Category Biden re-affirms He will Cancel Study debt

Aug 3 2023

They See It Coming – Fitch Joins S&P to Downgrade USA Credit Rating


Posted originally on the CTH on August 2, 2023 | Sundance 

Collapse is never a sudden occurrence; it is an outcome of gradual erosion over time. A weakening that takes place almost invisible to those who pass through the construct, until eventually, at an uneventful time in the mechanics of history, the process gives way.

Fitch has joined with the prior position of Standard & Poors to downgrade the USA credit rating. The weight of debt, in combination with reverberations from the continued hammering deep inside the political fundamental change operation, has triggered another flare.

In the bigger picture, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy driven by the latest focus on unsustainable economic policy, aka The Green New Deal. The efforts of the fiscal, monetary and economic policy are all aligned to shrink the U.S. economy, thereby creating the era of “sustainable energy” a possibility. Unfortunately, this is akin to a household intentionally shrinking their income while at the same time taking on credit card debt. The process itself is not sustainable.

(Reuters) – Rating agency Fitch on Tuesday downgraded the U.S. government’s top credit rating, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors, coming despite the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis two months ago.

Traders’ immediate response was to embark on a safe-haven push out of stocks and into government bonds and the dollar.

Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills.

[…] “In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025,” the rating agency said in a statement.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen disagreed with Fitch’s downgrade, in a statement that called it “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”

[…] In a previous debt ceiling crisis in 2011, Standard & Poor’s cut the top “AAA” rating by one notch a few days after a debt ceiling deal, citing political polarization and insufficient steps to right the nation’s fiscal outlook. Its rating is still “AA-plus” – its second highest.

After that downgrade, U.S. stocks tumbled and the impact of the rating cut was felt across global stock markets, which were in the throes of the euro zone financial meltdown.

In May, Fitch had placed its “AAA” rating of U.S. sovereign debt on watch for a possible downgrade, citing downside risks, including political brinkmanship and a growing debt burden. (read More)

What do Barack Obama and Joe Biden have in common?  They were both in office, executing an identical economic, fiscal and monetary policy, when the USA credit was downgraded.

Jul 1 2023

Supreme Court Rules Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Program Exceeds Constitutional Constraints


Posted originally on the CTH on June 30, 2023 | Sundance 

After a legal debate about standing in the case of Biden v Nebraska, the Supreme Court took up the issue of whether the President could unilaterally forgive student debt without an act of Congress.  In a 6-3 ruling {pdf here}, the court determined the executive authority of the Dept of Education did not permit such action.

Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to eliminate student debt unilaterally, without congressional approval.  The court opinion released today affirms that Congress must be involved in their role as decision-makers of federal spending.  Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion.

[SCOTUS BLOG] – […] When the Biden administration announced the program in August 2022, student-loan repayments had already been on hold for over two years. Betsy DeVos, who served as the secretary of education during the Trump administration, suspended both repayments and the accrual of interest on federal student loans at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She relied on the HEROES Act, a law passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks that gives the secretary of education the power to respond to a national emergency by “waiv[ing] or modify[ing] any statutory or regulatory provision” governing the student-loan programs so that borrowers are not worse off financially because of the emergency.

[…]  The HEROES Act, Roberts emphasized, gives the secretary of education the power to “waive or modify” laws and regulations governing the student-loan programs. Congress’s use of the word “modify” means that the Biden administration can make “modest adjustments and additions to existing provisions,” Roberts wrote, “not transform them.” But the debt-relief program, Roberts stressed, instead “created a novel and fundamentally different loan forgiveness program.” The plan “modifies” student-loan laws and regulations, Roberts suggested, “only in the same sense that the French Revolution ‘modified’ the status of the French nobility — it has abolished them and supplanted them with a new regime entirely.”  

Roberts rejected the Biden administration’s contention that the secretary of education also has the power to “waive” laws and regulations relating to the student-loan program. When the secretary has invoked this power in the past, Roberts observed, he has done so for a specific legal requirement, such as the requirement that a student provide a written request for a leave of absence. But in this case, Roberts noted, the secretary has not indicated that he is waiving a specific provision.

