PS: "Quarterly self-employment taxes were due on June 15th, and presumably wouldn't be covered by this figure. Or would they?". That's something I looked into, Mr. Anon. The payments are DUE on certain dates - 4 per year, but they can be made anytime in the 3 month-long windows.

Of course, duh! I didn't think of this first, but most would surely wait until the last minute for a few reasons: Interest or time value of money (when there is any - this is changing), spite, etc ...

PS

"What looks really horrible is the difference between tax receipts and outlays, with only 58% of the outlays being covered. I am not sure if that is a somewhat seasonal artifact though. Income tax withholding is very regular, and then there are quarterly payments made by the more well-off and by corporations - there are deadlines, but the payment periods cover the year evenly."

Quarterly self-employment taxes were due on June 15th, and presumably wouldn't be covered by this figure. Or would they? When do the feds deposit the checks? I don't know. But it would be interesting to compare this to the comparable figure for June. Perhaps the tax receipts would be somewhat more in-line with the outlays.

Regardless, the federal government is clearly spending beyond our means.

PS: Greetings Bill...

Many thanks for the new (to me) information...

I never knew that the cali constitution prohibited borrowing or incurring debt (beyond $300,000 dollar bucks without the consent of the tax cattle.) to be a thing...

It's pretty wild that the "state of California" can incur a debt of ~$520 Billion (with a B) debt while pretending that they cannot (by law) run any sort of "deficit".

I wish there were a way that us average normal people could hold the people masquerading as "government" accountable for their failure(s) to uphold the so called law and the so called constitution...

...

We are "blessed" to live in interesting times...

I hope you have a great evening!, Bill!

Cheers!

☮

PS @Adam Smith
California's constitution prohibits debt, but somehow we keep running deficit budgets. I've never figured out how we do that, but the media reports the deficit while saying at the same time that the state is not allowed to incur debt.

PS: I wonder what Dean Baker would have to say now, Bill.

Regarding your 2nd point to Dean Baker, there's more to it. If you cut immigration and deport, for example, that labor shortage will cause wage increases, but you'd have to consider tariffs too (for some businesses), as otherwise it all goes away.

Adam, yes, Ron Paul turned 88. What a great American!

I agree about all that other debt too. There's not getting out of this without major financial pain.

Even regarding Federal expenditures, there are the "unfunded obligations", pensions and such, for which the numbers just don't pan out. There's no way the money that people expect to get can be paid. That is, at least in REAL dollars. (Sure, you'll get your $2,200/ mo. SS checks, as promised. Granted, a one bedroom apt. on the outside of town rents for $1,800 now, and a Big Mac meal goes for $19.99.)

Those unfunded obligations are said to be $100 or $200 Trillion, much higher than the regular on-budget debt.

I gotta say, it's not like I couldn't see some of the problems, but the ZeroHedge of 12 years back or so really opened my eyes on this stuff.

PS: Kinda on topic...

Happy Birthday Ron Paul!

☮

PS: Good afternoon, everyone,

❞𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝟓𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐱𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐭.❞

Sounds like a good way to enslave a formerly free, formerly prosperous people. And this is just the federal debt. This does not include the debt taken on by cities, states, counties, towns, villages, water conservation districts, school districts, etc. ad nauseam.

The people masquerading as "government" should not be allowed to deal in debt. These criminals really need their credit cut off.

☮

PS I once tried an exchange with the indomitable Dean Baker, who writes nationally for some big think tank, on what would happen if interest rates rose even slightly, and he was contemptuous. "Who would raise those rates?" he asked me. I suggested that the Fed not only could, but would have to at some point, and he called me an idiot.

He also claimed that there was no labor shortage because a business could simply hire workers away from the competitor by paying higher wages. Higher wages are his answer for everything. I tried to tell him that doing that merely moved the shortage from one business to another and he called me an idiot.

PS: "Must be reversed" Surely he's got a quantitative plan, right? Ha.

Yes, it's gone down to TS, but isn't it Cat 1 again? I will check and give Steve Sailer a heads up. I'm not sure how far above sea level is his closet.

PS
The linked article ends: “It is exactly the system that must be reversed if we hope to own anything of value in the future.” I take it that means either reduce outlays, or, inflate-away obligations, and sorry, asset values get reduced in the process. That’s not a quantified prediction. I am in S. Cal following the hurricane Hillary predictive maps. I especially love the “spaghetti models.” I would love to see a spaghetti model in which strands predict the possible ways this economic time bomb will resolve. The thickness of a spaghetti strand would depict the likelihood of that strand happening. Steve Sailer says “they want my equity.” Well, does that get many strands, and are they thick? I am weak in economics and related graphs, but isn’t there some sort of graph that quantifies the various possibilities about what the heck is going to happen.