Of course, one of the top priorities for the G.W. Bush administration
will be how to loot the treasury of this surplus, at least the portion
that actually exists at any given time against the myriad variables
determining any debt driven valuation. I mean there is no surplus that I
can drive down to treasury this afternoon and run my hands through. It
doesn't even exist as an inventory number of assets or species. Its a
chimera.

The current situation is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's
looting of the treasury especially one of its most successful tentacles,
the so-called Savings and Loan scandal. The debt owed by the U.S.
taxpayers to private banks (many of whom helped precipitate the Savings
and Loan scandal) will not be retired until the year 2013. The imaginary
numbers of the past decade have helped mask that debt. And contrary to
what the NY Times and Washington Post insist, fraud
was the weapon of choice.

Taxes levied against private individuals are responsible for any current
surplus, rhetorical or otherwise. Private industry as always avoided
taxes by leveraging themselves to the tune of some record trillions even
as stock money was thrown at them and as they recorded (in sand, on
water, in the aether) record profits. Never before have transnational
corporations been so highly leveraged. With a debt based economy "real"
value can never be measured or at least it requires a plethora of Nobel
Laureated schools of "scientific" (read quantified") economic theories
to chase the chimera and accrue vast professional acclaim and monetary
aggrandizement.

Pound was a simple soul. If he produced some form of species in exchange
for a product he wanted to feel as though that species simply
represented some other product of use produced or the promise of such
production. My bookstore is in Washington DC, right in the heart of
where many of the economic policy wonks, journalists, lobbyists etc
live. I put provacative articles, and satires I write on my own, in my
store window. Years ago I began elaborating on the debt being generated
by the corporations. Many of these stooges of capital stopped in to
point out how I was wrong, that corporate America was actually buying
down its debt. Naturally it turned out the stooges were lying. I suspect
the surplus, aside from just being stolen, will go toward corporate debt
reduction in the form of ground breaking legislation "favorable" to big
business. The U.S. taxpayer will pay the rest. He deserves nothing less
for his stupidity and ignorance. Much of the rest of the world will pay
with their blood and the lives of their children. CP

 [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> consider the following in light of the previous conversation.
>
> jb....
>
> White House Says Budget Surplus Beats Forecast
> Federal Debt Could Be Paid Off by 2010
>
> By JESSE J. HOLLAND
> .c The Associated Press
>
> WASHINGTON (Dec. 28) - President Clinton on Thursday projected that the
> country will enjoy a $1.9 trillion budget surplus over the next decade. He
> said the increase in the expected surplus means the United States government
> will be debt-free by 2010.
>
> The fiscal 2001 budget surplus was projected at $256 billion, White House
> officials said. The fiscal 2000 surplus was $237 billion, officials said,
> which capped four straight years of budget surpluses.
>
> This was the first time the country has had four straight budget surpluses
> since 1930, officials said.
>
> The increase in the surplus, which does not include the Social Security or
> the Medicare surplus, marks the ninth consecutive year in which the
> government's bottom line has improved, a first.
>
> In June, Clinton projected a 10-year surplus of $1.87 trillion. The new
> figure was $300 million higher.
>
> ''These are conservative numbers,'' Clinton said at a White House news
> conference.
>
> The booming economy also will allow the country to pay off the debt by 2009
> if it dedicates its entire budget surplus to debt reduction, White House
> budget director Jack Lew said. ''America is on track to becoming debt-free,''
> Lew said.
>
> Over that same 10-year period, the surplus for Social Security is expected to
> grow to $2.5 trillion while the Medicare surplus is expected to grow to $532
> billion, Lew said.
>
> President-elect Bush argued during his campaign that his proposal for more
> than $1.3 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years can be paid for by budget
> surpluses without eroding Social Security's trust funds. But he has also been
> cautioning of a potential downturn in the economy - a forecast that the White
> House deplored as without basis and likely to be damaging to the economy.
>
>  AP-NY-12-28-00 1306EST
>
> Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.

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