This time is finally different. The world will truly go dark, if we don't find new reserves of fiat. :(

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

OECD countries’ debt ‘to top’ post-war highs 

"The combined debt burden of the biggest developed economies will surpass this year record levels seen at the end of World War II, adding pressure on governments as they roll over post-crisis debts, the OECD said on March 28.

Gross public debt in OECD countries for which long-term data is available will top the World War II peak of 116 percent of GDP, reaching an estimated 117 percent this year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said. 

The OECD’s 34 members include mostly wealthy countries such as the United States and European countries. Some emerging economies such as Mexico and Turkey are members although bigger developing countries such as China and India are not. 

Not only are debt levels high, but a growing share comes due in the next three years with nearly 30 percent of long-term debt needing to be refinanced by the end of 2016, the Paris-based organisation said in its annual sovereign borrowing outlook. 

While such a high level of refinancing is not unprecedented, rolling over debt will be made all the more complicated by uncertainties created by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s unwinding its bond-buying programme, the OECD’s head of public debt management issue, Hans Blommestein, said. 

“If you have to go to the market because you have to refinance, that’s a challenge,” Bloomestein told Reuters. “It’s not impossible, but it’s not a piece of cake.” 

Taking redemptions into account, the combined borrowing need of OECD governments was seen easing slightly to $10.6 trillion this year from $10.8 trillion last year. 

Japan will be the biggest issuer this year with plans to borrow the equivalent of 64.7 percent of its national output. Its borrowing alone would make up 35 percent of the OECD total."

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Never have so many, been so indebted ..... to themselves?

This is what happens when mass mania leads a people to try to peg the volatile growth of dynamic public initiative - aka, fiat - to any particular form of static asset.

May as well constrain an expanding universe to a theoretical economic black hole, from which no logic may escape?

How on earth do engineers, PhDs and so many educated people carry on conversations without even stooping to define the terms they're attempting to use? It's a Blommen catastrophe.

This news article fails logic 101 so badly that all involved should be thrown out of class for failing to master even the minimal pre-requisites. Just random data minus context .... yet again.

It's like showing up for work without even having learned how to dress yourself, let alone read, or write, or reason ..... or usefully interact with co-workers.

What does OECD REALLY stand for? Operationally Excised Cerebral Debris? Anyone interested in actually growing a group brain for your country, please contact me. rge (at) OperationsInstitute (dot) com

Fiat Debt Limit Again? Is This A Sign Of The End Times?

Commentary by Roger Erickson

US faces mid-October deadline to raise debt limit

I sincerely wish it would end. It's getting as bad as radio or tv commercials.

Isn't this the 12th time we've heard this message, in recent memory? Who's paying the advertising bill for this campaign?

Let me get this straight, the issuer of a fiat currency is in "danger" of not being able to issue fiat? ...  Uh, .... how is one supposed to respond ... to something that disorienting?  Do you just back away slowly?  Or relieve the derelict of their duty, on the spot?

I'm losing track, what's the difference between:

fiat debt limit ... & ... FUD bet Luddite?

Seriously, you have to wonder how long Socrates listened to Sophists say that HIS dog, which was a mother, was therefore HIS mother ... before 'ol Soc got tired of the inane BS, kicked 'em in the arse, and threw 'em bodily out of the lecture hall!

Seriously folks, we got a country to run here.  And, a half-starved Middle Class to resuscitate. We ain't got time for this.

There are limits to listening to nonsense from Sophist Luddites. Surely 12x is an acceptable limit ... in one month? Even in 3 generations!

Implying a "Novel" Way to Look at the National Debt? (plagiarizing a 400 yr old view?)

commentary by Roger Erickson

Here's another article you wouldn't expect to see in the Washington Post.

Maybe someone at the CFR read Warren Mosler's book & decided to have "one of their own" plagiarize - as a novel insight - it and all fiat-currency literature going all the way back to John Law.

Could this be the start of a campaign to puncture their own straw man? Does this mean that the DT's have decided it's time to recover from their own DTs? Admittedly, one advantage of having the DTs is that one can rearrange one's paradigm at will, as if in a self-editing dream. There's even a bevy of contractors - like Zachary Karabell - collectively known as the PICC, or Propagandist Industrial Controlfraud Complex.

Another way to look at the national debt

SocSec taxes, medicare taxes, student loans ... how much of US economic initiative is left?

commentary by Roger Erickson

Student debt hits record 1 in 5 US households
"With college enrollment growing, student debt has stretched to a record number of US households -- nearly 1 in 5 -- with the biggest burdens falling on the young and poor."

Why not just be honest, and rename this pattern as indentured servitude, serfdom & hereditary slavery?

We can spend unlimited amounts of currency into existence for programs that the wealthy hire lobbyists to promote - from NASA to the DoD to agriculture and corporate and bank subsidies .... but we can't find any fiat currency to spend on mandatory education, mandatory public health measures, or mandatory minimum care for our own elderly? Rubbish!

It's not just that our electorate doesn't understand how a fiat currency works, they simply don't understand their situation. That's a recipe for disaster.

A foolish population & their future are soon parted.

We're already deep into a civil war.

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their [personal] gains."
Thomas Jefferson

That's what I was trying to get at in an earlier post, pointing out that we're duped into fighting a civil war against ourselves, by proxy.  Apparently this crowd doesn't know what a prion is anyway.  Anyone have the imagination to write out contingency tables for what's next, i.e., what lies beyond even social variants of the prion phenomenon?  It really doesn't matter how exactly we describe & document the escalating crimes in an evolving class war.  All that matters is what we do about them, and how quickly.  An ounce of prevention is still better than a pound of cure.

Until then, we're once again manipulated into pitting ourselves against ourselves, this time for the twisted principle of merchant's rights, not even states rights. Same real stakes, however.