Morning Roar: $1T In New Treasury Debt, Pittsburgh Shakes Down Landlords, NYC Critics Award Snowden Doc
Tuesday's Morning Roar! Treasury Issues $1 Trillion in New Debt to Cover Old Debt CNSnews.com has a nifty little story up today about the U.S. Treasury's issuance of $1T in new debt. Government spending doesn't really shock anyone nowadays, nor does deficit spending. However, when this massive sum of money is added to our nation's debt total and the reason is purely to cover the interest on old debt...you really get my attention. Aptly, they refer to it as the government's "Ponzi scheme," which it absolutely meets the definition of.
The Daily Treasury Statement that was released Wednesday afternoon as Americans were preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving revealed that the U.S. Treasury has been forced to issue $1,040,965,000,000 in new debt since fiscal 2015 started just eight weeks ago in order to raise the money to pay off Treasury securities that were maturing and to cover new deficit spending by the government.During those eight weeks, Treasury took in $341,591,000,000 in revenues. That was a record for the period between Oct. 1 and Nov. 25. But that record $341,591,000,000 in revenues was not enough to finance ongoing government spending let alone pay off old debt that matured.
The only way the Treasury could handle the $942,103,000,000 in old debt that matured during the period plus finance the new deficit spending the government engaged in was to roll over the old debt into new debt and issue enough additional new debt to cover the new deficit spending.This mode of financing the federal government resembles what the Securities and Exchange Commission calls a Ponzi scheme. “A Ponzi scheme," says the Securities and Exchange Commission, “is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors,” says the Securities and Exchange Commission.“With little or no legitimate earnings, the schemes require a consistent flow of money from new investors to continue,” explains the SEC. “Ponzi schemes tend to collapse when it becomes difficult to recruit new investors or when a large number of investors ask to cash out.”
The U.S. government keeps doing the old soft shoe shuffle and playing 3 Card Monty with our nation's dollars and I can't remember the last time I heard anyone on either side of the aisle say "boo" about it. With two more years until we can mercifully become free of Obama, can we drum up enough outrage over this scheme to finally get politicians to do something about it? This needs to be a center point of debate and campaign platforms going into 2016.
Pittsburgh Looks to Landlords For Budget Infusion We happen to have a friend in liberty who happens to be the owner of several properties in Pittsburgh - and despite what you might guess, he's not a slumlord! I'm told not all of Pittsburgh is a decrepit hole! Anyway, the Pittsburgh City Council is turning its steely gaze towards landlords to add some cash to the general fund by way of an exorbitant fee that requires a $65 "registration fee" for every unit available for rent.While $65 a year may not seem like a lot, when you multiply this by 500 units for someone who may own a large occupancy building, or several buildings of smaller units, it's a pretty hefty sum. But, before we get too far into the monetary angle, lets hear what this fee is for, via the Pittsburgh Gazette's editorial staff:
In 2007, the city of Pittsburgh passed an ordinance requiring landlords to pay a fee and submit contact information for themselves or their property managers. Everything old is new again, and the Peduto administration has revived the effort.The thinking behind the original $12-per-unit fee was to make sure city officials knew who was responsible for apartments and how to reach them during emergencies. But the city’s first attempt at landlord registration was challenged in court, then never enforced. It expired after 2011 because of the law’s sunset provision.
This fee enables the city to have a database of contact info for every rental property in Pittsburgh - mainly so they can go after landlords for other fees or penalties later on and easily track down building owners. To me, there should be absolutely zero charge for registering in this database, which provides zero value to the actual owners and all the value to the city. The best part of all this though is that the estimated costs for the actual clerical work is $23 per unit. The extra $32 is just the city being greedy and looking to benefit off of a wayward ordinance.Snowden Doc, "Citizen Four" Wins NYC Critics AwardGood news! The documentary about Edward Snowden's heroism in exposing the NSA's domestic and international spying is already garnering acclaim, which bodes well for a wide release and further discussion in the media. The New York Critics Assoc. has dubbed "Citizen Four" as its Best Non Fiction Film. So, have an extra donut at work today in celebration.The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday right here at Lions of Liberty!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!