The US Treasury just announced that they will be “buying back” outstanding treasury notes during the next quarter for the first time in more than 20 years.
The Treasury Department has undertaken only two previous series of buybacks in the past century. The first took place during the 1920s. More recently, Treasury bought back $67.5 billion of outstanding debt via 45 operations held between March 2000 and April 2002
What followed the first buyback was the Great Depression.
They are claiming that the intent is to make the bond market more liquid. No, what the effect is, is to print our way out of debt. They are going to conjure up $2.5 billion out of thin air, and buy back treasuries with it, in the hopes that people will say “Oh, they aren’t in as much debt now, so I guess I will lend them some more money.”
The first operation is intended for May 29. Through July, the Treasury plans weekly buybacks of up to US$2 billion of nominal coupon securities, and up to US$500 million for Treasury inflation-protected securities (Tips).
This will place more money in circulation and will result in more inflation. There are currently $27.4 trillion in outstanding treasury notes, plus an additional $7 trillion owed to the SS trust fund. A couple of billion isn’t going to do shit, especially when they continue to borrow about $100 billion per day.
This nation and its economy are screwed.
5 Comments
IcyReaper · May 1, 2024 at 1:06 pm
In the spirit of this GENIUS move. I suggest we get rid of the debt. We can just print $28 Trillion dollars and use it to pay off the debt, bingo problem solved. Hell, we could even print off $ 150 trillion more to pay off all the unfunded programs and then we are free and clear.
Dam, I should have been a Senator and gone to DC.
It is kinda funny thought, if I print off a couple million dollars on my computer, I go to jail for printing fake money, but if .GOV does it, everything is fine.
This just shows this is not by accident or stupidity, this is a planned and controlled destruction of a countrys financial system. No one is this fucking stupid…
anonymous coward · May 1, 2024 at 3:20 pm
Debt Ceiling = Road to rune. The best a peasant can do is be like JWR and be a tangible heavy contrarian.
Earl Harding · May 1, 2024 at 3:25 pm
We are indeed headed for wreck and ruin. It’s only a question of when. And to that I say there is a lot of ruin in an empire. So, the timing is uncertain. It might be 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, who knows! My bet is after the 2024 election and before the 2028 election…
The other interesting thing is that in modern economic times when the worlds reserve currency fails, there has been another waiting in the wings. Last time round it was the US Dollar replacing the Pound Sterling around the time of WW1.
This time, what’s the pending reserve currency? The Euro is as screwed as the dollar, the Yuan is manipulated worse than the dollar, and the rest of the BRICs are hyped up as well, except maybe India, but I don’t see the Rupee as a reserve currency contender. As far as I can tell there is nothing realistic waiting in the wings for their time on stage.
When the dollar goes, as it will, it will be total global economic chaos. That fear and lack of a viable alternative reserve currency is what’s keeping the dollar afloat right now. People are being irrational about the state of the dollar because of that fear.
D · May 1, 2024 at 4:07 pm
“The Creature from Jekyll Island” is a pretty good book…
Kilroy Is Over There · May 1, 2024 at 7:01 pm
China dumped $84 billion (h/t-TKL) the past year for their lowest level of Treasuries since 2009 or the Year Zero of the immaculate light worker messiah Bathhouse Barry.
Got Fundamental Transformation?
Yes we can!
Weimarbabwe is baked into the cake for the burn it all down Bolsheviks.
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