Here are some 'back of the envelope' calculations that show how it could be possibly to "Balance our Books" with a minimal of pain to everyone. Well most everyone. ... And contrary to Sutton's legacy, Gunfire's not required -- Just a little knowledge of Where the Money is ...
Derivatives market -- Stock market
$480T / 12 ~ = $40T (World economy)
$480T / 30 ~ = $16T (U.S. economy)
A Study of the Financial Crisis
$45.5T / 2 ~ = $23T (U.S. stock market)
That's one very serious, chunk of change ...
The type of "Change" we all could believe in.
What Percentage of U.S. Equity Trades Are High Frequency Trades?
$23T (U.S. stock market) x 70% ~ = $16T (High Frequency Trades -- U.S. stock market)
for more info on What's Behind High-Frequency Trading
U.S. hits debt ceiling
How high is the debt limit right now?
The ceiling is currently set at $14.294 trillion.
Call it in the neighborhood of $15T -- assuming the Debt Ceiling gets raised again, someday.
Here's the very simply way to pay it ALL off -- IN ONLY 10 YEARS:
Tax that $16T (High Frequency Trades in the U.S. stock market) with an additional 10% Transaction Tax.
$16T x 10% ~ = $1.6T per year (extra U.S. Revenue per year)
$1.6T per year x 10 years ~ = $16T (extra U.S. Revenue over 10 years)
National Debt $15T - $16T ~ = -$1T (or a 1 Trillion Dollar Surplus)
At the end of 10 Years these Gamblers National Patriots on Wall Street could actually PAY OFF the US Debt, with just an extra 10% Tax on their Computerized Flash trading.
(Or alternately raise the Capital Gains tax by a 10% increase, on the entire Stock Market. )
Our National Debt is something that Wall Street very much Helped to create, too. Even more so than all those Mythical Jobs they spend their weekends creating. Wall Street took those Bush Tax Cuts. Wall Street took the enhanced Security from that very expensive War on Terror. Wall Street most definitely benefited from the unprecedented TARP Bailout! (A Bailout we're still paying the interest on, by the way.)
And What Thanks do the American People get for Bailing them out?
Nada, Zip, Scratch. You snooze, you lose. So long suckers!
Making Wall Street Banker Rollers pay back just a little bit of the Loot that they keep raking in, year after year -- could go a very, very, very Loooonng ways.
Afterall, It's Easy Money! ... as Willie Sutton might say.
Some might call THAT Poetic Justice -- given the "get in, get out" roles Wall Street speculators played in the Undermining the Economy, over the last several years -- Using Our Mortgages as their Poker Chips! ... Oh the Nerve, Oh the devious Ingenuity ... Oh the utter recklessness!
Worst Financial Scandal in nearly a Century. Seems like they "owe us" one ... doesn't it?
This Economic Recession is their mess, too.
It's long past time they pitched in to help us to recover again, now that they are "back on their feet" again, financially speaking;
It's long past time to Raise the Capital Gains Tax too. Just a smidgen. Call it a "Good Faith" gesture, High Rollers. Come on, you can afford it.
That's if you're NOT too busy creating all those Jobs, that is ... on some Caribbean Island somewhere. If you're not too busy private jetting into Zurich, Aspen, and Rome?
Come on do your Patriotic Duty, Wall Streeters, Hedge Fund Billionaires ... the Free Market is decidedly NOT Free for everyone ... it's long past time to Pay the Piper -- as the current drama in Congress, clearly shows.