Roberts also rebuffed the Biden administration’s argument that the debt-relief program is consistent with the purpose of the HEROES Act – that is, to give the secretary of education the power to provide relief to borrowers during a national emergency. “The question here,” Roberts countered, “is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it.” On this point, Roberts invoked the “major questions” doctrine, which is the idea that if Congress wants to give an administrative agency the power to make decisions of vast economic or political significance, it must say so clearly. But in this case, Roberts said, the HEROES Act did not authorize the debt-relief program at all, much less clearly. (read more) 

Additionally, the court also released a decision on a Colorado law that forced a Christian website designer to create wedding websites against her First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of religion.  {pdf HERE}

The court ruled the state cannot enforce a state anti-discrimination law against a Christian website designer who does not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, because doing so would violate her First Amendment right.

The First Amendment, Gorsuch explained, “protects an individual’s right to speak his mind,” even when others may regard that speech as “deeply misguided” or it may cause “anguish.” And the First Amendment generally also protects an individual from being required by the government to voice a particular message.

In this case, Gorsuch observed, even the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit agreed that the websites that Smith wants to create are speech. But if Smith wants to speak, he stressed, she must choose between following her conscience, which means only creating wedding websites for opposite-sex couples, and violating Colorado law, or following the law and violating her religious beliefs.

Under the Supreme Court’s cases interpreting the First Amendment, Gorsuch concluded, “that is enough, more than enough, to represent an impermissible abridgment of the First Amendment’s right to speak freely.” (read more)

Critics of the decision argue this precedent now permits public businesses to discriminate based on all sorts of issues they will define as their speech rights.  However, public businesses are currently permitted to discriminate, as long as that discrimination does not violate constitutional rights (ex. freedom of religious belief) or specifically tailored categories.  States cannot pass laws that force or compel people to violate their First Amendment rights.

The conservative-right and the moonbat-left will never give him credit, but Trump’s three SCOTUS appointments are delivering measured positive results.

Jun 28 2023

Biden: I Sold A Lot of State Secrets


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Jun 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Okay.  We — I was just thanking the — anyway, I started off without you, and I sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things that we shared.  (Laughter.)

The only time Joe Biden speaks the truth is when he goes off script. He has said it before that his people would be mad at him for speaking without direction. Biden is currently (not) under investigation for selling state secrets to Ukraine and China. We know without a shadow of a doubt that his son Hunter obtained lucrative business contracts overseas while traveling on Air Force Two. We’ve heard, “10% for the big guy,” with no investigation. Now, the POTUS is openly mocking us for being above the law.

“We’re — we’re going to see more technol- — technological change — you’ve heard me say this a number of times — in the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50 years — and maybe in the next few years — the last 50 years,” Biden eloquently said. “Sometimes it’s a little difficult to say too much in front of all the press present here,” Indian PM Modi responded, likely glad he has the BRICS pact to rely on after seeing Biden’s mental decline on full display. You can see Modi’s absolute shock when Biden ADMITS to selling state secrets. That was not a joke but a slip of the tongue.

Biden embarrassed the entire nation during his meeting with Modi in India. He saluted the Indian national anthem before slowly lowering his hand after his handlers told him that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was not playing. He refused to let go of Modi’s hand after walking down the podium, and his wife Jill was clearly flustered, not knowing where to stand. America looks weak because our leader is weak.

Biden has made a mockery of America and the due process of law. He implemented laws as a senator to punish men for crimes his own son committed without penalty. He has had his political opponents arrested in true dictator fashion. The intelligence agencies work for him, or at least for the deep state propping him up. And now, days after the WhatsApp message revealed Hunter used his father’s name for power, he “jokes” about selling state secrets. To quote Joe Biden himself, “This man cannot remain in power.”

