Treasury not concerned with rising US indebtedness

[UpInArms]

The Treasury is now populated with partisan GOP borrow-and-spenders.

http://today.reuters.com/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=uri:2006-01-20T020305Z_01_N19382914_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-TREASURY-CORRECTED.XML

NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The United States' increasing indebtedness to the rest of the world isn't a major concern as foreigners are still more than willing to invest in the country, a senior Treasury official said on Thursday.

"It is something we watch closely but it is not anything of pressing concern," Robert Kimmitt, deputy secretary of the Treasury, told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

The U.S. current account deficit is widening as imports continue to outpace exports, meaning that U.S. consumer spending is increasingly being financed from abroad.

But there will always be demand for U.S. assets and debt, from both the private sector and foreign governments, because the United States has the most liquid and deepest capital markets in the world, Kimmitt said.

The central banks of many Asian and oil-producing countries -- particularly China and Japan, whose reserves both exceed $800 billion -- hold large quantities of U.S. debt as part of their foreign-exchange reserves mountains.

...more...

Kimmitt... hmmm... doesn't he have a brother in the military - I remember now! He's the one that said "if people don't want to see women and children killed, they should change the channel".

The United States refused to make any civilian death counts even though it will say how many "insurgents" were killed. In an April press briefing, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt was asked about images on Arab TV of American soldiers purportedly killing Iraqi children. Kimmitt's response was straight out of 1984. "My solution is quite simple: change the channel. Change the channel to a legitimate, authoritative, honest news station. The stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not legitimate news sources. That is propaganda and that is lies. So you want a solution? Change the channel."

[FloridaPat]

1. Deficits don't matter.

[UpInArms]

2. yeah, that's right RayGun and Heartless Dick said so

The estimated population of the United States is 298,296,609
so each citizen's share of this debt is $27,447.22.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$2.28 billion per day since September 30, 2005

[UpInArms]

4. and here's anothe picture worth a few trillion

Who do you want?

"Tax and Spend within your means" Democrats?

or

"Borrow and Spend and Leave the Debt to your children and grandchildren" Republicans?

Which is more responsible?

[ixion]

8. that graph tells quite a story

thanks...

[wordpix2]

10. borrow and spend Rethugs, repeat after me, borrow and spend rethugs

[FloridaPat]

11. Those repubs are great at fiscal responsibility aren't they.

[Massacure]

14. That is an easy question. Spend and borrow.

:sarcasm:

[Radio_Lady]

15. Great graphic! Thanks for posting it!

[VegasWolf]

3. Yes, that has consistently been the Bush agenda, destroy Amerikkka.

Run those printing presses night and day. Borrow all that you can borrow. Give tax breaks to your richest constituents. History has shown that this works well. NOT!!!!

:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:

[rooboy]

5. One person's "investment" is another person's "purchase". n/t

Hope y'all are good at speaking Chinese...

[ananda]

6. The enemy is us.

So.. how do you mount a war against those in our own government
who are so arrogant and incompetent as to destroy us?

"They hate us for our freedoms... and they are us."

Sue

[saigon68]

7. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt is a War Criminal

LINK: http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/print.php?id=67286

Brig. Gen. Kimmitt, US Army, is the PR man for the Iraq massacre and the deputy commander. His dad is a double-dipping ex-Army man making his money off of the war his son is promoting. One is a war criminal. The other is a war profiteer

Kimmitt's father, Joseph Stanley (Stan) Kimmitt, a former Col. in Army (an artilleryman like Mark), has parlayed his military service into a Washington, DC, public relations, or lobbyist, firm -- Kimmitt, Senter, Coates, & Weinferter. As Gen. Kimmitt promotes the war in Iraq, his father represents defense contractors such as Textron Defense Systems, Talley Defense Systems, and Boeing (maker of the Army's Apache attack helicopter).

The Kimmitts are a classic example of the revolving-door syndrome of U.S. military officers and defense contractors. Such double-dipping is commonplace. It is one of the things President Eisenhower meant when he referred to the dangers of the "military-industrial complex." It is a self-replicating monster that feeds on war, death, and destruction


I'D LOVE TO SEE THIS FUCKER FROG MARCHED IN CUFFS AND AN ORANGE SUIT.

[EuroObserver]

16. Aha! I thought so. This Brig. Kimmet's remarks,

(as an aside from the economic issue being dicussed), on "changing channels" were Fallujah-related (Apri 2004). And so while Kimmet was suggesting "changing channels", his c-in-c was apparently discussing with Blair in Washington the possibility of bombing alJazeera headquarters in Quatar, or something similar, (and who knows what was said about alArabaiya, "alReuters"º), or others in relation to the same Fallujah scandal - which, of course, for them had little to do with the over-the-top behaviour of US military (marines) in that city, which has been described as a massacre, and much to do with the vivid visual exposure of same by (Arab) TV.

From the above Melbourne Indymedia link:

Just four days after four US mercenaries' burned and dismembered bodies were strung up on a bridge, American military might was poised to bring Fallujah’s brief spell as a no-go area to an end. Up to 4,000 locally-based US Marines, whose original mission was to woo locals with a $500m humanitarian aid budget, were preparing to roll in with full battle armour on. Even Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the normally impassive Coalition spokesman in Baghdad, seemed to be relishing the prospect. Declaring Fallujah "the town that just doesn’t get it", he vowed to "hunt down the people responsible for this bestial act". He added: "It will be at a time and a place of our choosing. It will be methodical, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming."

We are all aware by now of what he was promising. Falluja has gotten "it." Over 700 of its citizens are no longer living, breathing human beings. Thousands more have been mutilated. An overwhelming proportion of them had nothing to do with killing the mercenaries.

º"alReuters" - cf. Ledeen.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Well la de dah....

debt means nothing. WTF? More twisted Republican logic oozing out of the culture of corruption

[cliss]

12. Don't forget.....

John "Snowjob" Snow is the secretary of the Treasury. He certainly doesn't care. He's one of the "Bush Boys". He's waiting patiently for Patient Uncle Sam to bite the dust.

He's been watching Ole Sam in the ICU, steadily deteriorating. Any day now....

[54anickel]

13. When the Treasury says they are not concerned with the rising US

indebtedness, you can bet your sweet behind it's time to be afraid. Be very afraid. Hell, even Greenspin has raised concerns. This mal-admin usually says the opposite of what they mean.

[Stockholm]

17. Ok I´ ll accept that

but they better be scared of a sinking consumer price index.

[cornermouse]

18. "isn't a major concern as foreigners are still more than willing

to invest in the country"

Hello? Its not been that long since the government went public with the concern that foreigners were buying too much United States property. Of course that was while we were still trying to protect industrial secrets rather than selling them off, before outsourcing, before churches allowed themselves to become corrupted, before greed became God.

[EuroObserver]

19. "Foreigners" still discouraged from buying property

I reckon: They're supposed to buy fresh dollars hot off the printing press.

[depakid]

20. Since M-3 will be kept secret come March

I guess the Treasury figures we can just print a lot more money to pay off our debts. Yeah, right. Tic toc.

These people are insane. No wonder they can't get a ny respectable economists to come work for them.

[Vinca]

21. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said

"Bush/Cheney - Leave No Child A Dime." Ain't it the truth.