...and off the cliff we go

They wouldn't be able to collect taxes if they went the inflation route. Inflation is a one shot deal, and after that, the goverment that does it loses the ability to collect taxes.

Debt based money and the defense industry are linked. You can't remove defense without addressing the money supply. The reason is that the global debt based system inevitably collapses eventually. And in the mean time, forces countries to eat each other to pay their debts. So, you either build big guns and go eating or you get eaten. So, if you want to address defense spending, address the monetary system at the same time, or get attacked down the road.

They were there yesterday. Whether they will still be there by Friday is anybody's guess.

Its a working hypothesis. They won't be back until the end of January. Whether the US will still exist is anybody's guess.

obama says they are close but thats like saying a kid is saying he is gonna clean his room while he is laying down on his bed

Somebody who knows what they are doing would be a good idea.

Here's my view of the cliff:

Pretty ridiculous that the cliff is 5:1 tax increases to spending cuts. (and you know you'll never even see those cuts, but honestly, you'll never see the revenue increases either since you are only giving them more incentive to do some financial planning)

If you really want to tax the rich, realize the rich don't have income. The really rich have carried interest and long term capital gains. Can't raise those taxes or it will be TEOTWAWKI, but we sure can tax income at twice that rate!? I say we call all income - income, and then drop the tax rate down to the rate Mitt Romney and Warren Buffet pay - 15% (for starters). For 3 years I had a white collar salary overseas, so I did not have to pay any income tax. That is the wealthiest I have ever felt in life. You have to believe me when I say income tax is almost slavery. Income tax always ends up like this - the workers pay it, and the rich and powerful exempt themselves from it. One more thing to think about - serfs typically paid their lord one day a week labor. That means serfs had at worst, a 20% income tax. You aren't even a serf, you're almost a slave. What is the justification for a tax on income? Income is bad? No, income is a necessity just as food, water, clothing and shelter are. The government regulates income and therefore needs a fee to pay for that service? No, not a function of government even though I do see the government trying to manipulate wages through immigration on the down side, and unions on the up side. Let government collect money where it provides a service. They need to earn their money just like we do.

Now the spending side. When we create money, we call it debt. So take whatever figure you want - federal debt, M2, credit and currency deriviatives - that number must grow at the same rate as GDP. Less is deflation, more is inflation - two sides of the same coin. So, the federal budget has to be whatever they collect in taxes, plus whatever GNP increase there is. The reason for that is simple - money is a proxy for goods and services. As an economy produces more goods and services, money must be produced or you will have more goods and services denominated by the same amount of money - deflation. Stable prices requires money production at the exact same rate as production of goods and services in the economy. I think this is what confuses people, it's a derivative - rate of change.

This is why we may never have a "balanced" budget. Power corrupts, and while we limited the scope of power through a consitution, we did not limit the duration. Congress limited duration on the President, but we need to go much further. No one should be allowed to run for public office while in public office.

Well, at least one person here understands the situation.

[link to finance.yahoo.com]

I can't even imagine being one of the 12 idiots standing behind zero....

watching this on the news now here.

why are they playing it as BRILLIANT news?

this shit is scary.

FAIL.. They made a deal.. Just has to pass house.. and it will pass.. So your Cliff doom is a fail..

happy new year and happy cliff diving the country goes