"The most troublesome tax increases in Barack Obama's plan are not those we can already see but those sure to be announced later, after the election is over and budget realities rear their ugly head. The new president, whoever he is, will start out facing a budget deficit of at least $1 trillion, possibly much more. ... Obama's proposed income-based health-insurance subsidies, tax credits for tiny businesses, and expanded Medicaid eligibility would cost another $1.63 trillion, according to the [Tax Policy Center] TPC. Thus his tax rebates and health insurance subsidies alone would lift the undisclosed bill to future taxpayers by $2.95 trillion--roughly $295 billion a year by 2012. ... A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. Altogether, Mr. Obama is promising at least $4.3 trillion of increased spending and reduced tax revenue from 2009 to 2018--roughly an extra $430 billion a year by 2012-2013", Alan Reynolds at the WSJ, 24 October 2008.
I remember when in 1964 Everett Dirksen (1896-1969), US Senator from Illinois said something to the effect, "A billion here, a billion there, soon you're talking about real money". How times have changed in 44 years. Using the "Dirsksen Factor" of 1,000, we've had a 17% compound annual rate of inflation for the last 44 years! Think about that.
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“I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”
James Carville
Don't cry for me Argentina.
The bond market is a figment of an unregulated imagination...
And what is the CDS for the 30year T?
Anyone one want to backstop that one?
Let's see we can start by confiscating all 401Ks, eliminating the tax deduction for mortgage (after all only rich people can afford a mortgage), raising the gas tax to $10/gallon, VAT, tax on taxes.
Then there are the sin taxes to take on: food (soo many are obese), liquor, beer, wine, cigs, sex (tax on children, eliminate the deduction on children, after all gay people cannot have them), cars (mass transit for the masses, only the rich can afford cars). We just need more sins.
The reality is we are facing a winter in our economy, and the solution seems to be to warm everyone by spraying water -- good until the water runs out.
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