"Trillion dollar debt for years to come..."
That's what the man, President Obama said! Problem is, that is only going to happen if investors continue to purchase our debt instruments - once they stop (hey, if the stream seems never ending, would you continue?), the jig is up. Like everyone else (individuals, companies), at some point, some deleveraging will need to occur. All one has to do is look around at other countries and see what the IMF and World Bank have done to credit-unworthy countries in the past....(irony: we're one of the biggest donors to the IMF....tell you anything?).
Companies, when deleveraging, shed employees and assets. Happens all the time when the debt load comes too large for the underlying cash flow. Individuals do the same thing - no, they don't shed family members (hmmm, I might have some ideas there) but often have yard sales.
Heh! As it turns out, the US has LOTS of yard to sell too (which I did not know before AND the amount was startling)! Jim over at the Volokh Conspiracy has an idea:
I think that the US government should have a yard sale too, starting a multi-decade process of selling off public land, perhaps selling a tenth or a hundredth of a percent of holdings every year for a century.
After all, the federal government owns over half of five Western states and over 40% of nine states:
- Nevada 84.5%
- Alaska 69.1%
- Utah 57.4%
- Oregon 53.1%
- Idaho 50.2%
- Arizona 48.1%
- California 45.3%
- Wyoming 42.3%
- New Mexico 41.8%
- Colorado 36.6%
It’s time for America to start an annual yard sale of stuff for which the government has little use. This has the ancillary positive effect of reducing excessive government power over its citizens and resources. Does the government really need to own 45% of the state of California?
Now, I can see the need for some huge swaths of land that would have to be held onto - national parks, large military bases, but come on - look at those percentages? That's just utterly nuts to hold onto that amount of land - please answer me - for what real purpose do the Feds have for keeping that over letting investors develop it and turn it into a productive (and tax paying) asset?
Would it make up a $Trillion? Dunno, but as in every yard sale, every little bit can helps.
(filed under Economics, probably better under Humor - maybe start a Satire category?)
