With a debt ceiling debate now underway, a dumb idea has once again raised its ugly head – the trillion-dollar coin. This week on the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey uses this so-called “solution” to the debt ceiling problem as an opportunity to teach some economics. In this episode, he also touches on the GDP data that came out yesterday.
Fight!
The kids are throwing punches in the halls of Congress and there doesn’t seem to be a responsible adult willing to step in to stop it.
We’re talking about the debt ceiling fight that kicked off last week when the US government bumped up against its statutory borrowing limit.
Policy wonks and government people come up with some really dumb ideas. And a lot of those dumb ideas just won’t go away.
Now that we’re in the early stages of the fake debt ceiling fight, a really dumb idea has been resurrected from the dead – the trillion-dollar coin.
Pop some popcorn and get ready for the next political dog and pony show. The US government bumped up against its statutory borrowing limit this week. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the looming debt ceiling fight and the deeper problems that will inevitably get ignored as everybody absorbs the political theater. He also talks about the growing bullishness in the gold market.
Here we go again.
The clock is ticking down to another US debt ceiling fight.
According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the US government will officially bump up against the debt ceiling Thursday (Jan. 19).
After all the drama, Congress finally did what everyone knew it would do. It raised the debt ceiling by $480 billion in October. The Treasury wasted no time and quickly added $480 billion to the national debt in the second half of the month.
With this new debt tagged on, if the Fed has to raise rates to 6% to fight inflation, it would increase interest costs by $250 billion within 6 months and nearly $1 trillion within a few years. This is why the Fed must tell everyone that inflation is transitory.
We have a temporary truce in the debt ceiling fight. On Thursday, President Biden signed a bill increasing the federal debt limit by $480 billion. But this isn’t an end to the debt ceiling fight. Congress just kicked the can down the road. The increase is only expected to keep the US government solvent until Dec. 3.
As Peter Schiff explained in this clip from his podcast, the debt ceiling has turned into a debt floor.
Inflation continues to run hot. Even some of the folks over at the Fed are having a hard time peddling the “transitory” inflation narrative. But politicians and government officials lack the skill of self-reflection. As a result, they can’t clearly see the problem. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey looks at some of the latest inflation data and the Fed’s response to it. He also touches on the fake debt ceiling fight and breaks the September job report numbers.
The Treasury bumped up against the debt ceiling at the end of July. Since then, it has been using “extraordinary measures” to allow the Government to keep hemorrhaging cash without having to increase the debt ceiling.
The chart below shows the month-over-month change in debt for August equal to $0. Despite zero net change, there are two important facts to highlight.
- The Treasury continued converting short term debt to long term
- Nonmarketable debt holdings shrunk by $257B
Pop some popcorn. It’s time for some political theater. Congress is gearing up for another debt ceiling fight. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharey gives you a preview of the next big Washington DC blockbuster production, complete with some debt ceiling history and an explanation as to why we shouldn’t need one. Maharrey also covers retail sales, inflation and the latest movement in the gold market.
