Thursday, September 18, 2008

Kraft to replace AIG on Dow?

I just saw a report from Forbes indicating that amidst the recent financial market turmoil, Kraft Inc will now replace AIG on the Dow Industrial Index. I guess this is only fitting as a lot more people will be dining on Kraft dinner given the recent market events. Maybe worth investing into?

Doing the Math:

Seriously, I think too many people are not appreciating the true gravity of the current economic situation. Is the United States of America potentially insolvent? This is a striking question. As of September 2008, the total U.S. federal debt was approximately $9.7 trillion, about $31,700 per capita (that is, per U.S. resident). Note that this figure is inclusive of children and retirees; the actual burden on working, middle class Americans is higher. Now add in the recent $4.4 trillion bailout of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. This brings the total Federal debt to over $14 trillion USD. Given that only about 250,000,000 Americans work, this equals $56,000 per person. That figure is only the Fed's debt however. Now add in the average American's personal debt and the government's other debt and the numbers should scare everyone. The sum of all this is that even being taxed at close to 50%, the revenue from income tax alone might not be sufficient to pay off the interest alone (never mind the principal) of the debt if interest rates rise a modest 2%. Yikes!

As someone who has financial views closely aligned with the classical Republic platform of smaller government, financial responsibility, accountability and fiscal growth, I have found that the current administration's economics are far worse than any other administration in history. As someone who cares deeply for the USA, I am saddened to see what has happened and hope someone can turn it around for the sake of all Americans.

What pains me beyond belief is that if I ran a business into the ground, I would never ask taxpayers to fund my bad business decisions yet when the large banks and insurance companies do this, the government uses taxpayer money to bail them out. Think about this. The government is taking your tax money to give to banks to lend back to you at interest. This seems wrong IMO.

What happened to fiscal accountability? Why are people not being investigated for this? Better question- who can fix it? Obama? McCain? Certainly not Palin. Time to invest in food producing land and gold?

What to do?

The first thing I urge people to do is educate themselves. Watch this show on Google video. It is called the Money Masters. Do you know how your money is printed in the US? Do you know how money is created from debt? Where is the gold that used to back the US currency? This show has some of these answers.

Then go to the store and buy some Kraft dinner. Some things never go out of style.

2 comments:

  1. Pretty much sums up the American 'dream'. Great writeup.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Duane - just be glad you live in Canada. Despite your claims, there are a lot of people here who are *very* worried about our situation. We are essentially bankrupt as a country.

    ReplyDelete

Do not spam this blog! Google and Yahoo DO NOT follow comment links for SEO. If you post an unrelated link advertising a company or service, you will be reported immediately for spam and your link deleted within 30 minutes. If you want to sponsor a post, please let us know by reaching out to duane dot nickull at gmail dot com.