May 21, 2009 – inching closer as its status as a safe-haven currency fades with every uptick in stocks and commodities and its potential risks – debt … Our import-based consumer economy could sustain itself only so long before the Chinese got tired of stuffing greenbacks under the Middle … Little did I figure that the whole thing would get a last gasp — via huge run-ups in public debt, the Treasury running its presses…

Jun 9, 2009 – That’s a far cry from the consumer-friendly, customized service world which voters, especially young voters, have become used to. … Poll after poll make clear that voters are queasy about the mound of debt which is accumulating and suspect the taxes to pay for it…

Jun 7, 2009 – Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation. Well, duh. … (Government spending having some “multiplier” effect unknown to consumer or business spending is a big, fat lie.) 2. … That extra spending means extra debt, which drives up interest rates, which chokes off growth. 3.…

Jun 29, 2009 – He goes on: Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually … efforts at beneficence are a series of violations — violations of the law, for example (ask the secured bondholders of Chrysler’s debt…

Jun 26, 2009 – What has the most potential to mire the United States in long-term debt? … Orszag writes that every other federal program’s effect on future deficits and debt is “swamped” by the effects of these two flagship … Government-run health care isn’t the ticket to innovative, dynamic, consumer-friendly care.…

Jul 15, 2009 – Consumer spending is probably about break-even, and private investment stimulates the economy dollar-for-dollar, plus the rate of return … So I honestly can’t tell you if it factors in the inflationary effects of all that debt, or if it includes the suppression of future…

Aug 26, 2009 – The pressure to find some middle ground on cap and trade, ObamaCare, financial regulation, and an uber-consumer protection agency will … behoove Republicans to return to some first principles and explain that their opposition to Obama-ism goes beyond the eye-popping debt … It turns out the hip guy wants to force them to buy health insurance, load debt and an enormous future tax burden on their backs, and…

Aug 20, 2009 – anticipation that many variations on the levels of insurance, levels of deductibles, etc., would evolve offering the consumer … The amount of federal (and state) debt that is piling up should strike fear in us all. … We will soon reach a tipping point where the only recourse will be to monetize the debt in such amounts that will create something…

Nov 24, 2009 – McArdle made the very smart point — as she is wont to do — that it doesn’t make much sense for Washington to try and inflate away our debt … lot of smart points, Megan’s point isn’t quite smart enough.* Those twelve trillion dollars we’ve already borrowed… well, that debt … But the “structural” debt? Why, Congress could repudiate that tomorrow, with or without inflation.…

Dec 25, 2006 – Yet despite the budget deficits, the piling up of national debt, and amid the doom and gloom of the vast amount of US capital held … cheap appurtenances, or the addition of 1 billion Indian and Chinese fabricators to the world’s work force that results in endless consumer…

Aug 21, 2007 – And you bought a house whose debt payments did not eat up more than 30-40% of your monthly income. … Thus arose the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies and the consumer movement.…

May 7, 2013 – The debt is small? Governance is unusually competent? … Seventy-million extra mouths translate into an entirely new consumer class the size of France right here in the U.S., prompting new…

May 7, 2013 – And it’s on interest on the debt.  And the biggest piece of that is entitlements, by a long shot. … Interest on the debt, of course, is a function of the other spending.  … When you’re a consumer, you can fire Microsoft; you can fire AT&T; you can fire JPMorgan. …

May 1, 2013 – If you take on debt to buy income from a business, you could get into trouble if business profits drop. … That’s why companies play this leverage game in sectors that have reliable income streams, for example consumer staples. … Below, we see the performance of the Consumer Staples ETF (XLP) against the Industrials (XLI) and Technology ETF’s.…

May 26, 2013 – Senate playbook, Franken has kept his head down, largely avoided national press and focused on populist issues like privacy and consumer … And the state Republican Party is reeling, debt-ridden and seeking to find its way after its Ron Paul-affiliated Senate nominee lost…

Jun 6, 2013 – In other words, everything else besides the consumer spending which Keynesians still erroneously believe drives sustainable growth … Friday’s key report was on consumer spending and income, both of which fell during April for the first time in a year — “unexpectedly … nothing but a Ben Bernanke bubble, the continuation of which almost completely depends on the consistency of the Fed chairman’s debt-buying…

Jun 3, 2013 – Consumer debt outstanding has risen nearly 10-fold since 2006, and jumped by 40% during the past year. … As I noted in my April 23 essay, it is hard to reconcile a 40% annual increase in consumer debt with a 5% annual increase in nominal … consumer spending (inflation is running at 7%, so real spending is down by 2%).…

Jun 30, 2013 – “Helping graduates refinance their private student loan debt into more affordable terms frees up funds for them to buy houses, start … Vermilyea said balances of student loan debt are now greater than any other consumer loan product with the exception of residential … mortgage debt.…

Oct 10, 2013 – on our debt – we won’t,” Coburn said on CBS This Morning. … need for a separate vote on the debt ceiling. … The job of managing the federal debt falls to the Bureau of the Public Debt within the Treasury Department.…

Oct 8, 2013 – And because it’s called raising the debt ceiling, I think a lot of Americans think, it’s raising our debt. … It is not raising our debt. This does not add a dime to our debt. … debt, not decrease them.…

Oct 22, 2013 – Times’ Fiscal Fantasies It’s quite obvious that the vast majority of Bush 43′s presidency was marked by modest growth in public debt … There is almost certainly no end in sight in debt-to-GDP growth, despite Lauter’s contention, presented as if factual, that “the debt … And, it is not the full trillion dollars in new debt authority. This is big.…

Oct 18, 2013 – small-business owners told the Senate a day before Congress reached an 11th-hour deal on Wednesday to reopen the government and raise the debt … “The conversation has been going on for months about the shutdown and the debt ceiling. … A Gallup poll released Oct. 4 showed consumer confidence had dropped to its lowest since December 2011 and the Standard and Poor’s…

Nov 4, 2013 – But on October 16, its consumer spending survey came back saying that “the average holiday shopper will spend $737.95 on gifts, décor … Mark Zandi, the ADP report’s chief economist, said in the report’s conference call that “the government shutdown and debt limit brinkmanship … product — and most forecasts for fourth quarter GDP were at 2 percent or below even before the ADP report and a recent dive in consumer…

Oct 28, 2013 – Obamacare, added millions to the disability and food stamp roles, grown the size of the federal work force, run up the national debt … If running up $6 trillion in debt and disrupting one-sixth of the U.S. economy with Obamacare are passé, what would not be? … (our service costs on the debt are actually less than during the 1990s in inflation-adjusted dollars when the debt was a third of…

May 17, 2019 – Journal, not the least of which is that it will severely penalize middle-class families that stretch their incomes, sometimes go into debt … The proper approach would be a consumer-driven (i.e students and their families) higher educational system, not that institution-first … The consumer-driven system would naturally take on entirely different characteristics from our current one — cheaper and more effective…