Tune in today to the 10-year Treasury Auction at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it could be an important telltale for our future. It will be interesting to see what the 10 year T-Bill does on news of the new $1 Trillion dollars in new debt we’ll be issuing to fund our latest round of tax cuts. We’re blowing out $34 Billion in 10yr and 30yr treasury notes today alone.
Fingers crossed, it should go okay. Good thing China still thinks we’re “too big to fail”…for now.
But I cannot help but to wonder: how long are they going to take us seriously? We obviously cannot demonstrate even the façade of fiscal restraint. Just last week, the Debt Commission gave us its dire recommendations on how to possibly trim $4 trillion in debt over the next decade. This week, B-b-b-barry and the Pubs are tacking on $1 Trillion of new unaccounted debt.
Also this week, we discovered that American high school students currently rank 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math -- out of 34 countries. China ranks #1 in reading, #1 in science and #1 in math.
When the Chi-coms finally get enough horse sense to realize when they’re getting conned, we’ll be in a heap of trouble. You can already see them getting hot under the collar in that understated, Chi-com way of theirs.
What is the Mandarin word for “chump”?
The last time we faced an obvious national academic deficit like this was Sputnik in 1957. We scared, shamed and generally flogged ourselves and our young students into math and science classes like never before. Earlier in our nation's history we invented or modernized medicine, motor transport, aviation, hydroelectricity and thermonuclear power….we all know this list goes on forever.
What the Hell happened to us? Would the Greatest Generation have ever issued $1 trillion of new foreign debt for (mainly millionaire) tax breaks, while we fight two wars and allow our children to languish behind the rest of the world?
The heroes of Pearl Harbor and Omaha Beach roll in their graves.
Sadly, I think we're just going to have to have ourselves a lost decade or three. Forget about the trade deficit. Forget about the national debt. In the global economy, our academic inferiority alone is going to translate into real, live American pain, and soon.
For our kid’s sake, I hope I am proven 180 degrees off-base. Maybe someday they'll recognize value in teaching unabridged world history, civics and religion to our kids. Maybe our whip-smart future leaders will recognize that we're currently operating in what is bordering on fascist theocracy, and that there are better ways to run a society....or maybe not.