By the end of the day, it was still unclear who was the true acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — President Trump’s pick of White House budget director Mick Mulvaney or one of the agency’s longtime executives, Leandra English. Mulvaney showed up at the agency’s Washington headquarters early in the morning bearing a bag of doughnuts and then firing off an email ordering the staff to disregard any orders from English. ... The agency, they say, was intentionally created to be independent of Congress and from political pressure from the White House. Washington Post
So President Trump doesn't have authority to appoint the acting director of the CFPB, but a federal judge does? And it is independent of both Congress and the White House? What kind of out-of-control agency is this?
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Monday, November 27, 2017
Crisis in 2031
The CBO has published their latest 2017 report on Long Term Projections for Social Security (source: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53245). This shows that Social Security benefits will be cut in 2031, which is two years later than they had previously projected in 2016 (source: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52298). See my article, Crisis in 2029. Give Donald Trump credit for this.
Here is what the numbers look like, as a percentage of GDP: (source: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/reports/53245-supplementaldata.xlsx, Appendix B-3).
The reason why this will cause a crisis in the Year 2031 is because there is no solution. You can't cut benefits. Fuggedaboutit. It is not an option. Ronald Reagan promised that Social Security benefits would be paid.
You can't increase taxes, and we are specifically talking about Social Security taxes. Not enough to make a difference. And taxes are meaningless in the era of trillion-dollar deficits.
And you can't borrow. Well you can, but it would add $500 billion+ per year to the National Debt, on top of what it already is projected to be in the year 2031.
So there you have it. I like to make doomsday projections, that is why I started this blog, and The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) will be in 2031. And just for fun I will pick a date, Friday, Sept 19, 2031 (Rosh Hashana II on the Jewish Calendar - financial crises seem to coincide with Rosh Hashana). Don't make any financial projections after that date. The land will still be here, the people will still be here, but we will have a dictatorship with price controls to try to keep a lid on the hyperinflated dollar. Or something like that.
The best we can do is to try to push this date out with incremental changes and kick the can down the road.
Here is what the numbers look like, as a percentage of GDP: (source: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/reports/53245-supplementaldata.xlsx, Appendix B-3).
| Calendar Year | Tax Revenuesa | Outlays with Scheduled Benefits | Outlays with Payable Benefits |
| 2017 | 4.67 | 4.98 | 4.98 |
| 2018 | 4.67 | 5.06 | 5.06 |
| 2019 | 4.67 | 5.18 | 5.18 |
| 2020 | 4.65 | 5.31 | 5.31 |
| 2021 | 4.65 | 5.45 | 5.45 |
| 2022 | 4.64 | 5.54 | 5.54 |
| 2023 | 4.62 | 5.66 | 5.66 |
| 2024 | 4.61 | 5.75 | 5.75 |
| 2025 | 4.60 | 5.85 | 5.85 |
| 2026 | 4.58 | 5.97 | 5.97 |
| 2027 | 4.57 | 6.07 | 6.07 |
| 2028 | 4.57 | 6.13 | 6.13 |
| 2029 | 4.57 | 6.19 | 6.19 |
| 2030 | 4.57 | 6.23 | 6.23 |
| 2031 | 4.53 | 6.27 | 4.53 |
| 2032 | 4.51 | 6.30 | 4.51 |
The reason why this will cause a crisis in the Year 2031 is because there is no solution. You can't cut benefits. Fuggedaboutit. It is not an option. Ronald Reagan promised that Social Security benefits would be paid.
You can't increase taxes, and we are specifically talking about Social Security taxes. Not enough to make a difference. And taxes are meaningless in the era of trillion-dollar deficits.
And you can't borrow. Well you can, but it would add $500 billion+ per year to the National Debt, on top of what it already is projected to be in the year 2031.
So there you have it. I like to make doomsday projections, that is why I started this blog, and The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) will be in 2031. And just for fun I will pick a date, Friday, Sept 19, 2031 (Rosh Hashana II on the Jewish Calendar - financial crises seem to coincide with Rosh Hashana). Don't make any financial projections after that date. The land will still be here, the people will still be here, but we will have a dictatorship with price controls to try to keep a lid on the hyperinflated dollar. Or something like that.
The best we can do is to try to push this date out with incremental changes and kick the can down the road.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
$20.5 Trillion in Debt
The national debt is now (as of 11/14/17) $20.5 trillion. It was just a couple of months ago, on 9/11/17 that we first reached $20 trillion. Part of the jump was due to the national debt being frozen for almost a year.
