a shop like that be around for, and if you doubt the figures check their overdraft.

Where did the money go? What on earth have they done with it? How on earth will they pay it back? The answer to the last question is they will not, you the taxpayer will.

You will just have to spend more of your life working not for you but for the government. Instead of working Monday and half of Tuesday stacking bricks, shearing sheep, working behind a desk or on a checkout to pay your tax, you will have to spend more time through late Tuesday and Wednesday glancing at the clock saying more of my life is slavery for their incompetence.

Barnaby is right.

He has been warning of this since 2009. He quickly lost his job as Shadow Finance Spokesman, because he dared to say what most do not want to hear.

Now, more and more “experts” are slowly emerging from the woodwork to agree that Barnaby Was Right.

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Swan Raises Govt Borrowing Limit By Another $50bn – And Don’t Ask Questions

12 May

But but but … we’ll have a surplus budget in 2013. Honest we will:

The Government has blamed Australia’s summer of disasters for its move to raise the cap on government debt by $50 billion.

As Treasurer Wayne Swan was congratulated by colleagues after Tuesday’s budget speech, Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten introduced draft laws allowing the government to increase the amount it can borrow from $200 billion to $250 billion.

And what’s more:

The proposed legislation would also remove a requirement that the Treasurer explain why the extra money is needed.

Barnaby is right.

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Leading Australian Stock-Picker: Barnaby Was Right

11 May

Southern Cross Equities’ Charlie Aitken tells his clients to get out of the stockmarket and into cash:

Aitken says anyone looking closely at the markets at the moment has to entertain the possibility of something they have not seen before. “[Nationals senator] Barnaby Joyce was ridiculed last year for saying this, but I’m prepared to say that some sort of US debt default is now on the table as a risk for investors. I never thought I would say that. You would have to say that is the biggest black swan of them all.”

The term black swan refers to a completely unexpected, utterly improbable event. In the investment market sense, a black swan is a scary prospect, with its connotations of a sudden market fall. The origin of the term is in the astonishment of the Dutch explorers who arrived at the Swan River in the 17th century and discovered that swans could be black, when to all European experience they were only white.

Aitken joins ANZ chief Mike Smith, Toscafund’s global currency expert Savvas Savouri, ABC’s Inside Business and Business Spectator‘s Alan Kohler, credit rating agency Standard and Poors, CNBC TV “First in business worldwide”, Deutsche Bank, and Barack Obama, in conceding that Barnaby Was Right about the risk of US debt default.

Barnaby forewarned of the dangers to the global economy – and Australia – back in late 2009 through early 2010.

The “experts” are slowly, and finally catching up with the only politician in the country who is always on the ball.

More from Charlie Aitken – and independent derivatives expert Satyajit Das – in this must-read article.

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