Yeah, The Jenius is back
It's been over 10 months since I wrote My last post, and I didn't think it would mark the beginning of a long hiatus. It just simply happened, as a certain level of ennui and dissatisfaction reached a tipping point.
Doesn't mean I stopped caring or giving a damn about My Island. I just...went away, to do other things.
But a headline today proved to be another tipping point, as several weeks of pondering were coming together. Here it be: How Wall Street Fed Puerto Rico's $70 Billion Debt Binge.
Courtesy of Bloomberg.com, Let's pause a moment and look at that headline:
1) "Wall Street": The code word here is "banksters."
2) "Fed": Ah, the banksters in cahoots with...
3) "Puerto Rico": Aw shit.
4) "$70 Billion": Now hardly anyone can actually imagine what 70 freaking billion dollars really is. Maybe Bill Gates, for whom the sum is "My next round number up." But almost everyone understands that 70 billion dollars is a freaking huge amount of money that they don't have. Hits you in the ol' bread basket, it does, pun intended.
5) "Debt Binge": Aw shit again. Now We're out-of-control mother-bleepin' fellow crooks with the freaking banksters. Yee. And haw.
You want the lowlights? Glad you didn't ask:
* Puerto Rico more than doubled its borrowing in the municipal bond market since 2004. To the average Brethren out there, let Me parse that for you: Both retarded political parties mucking up Our present and future added to that doubling, and "borrowing" you freakazoids doesn't mean "free ride," it means "debt." As in "crushing amount of it." How bad, you don't ask?
* "(T)he government kept selling enough bonds to saddle each man, woman and child with $19,000 in debt." You got $19,000 to pay your share of debt you don't care about and most likely didn't get but a few dollars' worth of services from? Me neither.
* Here's a fun stat: Over 77% of the muni funds in the U.S. of part of A. have investments in Puerto Rican bonds. "Too big to fail," anyone? Uh, think again.
* "Neither a U.S. state nor a sovereign nation, Puerto Rico and its debt-issuing agencies, such as the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, aren’t eligible to file for bankruptcy the way Detroit and Jefferson County, Alabama, have. It must pay its debts or default." How do you like them aguacates, huh? Hey, statehooders, wanna make this your rallying cry for admission into the 50 Club? "We want the right to say We're fucking broke!"
* Oh, and what does "default" mean? Bottom line: We pay creditors through the nose, until Our brains are slop and Our innards are squeezed dry. Why? "Puerto Rico’s constitution guarantees that holders of general-obligation bonds are paid before any other creditors." And who could be listed as one of those "other creditors"? You and Me.
* Rescue plan? Puh-lease. "President Barack Obama’s administration isn’t moving to aid the commonwealth." And why should it? Yeah, $70 billion is a lot of money, but compared to the trillion-dollar fake meltdown-cum-bailout, it's a fart in a shitpile. And don't forget the previous paragraph: Our Constitution guarantees payment. You think the U.S. of part of A. isn't going to enforce that clause to the utmost limit? Here's the chaser: "The U.S. Treasury also said it isn’t taking any special measures."
* Tidbits tossed in, like sand in pus-flavored Jell-o: "Puerto Rico’s population has shrunk 4 percent since 2004 to 3.67 million, according to U.S. Census data... More than a quarter of the population depends on food stamps... Per-capita income of $15,000 is one-third the U.S. average... Labor-force participation rate of 35 percent for those age 16 to 24 is among the lowest in the world (My emphasis)... An unemployment rate of 13.9 percent, almost double the U.S. rate of 7.3 percent... Emigration is increasing... Rising crime is also persuading people to leave (as the) homicide rate is about 27 for every 100,000 people, compared with the U.S. average of 4.7... Puerto Rico’s leaders haven’t done enough to make local industry competitive in the global economy and are instead counting on tax incentives or other assistance from Washington to protect businesses."
Still with Me? Kudos.
Does any of this surprise you? If you're one of My Brethren, is anything mentioned above a true surprise to you?
Why? Why are We so accepting that this is the way things are and will be?
Well I didn't come back to keep yapping about what's wrong with Us and Our Island. I think I've covered that crap beyond the point of nausea.
The next step is coming up.
And it won't take 10 months to happen. I guarantee it.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
4 comments:
Good to read you again. Thanks for this entry and the link to the Bloomberg article. The government, be it red or blue (violet? purple?)does a great job in hiding these facts from the public, with help from our press, though mainland media isn't that different. The main job seems to have been sowing the seeds of fear and dependence. Will Puerto Rico face this problem as a united people or will the bleeding go on? Live long and prosper.
I keep coming around this blog, I guess last time it was around Sept. 2013. Now I see a month later you show-up. :)
You want to bet that if Puerto Rico defaults which will be "when" not "if" that the U.S. will intervene? The Federal Reserve intervened in the 2008 crisis (that anyone with a brain saw coming), and no one knew, until Ron Paul forced the issue and helped pass a bill for them to tell us. It was something like 17 trillion dollars. So, while the country was being faked with the $900 billion TARP bill, the feds were printing and spending 17 times that amount, covertly. LOL!
The information that I gathered seems to tell me that "when" Puerto Rico hits the shit the U.S. will have to intervene, as it is going to hurt a lot of people in the U.S.
Never underestimate the "exceptional" nation from creating a bigger mess.
Oh, I also mean to comment on your use of the unemployment data. If I were going to use the miss-calculated (on purpose) unemployment data, at least use the U6 numbers.
U1 Unemployment Rate
U2 Unemployment Rate
U3 (Official)Unemployment Rate
U4 Unemployment Rate
U5 Unemployment Rate
U6 Unemployment Rate
U3 is what the government likes to use as the "official" numbers with the help of the connivance mainstream media. The U6 numbers include everyone, including those who have been unemployed for a lot longer.
And what about the jobs report?
In the last official report it stated the creation of jobs was something like 74,000+, what a joke! Yet the mainstream media wants to tell us that the economy is headed in the right direction, yeah, sure, with the help of the Federal Reserve's billion dollar a month print job, as in quantitative easing.
I see dark clouds forming in the horizon, and I know where they are headed, and I am not even claiming to be a psychic! But I can predict, we are in deep crap!
Nelson, glad to have you back.
I agree that the operative word is "when", not "if." Maybe the more accurate term is "soon." However, I still think the U.S. of part of A. will (and should) shy away from jumping in, although they ultimately will to avoid having what are to them "largely undesirable people" flooding into the States.
I agree on the unemployment data, but I was quoting the source and that was what they used. Real unemployment is much higher, there and here, but We don't hear those awful numbers as much.
Thanks!
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