Shrink the State. End the Fed. Balance the budget. Make a profit. Leave an inheritance.
Gary North
Remnant Review The best description of the reversal of fortune is Mary’s Magnificat, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 46-55. “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree” (v. 52). This was a fundamental theme in the Old Testament. We are told that those who [...]
Continue reading →Should the U.S. government default? Wrong question. The right question: Can the U.S. government avoid defaulting? The answer is clear: no. It will default. It is $222 trillion in the hole. That’s the present value of its future obligations. Of course it’s going to default. Would that be bad? Not for taxpayers. Would it be [...]
Continue reading →Older Americans recall the jokes made at the expense of Allegheny Airlines in the 1960s and 1970s. Then it became U.S. Airways in 1979. It went bankrupt in 2002. It was able to stiff its 6,000 pilots by canceling its pension obligations in 2003. American taxpayers became responsible through ERISA. It came out of bankruptcy [...]
Continue reading →Americans are borrowing against home equity once again. These loans were up by almost 20% in 2012. Some of these ignorant people are converting their home mortgages into personal loans. If they live in states where mortgages are non-recourse loans, where the lender cannot come after them if they default, they lose this legal protection [...]
Continue reading →The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report on credit reports. About 20% of them are inaccurate. The FTC did not have to conduct a study. Anyone with a statistical background knew that 20% are erroneous. It’s Pareto’s law. About 20% of the worst examples of anything provide 80% of the problems. What if your [...]
Continue reading →On March 1, a piddly reduction of spending is scheduled to take place. It’s not $1 trillion. It’s $1 trillion over a decade. The annual deficit is running $1 trillion, as usual. The thought that there will be a piddly $100 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes has the President terrified. “We cannot cut [...]
Continue reading →Over 1,000 school districts and local government agencies have built projects with something called capital appreciation bonds. These are high-interest bonds that require no payments for 20 years — and then: Whammo! Huge payments for the next 15 years. Here is the story of a California school district that built a high school without voters’ [...]
Continue reading →“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.” Run. We know what’s coming. The government will find lots of risks for Americans. Next step: a program to offer government-guaranteed retirement bonds tied to the dollar. They will pay maybe 3% — guaranteed! Then these bonds will be made compulsory. Then consumer prices will [...]
Continue reading →No liberal arts student needs to pay more than $15,000 to earn an accredited bachelor’s degree. That’s about $10.50 a day. Working at a fast food restaurant part time will pay for this. But parents send their children into the debt swamp, even dipping into their retirement savings to pay for this. Even with help [...]
Continue reading →Cook County’s Treasurer has created a website where citizens can find out how far in the hole their governments are. They are all so far in debt that future taxpayers will lose their homes, she says. “In May, 2012, the collective debt reported by the local primary taxing agencies in Cook County was more than [...]
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