Yet more keen links one might want to share

[Gravdigr]

Could someone take a look at this article and tell me if it's correct, close-to-correct, or, bullshit?

I am quite high atm, and don't know if I'm 'getting it'...

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Could someone take a look at this article and tell me if it's correct, close-to-correct, or, bullshit?

I am quite high atm, and don't know if I'm 'getting it'...

It's both true and bullshit. Depends on how you look at it.

On a micro scale, my dead cousin has about $10k in savings bonds. Back in the 80s and 90s he gave about $5k to the US government, and they gave him some pieces of paper in return. He died, and in 2017, I'm going to cash in those savings bonds, which matured years ago but are still accruing good interest, and the US government is going to pay his estate about $12k.

He actually worked for the government, so in his case, you could actually argue that they used the $%k he gave them to turn around and pay him his salary. And soon his estate will get $12k when I cash it in.

The US government isn't hurt by this deal until I cash them in, and then they have to cough up the extra $7k or so.

(I'm making those numbers up. But they are close.)

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'm more concerned by money being sucked out of this country and sent to China, et al.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Could someone take a look at this article and tell me if it's correct, close-to-correct, or, bullshit?

I'd say it's pretty close to correct. Calling treasury bonds debt is akin to calling bank accounts "debts" of the bank. Which is technically true, but usually meaningless. Unless there's a run on the bank, like in "It's a Wonderful Life", and everyone calls in the debt at once.