Thom Hartmann: Should states have the right to go bankrupt?

[alp227]

Run time: 09:19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iofVzCHw3Q4   Posted on YouTube: April 26, 2011 By YouTube Member: thomhartmann Views on YouTube: 229   Posted on DU: April 28, 2011 By DU Member: alp227 Views on DU: 690

 
Debate with Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal, from Tuesday

[defendandprotect]

1. Or Treasury is BANKRUPT -- bankrupted by two Bush/Obama wars -- !!!

[szatmar666]

2. How can the treasury be bankrupt while it's printing the note the US gov debt is measured in?!

I never understood this concept of US government "bankruptcy"...If the US government really wanted to have more revenues, just raise the bloody taxes, it's not like its wealthy citizens are starving...the money is there!

[defendandprotect]

3. One way to destroy democracy is by destroying the Treasury ...

floating debt and destroying the value of the dollar is one way to do it --

How do people go bankrupt? When they do, does the Fed simply print up more money for them?

Long ago we left the gold standard -- so there is no real underpinning for the dollar.

It could be a seashell or a dollar bill -- no difference.

We'd be better off uninventing the dollar bill --

[szatmar666]

4. you can't destroy the dollar without destroying global US military hegemony

that's not going to happen anytime soon. the value of the US dollar is backed up by something a LOT more solid than gold: worldwide demand for geostrategic resources. If you are Japan and you want to grow your economy you need oil, steel, grain, sugar, etc...and guess where are these all traded and in what currency?! If you produce these and try to set up an alternative market to sell them, you'll get bombed! So, no, this whole talk about the US government going "bankrupt" is just supply side propaganda. They want people to believe that the private individuals who hold the US debt and charge an interest on it are not under the protection and control of the US elites. In fact Wall Street is the single most important creditor to the USA. US taxpayers paying an unconstitutional tax to private US citizens and non government entities such as investment banks by simply paying the interest on the national debt.

Contrast the right wing reactionary US system to Norway's socialist Kroner which is backed by stocks from the largest corporations and sovereign papers (treasury notes) in the world as opposed to resource monopolies. So when the world economy grows 5%, their treasury growth with it. The only way to bring that currency down is to bankrupt every single company and government in the world. Not likely anytime soon. so the world is literally paying for Norway's socialist welfare state by simply prospering, which I thought was very cool.

http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/the-safest-currency-of-the-word-at-the-moment-the-norwegian-kroner-833101.html

[defendandprotect]

5. Well, there's an idea right there -- !!!

Guess you've heard of peak oil and Global Warming -- ?

And that we import a huge amount of our oil while military uses 80% of of it?

No oil -- no war -- hmmmmm.....

Additionally, no one needs to try to destroy capitalism or its dollar -- it does it by

its own destructiveness.

And maybe you have missed the reality that oil, at least, can be traded in other than

US dollars -- much discussion of that, i.e., moving to the Euro.

Trading is also much different from production -- and/or natural resources.

And, of course, I'm sure you also recognize that with de-regulation of capitalism came

less "trading" and more "speculating" -- ? Which is, again, why right now our oil prices

have zoomed.

Who's paying for the destruction that Global Warming is doing? Certainly not insurance

companies! Oil/gas/coal companies should be seized from private hands to cover the costs

of Global Warming -- and right now those "costs" are flattening of cities and growing

death rates. Floods/droughts.

You are arguing technicalities -- when a family's purse is empty they are bankrupt.

Same with our own government -- borrowing money is not the same as solvency!!

Unless you believe in the inane.

[szatmar666]

6. I think you haven't read my reply carefully

I agree with your sentiments, I simply corrected the common misperception that the US government/treasury is somehow subject to "bankruptcy" or "insolvency" the same way a corporation is. If they declare the US gov "insolvent" let's say by refusing to lift the debt ceiling that's simply a matter of political choice, not real economics: they can always chose to get the money from the people who stole it to begin with. the full $13 trillion amount that constitutes the US national debt is safe and accounted for in the offshore assets of rich individuals and corporations.

[defendandprotect]

7. Maybe we should all lift our personal budgetary "ceilings" -- then we'd all be solvent--!! :)

[szatmar666]

8. if you collected your own taxes and printed your own money you could do that ;)

There are 2 rackets one can run to have GUARANTEED INCOME for life:
A) Run a casino - house always wins
B) Run a government - collect taxes

This is important because there might be 1 way one could bankrupt the US gov: I think Donald Trump already proved he can bankrupt a casino - you really need talent to do that - so I guess that qualifies him to try and run our government too ;)

[defendandprotect]

9. Difference is this is about OPI ... "Other People's Money" = taxpayer money --

under control of FED --