The Albatross of Sovereign Debt

Posted: March 6 2010

Sovereign Debt hinders nation states, Interrogations for the Fed to answer, debt burdened California, Fed integrity in question, Gold still a good investment play, unemployment benefits for now, volatile swings in housing demand

Sovereign debt hangs like an albatross around the necks of too many countries. There are 17 medium-size to large countries that are close to, or are bankrupt. Many are being kept solvent by using two sets of books and by marking to model. As you know we expect these bankruptcies to take place by the end of 2011. That will be accomplished at meetings such as we saw in the 1970s at the Smithsonian, the Plaza Accord of 1985 and the Louvre Accord of 1987. There will be a realignment of currencies.

America, like many other nations is mired in an inflationary depression, and even if the economy were to return to where tax revenues accelerated, we would still have a deficit of 6% to 8% of GDP. In order to have real recovery we need a public debt to GDP ratio of 3%. The problem is government refuses to cut deficit spending. Such policies curtail investment and lasting productivity growth. An economy cannot long endure a government that represents 24% of GDP. In the late 1960s we had government spending at 20% of GDP. There was a run on our gold dollar backing and on 8/15/71 gold backing had to be abandoned. Thus, you can see how difficult today’s problems are. In fact during the depression it was only 10%. As you can see what we have today is a monstrous situation. Government is destroying our country and worse yet our debt can never possibly be repaid. A federal deficit of 10% of GDP cannot long be tolerated. Quantitative easing is supposed to end this month. If it is not foreigners will probably totally stop buying dollar denominated assets. That means more Fed secret buying, more monetization and more inflation to accompany the M3 increase of 29.5% in money and credit. Those actions surely will put pressure on America’s AAA credit rating. America has joined the ranks of nearly bankrupt or bankrupt nations. America’s finances are a giant fraud and over the next two years it will be plain for all to see.

The three best plays investment wise is to be long gold and silver related assets and to be short the general stock market, as well as bonds. Over the past two years the treasury and the Fed have spent $12.7 trillion and are liable for $23.7 trillion, so says our inspector general. Things are not getting better they are getting worse. What does government do after the stimulus and quantitative easy ends? If they do more of the same the problem will just worsen. They have no permanent solution. They are like a ship without a rudder in a stormy sea and the rocks are not far away.

Challenger says planned layoffs fell in February to the lowest level since 2006, some 42,090.

Private employers shed 20,000 in February off from 60,000 in January.

Credit card charge offs rose 112 bps to 11.37%. 60-day plus delinquencies fell for the second straight month, down 3 bps to 4.16%, as the 30-day fell 6 bps to 5.38%.

Ron Paul was on Fox with Stewart Varney where he stated a currency crisis is coming. When pressed by Varney as to what he is investing in, Paul told Varney gold. “I’ve been buying gold since 1971 at $35.00 to protect my family.â€