Monday, September 30, 2013

Americans Playing With Fire

Despite all the so called good news for the last couple of weeks (such as "no tapering", Merkel winning to further add to stability for EU, Yellen winning and Summers out thus favouring a longer period of non tapering, sell down in BRIC seemingly halted for the time being) ....

...we have a new coals being thrown into the cauldron. .. The shutdown ... actually the Republicans are at fault here, they are trying to stop or delay Obama's Affordable Care Act and make some changes to health ways as well .... even though Congress has passed this and Supreme Court has upheld its legality (so Republicans are trying to overturn or nullify the Courts I guess, why???... because they did not rule my way, don't they know big pharma owns the Republicans' asses!!)

What is more important is the debt ceiling which may be triggered come October 17 ... I think its a brilliant idea... why don't we in Malaysia pass a law that says if budget deficit rises above 4%, the government shuts down and all departments have to negotiate their budgets down to go below 4%. If there was a crisis which may require the budget deficit to go above 4%, that is fine but it can never go past 5%. Even if the latter were to happen the government will have 2 years maximum to get that deficit back below 4%. The long term target budget deficit should be 3%-3.25%.


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Like the idea..

Will take a lot of fiscal responsibility, and a lot of habit changing of our in-power politicians to do so.

bruno said...

It is a game of poker.These politicians have nothing else to do,so it is a big deal to them.Getting cheap publicity is every politicians dream.

Although the greenback do look very sick,it is time to go bottom fishing.Short the Euro and Swissie.

Wait for the heavy sigh and the relief rally to go short the stock indexes.

hishamh said...

First of all, Congress is debating the debt ceiling (i.e. total borrowing), not the fiscal deficit.

Secondly, we already have legislative limits on borrowings - actually three of them. One on MGS/GII (the infamous 55%), one on short term debt (T-Bills), and the last on external debt.

Ivan said...

Awesome idea.

bumi-non-malay said...

Easy to blame anyone and everybody....BUT the reality is UNSUSTAINABLE DEBT cannot go on and whoever starts to address it should be given credit.... Malaysia too have unsustainable Debt and INABILITY to print money like USA....Malaysia soon going the Greece way or Argentinian.....or Cyprus....that is because Malaysian are small fry trying to talk big and Bingcang with UMNO-Sulu Terrorist...The asset bubble keeps bubbling in property in Malaysia and so many other countries...Good luck when S*it hits the fan Asia....

clongviews said...

The Americans play with fire while some people get roasted and the smart ones get to enjoy the roast!!!

ck said...

Quite frankly, as taxpayers, we are tired of hearing politician wasting time arguing on debt ceiling instead of taking concrete actions to eradicate wasteful, ridiculous spending and oversight on the part of enforcement agencies. Most often than not, the decision makers in public offices will never think twice in splashing public monies unless it hit them personally.

The show of political clout to muscle for more concessions does not serve any purpose other than raising the country debt ceiling and sink us deeper into the financial black hole. Meanwhile, the same group of politician are doing everything within their power to find ways and means to tax every cent of people wealth to cover the so call fiscal deficit arising from wasteful spending, special agenda on procurement and divestment of public assets etc.

When people go through tough times, demand for change will come. All of us are tired of an inefficient, outdated, too greedy and too power-hungry government. We are hungry for a far better, smaller, more efficient government, one that does not overtax you.

Well, do not let these trouble you. Just invest in assets that will outshine and outlast the governments.

bruno said...

Went flat the Euro and Swissie.5 pics loss in Euro and 15 pics profit in Swissie.Got no idea where the fx is going.So better take kopi O and nasi kandar money.