Fragiled

I've been arguing for three years on this blog how the national debt means nothing to no one...yet for whatever reason the debt is taking center stage now. Why now?

An interesting political dynamic is going on, and it has nothing at all to do with reducing the national debt. I maintain that we will never never! pay it off. We can't possibly fathom fifteen trillion dollars... fifteen million million; $15,000,000 million; $15,000,000,000,000,000.00. And it's not at all appropriate to pay it off in any event -- debt powers America, it's a place for investment institutions to park capital, and it's become a number so large that we simply have no capability to manage it.

And today we're supposed to be frightened of gasp! Moody's, downgrading our sovereign debt? The same agency that rated Lehman Brothers as sterling just before its public bankruptcy? The same agency that is rendering a simple opinion on our treasurys, nothing more, an opinion not to be indicative of a security's suitability as an investment?

We're supposed to be frightened because debt might, just might, cost a little more to carry? Here's the same Bush-era fear-mongering about Iraq coming to roost with the debt ceiling...the cost of borrowing for a new housal unit or vehicular unit may increase? Dear God!

Well...good. Interest rates have been artificially kept in the dirt as a consequence of the financial "crisis" and it'd be good to see them rise again as I carry no debt, and that I might get more than 0.2% return on any savings I stash. For whatever reason, we elect to ignore the positive side of higher interest rates and make the bold claim that it would kill our fragile economy.

Our economy has been systematically fragiled over the better part of my lifetime, with securitization, with the destroying of our manufacturing base, with our reliance on debt fueled bubbles as the only things providing value to our markets these days. Fifteen trillion in public debt and thirty trillion in private debt while destroying the productive base of our nation means, in my little opinion, that bankruptcy is inevitable.

Today we're embattled with the idea of our national debt simply because a supposed black liberal is in the white house, nothing more, and white Republicans don't like it. Didn't give a fuck when Reagan raised it seventeen times while in office, all as a matter of public financial housekeeping, and neither did they when Bush Sr, Clinton, or Jr raised it multiple times either. Didn't give a fuck that the debt doubled following the crisis of 2008 just as Obama was entering office...but now, whoa. Can't raise it again.