by Jotapay » Thu 28 May 2009, 07:47:28
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Voice_du_More', '1'). If you are already in bed get back to me on this, but if we were to see cash become king again then...?
2. Is'nt most money just a number in a spreadsheet anyways nowadays?
3. When I think of cash, I usually mean my checkcard, because why stop at the ATM when the card is so convenient?
4. We are not in the same place we were in the 30's with this are we?
5. The problem is government debt now and they cannot support the dollar by taking on more debt but they cannot avoid the necessary adjustment in the markets unless they keep trying to deflate one bubble by passing the gas (pun intended) into another one, correct?
6. So someday this giant check comes due no matter which path we take. So someone has to decide who are the winners and who are the losers, is that all we are really watching happen?
7. I heard a rumor that only 10% of the TARP is actually in the system, where do we go if they drop in the other 90%?
I'm just a scientist/programmer, so take all this with a grain of salt. I've thought we were screwed since late 2003 when oil started to take a price hike. It took us longer for our debt house-of-cards to unravel than I thought. But take this for what it's worth. The fleeing the long end of t-bills to ever shorter-term cannot continue without at least a partial government shutdown. If it does not reverse, god help the USA because there will be some amount of dislocation from the country we know today.
1. yes, once people have completely fled bonds
2. yes, all but $450 billion real dollars in the hands of Americans inside the country
3. You will have a problem once people see everyone else rushing for cash
4. It is pretty much the same now. Forced higher interest rates dry up new money (reducing liquidity), cash becomes more precious. Quoted 30-year mortgages went from 5% to 5.75% yesterday in one day.
5. That is the way I see it. There is no next bubble though, and the t-bill bubble is going to send shock waves through the government in the sell-off.
6. I'm waiting to see when people sell off the 5-year and 2-year, when yields on those spike. You will know the rush to cash (or whatever is the next object of capital investment after bonds) is occurring then. But at that point, the US government will not be able to fund its operations, and we teeter on Mad Max.
7. I'm not exactly sure on the numbers but the TARP is mostly used up, IMO. I wouldn't exactly believe the published numbers anyway though. A white racist radio host, Hal Turner, has more credibility than Geithner after the stress test result leakage situation. It's just bizarro world at the moment.