Jun 21 2023

Student Loan Forgiveness Promise Backfires


Armstrong Economics Blog/Education Re-Posted Jun 21, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The student loan forgiveness plan backfired plain and simple. Payments were frozen three years ago in March 2020 under the CARES Act when countless people were out of work and the program made sense. Then Biden campaigned on a promise to eliminate a portion of that debt with no real plan in place. One must wonder if he thought his lofty promise to buy votes was even a possibility. The Education Department announced that debtors must resume payments by October, and interest on those loans will resume in September. This will affect 44 million Americans. The country is dependent on consumer spending for a third of GDP, and the average American’s disposable income is dwindling amid the overall increased cost of living and taxation to fund reckless government spending. The one-issue voters who backed the Dems for this reason may want to reconsider their choice come November.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conducted a study that found the promise of forgiving debts actually created a worse financial situation for many Americans. Household leverage rose 3% during this pause as borrowers increased their private debts. “Comparing borrowers whose loans were frozen with borrowers whose loans were not frozen due to differences in whether the government owned the loans, we show that borrowers used the new liquidity to increase borrowing on credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans rather than avoid delinquencies,” the study found. So the study found that these people were more likely to accumulate credit card debt, which is at an all-time high. They also found that these individuals were more likely to direct the funds for mortgages and auto loans, which may be at an all-time high for this particular generation of younger adults.

Countless people truly believed their federal student loan payments would vanish in thin air. It is hard to blame them as the president repeatedly promised he had the power to make this happen. Some who left school in 2020 have never made a student loan payment or factored that cost into their monthly expenses. Over 7.5 million borrowers have already defaulted on their student loans. There will be a major issue here once these borrowers see their monthly expenses rise by a few hundred dollars.

Jun 14 2023

Burisma Audio Tapes Coming Soon?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Jun 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The mainstream media continually calls Biden’s Burisma bribery misinformation. Senator Chuck Grassley made a stunning claim that a Burisma executive is currently in possession of recorded calls with Hunter and Joe Biden in which they discuss the $5 million bribe. The then-vice president and the executive referred to the bribe as an “insurance policy” for the Biden crime family.

Attorney General Matt Whitaker told Fox that this will be a “cataclysmic event” if the audio recordings are released. Document form FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020, initially redacted the audio files to protect the Bidens. “This information, that there were recordings of the president of United States talking to a foreign national about bribes, was redacted from that 1023. That’s extraordinary in and of itself. Now, the contents, if true, I mean, obviously this is a cataclysmic event because you just don’t have these types of recordings usually available. And… it will prove essentially what Joe Biden knew and what his scheme was to abuse his power as vice president,” Whitaker told Fox.

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that the Ukrainian executive kept the tapes as a form of his own insurance policy in case he got into a “tight spot.” Grassley also said that the recordings may prove that Biden helped to appoint his son Hunter to a position at Burisma. “So, as I’ve repeatedly asked since going public with the existence of the 1023, what, if anything, has the Justice Department and FBI done to investigate? The Justice Department and FBI must show their work. They no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt,” the senator said.

“It’s clear that the Justice Department and FBI will use every resource to investigate candidate Trump, President Trump and former President Trump,” Grassley said. “Based on the facts known to Congress and the public, it’s clear that the Justice Department and FBI haven’t nearly had the same laser focus on the Biden family.”

Where is the global outrage? The Bidens were engaged in illegal dealing with Ukraine years before Biden became the POTUS. We are now sending blank checks of taxpayers’ money to Ukraine, exacerbating inflation and creating economic uncertainty throughout the globe. Biden should be impeached at the very least for these offenses. The intelligence agencies have refused to cooperate with investigations and have illegally withheld information that would have sent Joe and Hunter to prison. The Department of Justice and FBI have become the Democrat’s personal Gestapo and are refusing to abide by the law. The people must demand justice.

Jun 12 2023

The True Story of Hyperinflation


Amstrong Economics Blog/Cryptocurrency Re-Posted Jun 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Armstrong,
could you please explain what happens in technical terms from a capital flow perspective, when confidence is lost and hyperinflation starts to begin?
For example Turkey. When Erdogan was elected i think you wrote that ever since the lira started dropping. So confidence in politics is key. Do you think one day we will see hyperinflation in Turkey?
And another example, is Yugoslavia: what caused the hyperinflation (in technical terms/capital flow perspective)? Are foreign investors getting rid of the dinars? Too many dinars than suddenly rushed back into Yugoslavia causing hyperinflation?
Regards,
Magdalena Š.

