The Impending Financial Doom
Aug 15, 2013 Political
In July the federal government had a $98 billion deficit which means the government spent 98 billion dollars more than it took in. People with even the most basic of math skills know that this means we incurred more debt and therefore, our debt amount went up by 98 billion dollars.
But that did not happen, at least on paper. The US Treasury reports that we had a 98 billion dollar deficit for July but the national debt remained EXACTLY the same every day of the month. They said we spent more than we took in but that the amount of debt we had did not increase. This is impossible and the accounting tricks being implemented will lead to catastrophic economic doom.
Treasury Secretary Lew said he has implemented the standard compensatory measures. Those generally involve stopping the government’s portion paid to employee’s retirement and using the money in employee’s Thrift Savings Accounts (TSP), at least the portion in government securities, to pay the bills (along with other hocus pocus measures). This could be offsetting the deficit numbers and making it look like the debt did not increase but it only looks that way.
This might look good on paper and it might solve a short term problem but the money must be paid back and when it is paid back it will be another huge hit to the national debt.
Another problem is that by doing this the Treasury Secretary is going above the debt limit established by Congress and signed by Obama. It might not look like it on paper but he has exceeded the limit and is using compensatory measures to make it look like he is not. The problem is that he is hiding the fact that the debt ceiling has been passed in hopes that it will be raised and he can pay back the money.
If there is a prolonged fight or the ceiling is not raised then we will be in default and all those places he moved money from will not get paid.
Yes, this has been done in the past. These compensatory measures are usually for a very short time while legislation is being worked out and signed.
The problem now is that the debt has been the very same since the first day of July. Not only did the debt not increase in July but it has not increased in all of August. This means he has hidden debt for a month and a half and if the course remains unchanged it will be well over two months (closer to three) before the situation is resolved.
In all that time nearly 300 BILLION dollars in debt will be incurred and need to be replaced.
Make no mistake folks, we are in default. The fact that the numbers on paper do not reflect it does not change the fact that we have spent more than we have and more than we are allowed to by law.
Treasury is robbing Peter to pay Paul right now but Peter will need to be paid back. A default on all that retirement money that employees have paid in will not be well received.
Right now the country is using fuzzy math to hide the fact that the debt ceiling has been crossed and we are in default.
When it comes time to pay the piper all hell will break loose.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: corruption, debt ceiling, fuzzy math, impending doom, july deficit, lies, national debt
Hocus Pocus With The Employment Numbers
Jul 11, 2011 Political
I have trouble figuring out the jobs numbers that the government puts out. I am very competent in math but I never learned the hocus-pocus kind of math the government uses. Obama and his sycophants keep saying that he has created a few million jobs since he signed the stimulus bill but there are 1.9 million fewer people working today then there were when it was signed. How did he add all those jobs and have a net decrease? It would seem that they were losing jobs, not gaining them.
It is like you invest 10,000 dollars with your broker because he tells you that you will get $1000 a month on your investment. If after two years you have $9000, how did you actually increase?
The problem is they come up with these numbers by using some kind of voodoo that estimates jobs created by new companies. They look into a crystal ball and pull a number out of their, ahem, rectal cavities and then claim that this is the number of employees these fictitious and completely imagined companies hired. Then in a month or two they revise the numbers down but no one seems to pay attention to that.
Then there is the hocus-pocus of changing the numbers completely to give something different. The government reported that 18,000 jobs had been created in June but this is based on revising down the number of jobs available in May. If the revision had not been made then the number for June would have been 26,000 jobs, LOST. Yep, without this sleight of hand there would have been a net decrease of 26,000.
Imagined jobs from fictitious companies and changed numbers throw a monkey wrench into the works and add to the instability.
It also explains how they can claim they have created a few million jobs when there are 1.9 million fewer than when the great and mighty stimulus was signed.
Maybe I should try using the government math made easy methodology when I figure my taxes.
I bet they would know how to do math correctly when they audited me…
To paraphrase a quote popularized in the US by Mark Twain, there are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and government numbers…
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: fuzzy math, jobs numbers, lies, statistics
About Those Unemployment Numbers
Jan 9, 2010 Political
Don Surber takes a look at the unemployment numbers for the country. The numbers for December came out yesterday and they were 10 times higher than expected. But the numbers do not tell the entire story because of tricky accounting.
For the second month in a row, Americans were told that there was a net loss in jobs nationally, but that the unemployment rate had either fallen or remained the same.
This is bogus.
Two years ago, in December 2007, there was a net gain of only 18,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate soared from 4.7% to 5.0% in that one month.
In December 2009, there was a net loss of 85,000 jobs. And the unemployment rate remained unchanged, at 10.0%?
We have lost a net total of 96,000 in two months and the unemployment rate fell from 10.2%?
This is liberal math.
As Heidi Shierholz pointed out, the Department of labor is reducing the number of people in the work force dramatically — shrinking it by 661,000 people in just one month — down to a labor force of only 64.6% of those eligible.
Without that shrinkage, unemployment would be 10.4%, Shierholz said.
The reason that it still looks and feels bad is because it is still bad even though they keep telling us that it is getting better and the stimulus is working.
As Surber points out here:
Those numbers do not add up. Clearly the administration is removing people from the labor market statistically at a faster rate than jobs are disappearing in some sort of desperate attempt to rationalize a $787 billion stimulus dud.
The government has all kinds of accounting tricks (like global warming scientists) to hide the decline. They use methods that would land private business owners in jail and they get away with it. Keep in mind that we keep losing jobs (and that is under reported) and the rate holds steady or drops. It makes no sense unless people are being removed from the equation.
Also keep in mind this is the same government that tells you there was a surplus of money when Clinton was president even though the government had (and still has) massive debt.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: don surber, fuzzy math, government accounting., unemployment
Democrats Played Fast And Loose With Cost Estimates
Dec 26, 2009 Political
The Democrats used DC math to get estimates from the CBO to meet the requirements set forth by Obama in reference to health care costs. Democrats claim that the health care overhaul will save money but they apply so called savings to two different items. It is physically impossible to use “saved” money, in its entirety, for two different things.
The Congressional Budget Office challenged claims by health-care overhaul proponents that Medicare savings in Senate legislation would help finance expanded coverage and postpone the bankruptcy of the medical program for the elderly.
The nonpartisan agency said the $246 billion it projected the legislation would save Medicare can’t both finance new programs and help pay future expenses for elderly covered under the federal program.
Nor could those savings be used to extend the solvency of Medicare, set to run out of money in 2017, the budget office said in a letter to Senate Republicans. Bloomberg
The Democrats could have done this on purpose or it could be a mistake because no one has any idea what this bill contains. They just wanted to get something passed so they could claim a victory and go home. I am betting it was done on purpose with the hope that no one would notice because they like to use funny math in DC. The way they manage a budget would bankrupt any private business and land CEOs in jail.
Senator Sessions said it best:
“What we’ve seen is a colossal manipulation” by Democrats “of the accounting scores of CBO” and the independent actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, said Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the Republican who requested the analysis from CBO. He called the letter “a potential game-changer.”
This would be a game changer if Democrats cared about costs. They have manipulated this entire process to give the impression that their overhaul saves money when it will, in fact, cost trillions of dollars, money we do not have.
The only thing I can see facing Democrats during their time off is a lot of grief from constituents who are fed up with the games being played.
We can’t really blame them too much though. They spent so much of our money buying votes (something that would land us in jail) that they needed to show savings someplace.
They just got caught this time…
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: cbo, cost lies, fuzzy math, health care bill