<div dir="ltr"><div>Well, I'm not an economist. I do think that $18 trillion is perhaps both feet across the ridiculous line, though. <br><br></div><div>There
are a lot of things about how the system works that I find strange.
For example, I googled how much cash there is in circulation at the
moment. According to this link
(<a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12773.htm">http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12773.htm</a>), there is
roughly $1.29 trillion in circulation, with $1.25 trillion of
that being in the form of Federal Reserve Notes. So it's all just smoke
and mirrors anyway.<br><br></div><div>Hopefully our currency will stay
strong on the international stage, otherwise we will probably be having
quite a different conversation.<br><br></div><div>And I know the idea is
old-fashioned, but maybe we should be looking closer at how much bang
we are getting for our buck instead of just adding some more to a
fictitious number somewhere and hoping it will all sort itself out
sometime.<br></div><div><br>Paul<br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Ron Force <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rforce2003@yahoo.com" target="_blank">rforce2003@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div dir="ltr"><span>And this is a problem...because? <br>Debt for a sovereign government that issues its own currency and has the power to tax is different from an individual or a government that doesn't have its own currency (ie, Greece). Read here:</span></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><span><a href="http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/federal-budget-not-household-budget-here-s-why" target="_blank">The Federal Budget is NOT like a Household Budget: Here’s Why | Roosevelt Institute</a><br></span></div><div style="width:450px;font-family:'Georgia','Times','Times New Roman','serif';margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:5px;background-color:#ffffff"><table style="width:450px;height:auto;display:block" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="7" style="height:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1px;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="min-height:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1px;line-height:0px"> </div></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="5" style="width:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1pt;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="width:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1pt"> </div></td><td rowspan="5" style="width:14px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:0pt;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="width:14px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:14pt"> </div></td><td colspan="2" style="height:6px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:0pt;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="min-height:6px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:6pt"> </div></td><td rowspan="5" style="width:20px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:0pt;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="width:20px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:20pt"> </div></td><td rowspan="5" style="width:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1pt;border-collapse:collapse" width="1"><div style="width:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1pt"> </div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="width:100%;vertical-align:middle;font-family:'Georgia','Times','Times New Roman','serif'"><div style="line-height:16.5px;background-color:#ffffff;width:414px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;word-break:break-all"><span></span><span></span><a href="http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/federal-budget-not-household-budget-here-s-why" style="text-decoration:none!important;color:#000000!important;line-height:100%;font-size:18px;display:block" target="_blank"><span style="margin:0;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:3px;font-size:18px;line-height:21px;max-height:43px;color:#000000;overflow:hidden!important;display:inline-block">The Federal Budget is NOT like a Household Budget: Here’s Why | Roosevelt Institute</span></a><div style="font-size:13px;line-height:20px;color:#999999;max-height:81px;font-family:'Georgia','Times','Times New Roman','serif';overflow:hidden">The Federal Budget is NOT like a Household Budget: Here’s Why L. Randall Wray takes the fear and loathing out of understanding federal budget deficits. </div></div></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="height:6px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:0pt;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="min-height:6px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:6pt"></div></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:middle;font-family:'Arial','Helvetica Neue','Helvetica','sans-serif'"><div style="font-size:0pt"><a href="http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/federal-budget-not-household-budget-here-s-why" style="color:black;text-decoration:none!important" target="_blank"><span style="display:inline-block;line-height:11px;max-width:314px;min-width:254px;overflow:hidden;max-height:13px;word-break:break-all"><span style="vertical-align:middle;font-size:9px;line-height:11px;color:#999999">View on <span style="font-weight:bold">www.rooseveltinstitute.org</span></span></span></a></div></td><td style="vertical-align:middle;width:100px;font-family:'Arial','Helvetica Neue','Helvetica','sans-serif'"><div style="max-width:100px;min-width:80px;overflow:hidden;text-align:right;line-height:11px;max-height:13px;font-size:0pt"><span style="vertical-align:middle;font-size:9px;line-height:11px;color:#999999">Preview by Yahoo</span></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="height:9px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:0pt;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="min-height:9px;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:9pt"></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="7" style="height:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1px;border-collapse:collapse"><div style="min-height:1px;background-color:#e5e5e5;font-size:1px;line-height:0px"> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr"> It's the same thing my Econ 101 professor taught back in the last century.</div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div></div><div> </div><div>Ron Force<br>Moscow Idaho USA</div> <div><br><br></div></font></span><div style="display:block"> <div style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> <div style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div><div class="h5"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial"> On Monday, December 8, 2014 3:29 PM, Paul Rumelhart <<a href="mailto:paul.rumelhart@gmail.com" target="_blank">paul.rumelhart@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br> </font> </div> <br><br> </div></div><div><div><div class="h5"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>I hadn't looked at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://usdebtclock.org/" target="_blank">http://usdebtclock.org</a> for a while, and just noticed that we passed the $18 trillion dollar mark. I'm not sure exactly when we crossed it.<br><br></div><div>Perhaps we should be doing something about this.<br></div><div><br></div>Paul<br></div></div><br></div></div><span class="">=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet,<br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net/" target="_blank">http://www.fsr.net</a><br> mailto:<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" target="_blank">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================<br><br></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>