Thanks!
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And With It - A Negative Interest Rate Policy
According to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew who recently signed and sealed America’s current audited financial statements, as of 2015 the United States has $3.2 trillion in assets.
As other corporations do, the United States also listed its liabilities: $21.5 trillion. One does not need to be a mathematical genius to figure out that America’s net worth is a negative $18.3 trillion. We have $3.2 trillion in assets minus $21.5 trillion in liabilities.
In 2014, our negative net worth was $17.7 trillion and in 2013 it was $16.8 trillion. In other words, the United States is bankrupt. If you or I had five or ten times more debt than we had in assets, we would be in bankruptcy court.
Another thing corporations do is have their annual financial statements audited by an independent source... usually one of the major accounting firms. The federal government’s annual financial statement is audited by the General Accounting Office (GAO). This is done so people will more readily trust the numbers provided in the financial statements. Though it is part of the government, the GAO maintains a certain independence from governmental control.
Re the 2015 financials, the GAO told the federal government that it was on “an unsustainable fiscal path.” They also said that the federal government (that would be Congress which approves spending, the President whose policies are reflected in money approved to be spent, and the Department of the Treasury which generates the financial statements) often fails to provide “reliable and complete financial information – both for individual federal entities and for the federal government as a whole.”
Anyone who has been awake and who listens to statistical data about unemployment, job creation, inflation, cost of living and other data could have told them that.
Most of us remember that the Department of Defense in 2015 announced that it had over the past 20 years “misplaced” $8.5 trillion of our money. That’s your money and my money... and our children’s and our grandchildren’s and great grandchildren’s money -- and on and on for many generations.
Thus it will not surprise anyone to learn that the Defense Department was one of the government departments that failed to provide complete and accurate financial information for the financial statements. Until they find the missing $8.5 trillion, or until new people and procedures are put in place to track money spent, no additional funds should be sent to the DoD. Republican crowds attending presidential candidates’ functions loudly cheer when the words "rebuilding our military" are used. It does need to be rebuilt – but not until the system used to track costs has been audited and changed to keep honest records. If you'll recall the day before 9/11, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that $3.1 trillion had been lost. To my knowledge, it's never been found.
The GAO evaluated Social Security and Medicare and other programs wherein Congress has told the American people that reductions will be made to save the programs. GAO says the weaknesses (meaning errors) they found in the stated reductions total $27.9 trillion. That means we are in much worse financial shape than they are letting on – and the debt they willingly admit to defines bankruptcy without the detected errors.
There are those reading this article who will respond by saying “Oh, they’ll just print more money. Nothing will change.” There are many who won’t read this article who would respond that way if they did read it. They represent the “something for nothing” crowd. They simply cannot conceptualize the idea that irresponsible federal spending – mostly designed to buy the votes of the poor and the disenfranchised (and illegal aliens and other non-hegemonic portions of society as described by Antonio Gramsci) – has bankrupted this once healthy economy. They cannot see in their minds the idea that when you borrow something, it must some day, some way be repaid.
The truth is, they are about to stop printing money so those who say “they’ll just print more money to cover the debt” are wrong.
The truth is, your bank is about to stop paying you the pittance they’ve been paying for your deposit dollars, calling it “interest.” They are about to start charging you money for the money in your bank accounts. It’s already being done in Europe and other parts of the world.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Barnewall/marilyn224.htm
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