ANSWER: The misnomer about hyperinflation is that it is caused by printing money. It is a RESPONSE to the collapse in the confidence of the government.  If we look at the 3rd century, this is where we find the greatest number of hoards of ancient coins. What began this was the capture of Valerian I by the Persians in 260AD.

Valerian was the first Roman Emperor to be captured and Rome was unable to recuse him. That shook the confidence of the Roman people, but it also was a signal to the barbarian tribes in the North that if the Persians could do it, they could as well. Within 10 years, Emperor Aurelian constructed the great wall around Rome. Never before did Romans have such a defensive wall. That had a powerful army.

There was a trend toward debasing the silver coinage which began with Nero to try to fund the rebuilding of Rome after the Great Fire. But that did not undermine the confidence in the Roman Monetary System any more than our perpetual deficit spending since World War II.

However, a spark is ignited and suddenly that trend turns into what I have called a Waterfall event in the purchasing power of the currency. Such an event has taken various forms. However, the end result is the collapse in the confidence of the government and as a result, that is when you get that waterfall event.

In the case of Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, etc, there was a 1918 Revolution where communists seized power and the emperor of Germany lost power. In that case, they actually asked Russia to take Germany after their revolution in 1917. This was the beginning of the Weimar Republic.

Germany was saddled with reparation payments demanded by France. First, you had a communist revolution and people with capital began to flee to other places in Europe or certainly move their money out of German banks. It was this drain of wealth that forced the Weimar Republic to print money to try to make their reparation payments. Then in December 1922, they seized 10% of everyone’s assets and handed them a bond.

Here you can see that after that December 1922 confiscation, hyperinflation simply took over. It was NOT the printing of money that caused the hyperinflation it was the collapse of confidence FIRST which then compels the government to expand the money supply lacking taxation revenues etc.

I suspect the spark this time may be the Digital Currency and the proposed cancellation of paper currency. This is why people are moving to anything tangible from real estate, gold, silver, ancient coins, and even equities. With DIGITAL CURRENCY they will have capital controls and prevent you from even moving money outside of your country.

The precise day of the ECM was the announcement of the IMF Digital Currency which they intend to replace the US dollar as the reserve currency. This may be timed with the turning point in 2024. It is unlikely that they would cancel paper currencies before the 2024 election. This is all being

Jun 12 2023

Biden Vetos Plan to Scrap Student Debt Redistribution


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jun 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Canceling student loan debt was a lofty promise Biden made during his presidential bid. Three years later, he has made no progress. This was one of those single-issue items that caused many to vote for Biden, and he can’t risk reducing his dwindling support. “I’m not going to back down on my efforts to help tens of millions of working- and middle-class families,” Biden said. “That’s why I’m going to veto this bill.”

Per usual, Dem policies that claim to help the middle class only cause more financial pain. What about the working-class families who chose not to attend college due to costs? What about the families who worked hard to pay off their loans? Universities can continue charging massive fees with no end in sight and his administration has done nothing to curtail the costs of college. So there is no plan to fix the real issue that has caused so many Americans to be saddled with student debt that is nondischargeable in bankruptcy due to the repeal of Glass-Steagall by the Clintons. As a reminder, the debt will not vanish in thin air. Taxpayers will be responsible for this burden.

Instead of “relief,” we should call it what it really is intended to be – payment redistribution. The Senate had agreed to undo the damage in a 52-46 vote before Biden shot it down. Even some Democrats disagree with Biden’s plan to pass on the debt to taxpayers. Senator Joe Manchin said the “reckless” plan “forces hard-working taxpayers who already paid off their loans or did not go to college to shoulder the cost.” Democratic Senator Jon Tester and Independent Senator Krysten Sinema agree.

Extremists like Elizabeth Warren said that it’s “shameful” that Republicans want to “claw back relief from public servants.” They are undermining our intelligence. The hated rich use tax loopholes to avoid payments. The burden will fall on the middle and working class, which is entirely unconstitutional. “ The executive branch cannot spend money that has not been appropriated by Congress,” 31 USC 1301 et seq (Antideficiency Act (P.L. 97-258)) and Article I, Section 7, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution.