Monday, April 16, 2012

Uncle Sam's Credit Card

This chart looks at Uncle Sammy's credit card known as "Greenbacks". He is on a spending spree:

Since the Obamanator took office the US has added $5 trillion to the national debt. Some analysts think we will reach the current debt ceiling (red line) of $16.4 trillion by September of this year. What is he spending it on? Guns, not butter:
Very colorful, no? All this spending on our military has produced only a virtual stalemate in Afghanistan after ten years of war as the Taliban's spring offensive attacks prove. Seems we should be getting a lot more bang for your buck. Here is the kicker: the amount of our debt purchased by foreigners through soverign bonds is falling. In 2009 foreign purchases amounted to 6% of GDP, since then this percentage has declined to about 1%. The Federal Reserve is making up the shortfall by buying Treasuries. In 2011 it bought 61% of all government debt. Caesar made the same move to pay for his legions: he steadily debased Roman gold coins. This is the modern version of money printing.