I expect the $21 trillion mark to be set about 9/15/18 or about 10 months from now. The deficit in 2018 is supposed to bottom out at about $563 billion, and then start increasing rapidly every year thereafter.
Again I want to comment on the irony here. This national debt is our "trash". Part of it is made up of noble things that we can't pay for right now, like hurricane relief. Part of it is arguably necessary for our national security, like paying for a military with bases abroad in 130+ countries. And a large part of it totally wasted or it goes to the banksters. But this debt is the foundation for the entire global financial system. We can call this "trash to cash". So the more trash we generate the more cash we have.
The bigger the debt, the more wealth somebody has. So why not increase it even more, but spread it around more evenly so it doesn't all go to the banksters? It will never be paid back. But we don't have to worry about that until the day when the whole system will explode. And that day is quite a ways off. I'm just saying that, if a little bit of debt is good, then more is better, right?
I expect the $21 trillion mark to be set about 9/15/18 or about 10 months from now. The deficit in 2018 is supposed to bottom out at about $563 billion, and then start increasing rapidly every year thereafter.
Again I want to comment on the irony here. This national debt is our "trash". Part of it is made up of noble things that we can't pay for right now, like hurricane relief. Part of it is arguably necessary for our national security, like paying for a military with bases abroad in 130+ countries. And a large part of it totally wasted or it goes to the banksters. But this debt is the foundation for the entire global financial system. We can call this "trash to cash". So the more trash we generate the more cash we have.
The bigger the debt, the more wealth somebody has. So why not increase it even more, but spread it around more evenly so it doesn't all go to the banksters? It will never be paid back. But we don't have to worry about that until the day when the whole system will explode. And that day is quite a ways off. I'm just saying that, if a little bit of debt is good, then more is better, right?
The Potato Hack
The Potato Hack is a 3-5 day fad diet in which you eat only boiled potatoes. No butter, oil or cheese, no salt, no pepper, no other spices or sauces. Nothing else. Here is how it is supposed to work:
The theory why people are calling this a “diet hack” isn’t because of calories. That would just be normal dieting. The reason why potatoes are the chosen food is because they’re basically zero fat and come with high quality protein, something very rare in a vegetarian protein source, and a lot of nutrients. The theory is because your body needs fat to manufacture insulin, if you are eating ZERO fat, it has to pull fat out of storage to manufacture insulin. Because white potatoes are so highly insulogenic and create such a massive, high GI response, it needs A LOT of insulin – which requires a significant portion of fat. Since you aren’t eating fat along with it, it is forced to go to adipose tissue as a source – and needs quite a bit – to make all that insulin.
So when you start combining potatoes with outside sources of protein and fiber – like egg whites, fish or vegetables – you are destroying the “hack.” You are greatly reducing the insulin spike you’re supposed to get, which lessens the immediate fat need from your fat cells to manufacture insulin. The whole point is because potatoes are so massively insulinogenic. If you add stuff, it doesn’t work. It has to be all potatoes.
You could surely do it with white rice too, but it’s not recommended because there’s virtually no protein (certainly no high quality protein) and far less nutrients. Potatoes were chosen because of the very high quality protein, the nutrient density, the high glycemix index and the fact that someone can survive a very long time eating simply potatoes – it is nearly a complete food – you will become ill much faster eating just white rice than eating just white potatoes.
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=795796
The theory why people are calling this a “diet hack” isn’t because of calories. That would just be normal dieting. The reason why potatoes are the chosen food is because they’re basically zero fat and come with high quality protein, something very rare in a vegetarian protein source, and a lot of nutrients. The theory is because your body needs fat to manufacture insulin, if you are eating ZERO fat, it has to pull fat out of storage to manufacture insulin. Because white potatoes are so highly insulogenic and create such a massive, high GI response, it needs A LOT of insulin – which requires a significant portion of fat. Since you aren’t eating fat along with it, it is forced to go to adipose tissue as a source – and needs quite a bit – to make all that insulin.
So when you start combining potatoes with outside sources of protein and fiber – like egg whites, fish or vegetables – you are destroying the “hack.” You are greatly reducing the insulin spike you’re supposed to get, which lessens the immediate fat need from your fat cells to manufacture insulin. The whole point is because potatoes are so massively insulinogenic. If you add stuff, it doesn’t work. It has to be all potatoes.
You could surely do it with white rice too, but it’s not recommended because there’s virtually no protein (certainly no high quality protein) and far less nutrients. Potatoes were chosen because of the very high quality protein, the nutrient density, the high glycemix index and the fact that someone can survive a very long time eating simply potatoes – it is nearly a complete food – you will become ill much faster eating just white rice than eating just white potatoes.
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=795796
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)