Treasury Will Run Out Of Cash In Mid-October, CBO Warns

The US government is Illinois 2.0 on steroids.  The key difference being, of course, the US Treasury and Fed will just create more dollars out of thin air, and Congress will just raise the debt limit, kicking the can down the road further.  The problem is one day, that can will be a boulder.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-29/treasury-will-run-out-cash-mid-october-cbo-warns

Debt forecast: U.S. will look like Greece by 2021

As I've repeatedly stated, the CBO is neither independent, nor accurate in forecasting government finances.

And as bad as the official debt calculations are (currently $16 trillion and climbing), they are woefully understated, as I've repeatedly blogged about.  The actual debt, when applying GAAP accounting methods, is actually $222 trillion, according to Laurence Kotlikoff (Google it--I'm tired of blogging about it).

Why is there a huge discrepancy?

1) because official statistics come from the government.  And governments lie, despite claims to the contrary ("CBO is nonpartisan").

2) official debt calculations don't take into account future government liabilities (e.g. entitlement programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and housing bailouts such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/debt-forecast-u-look-greece-040006789.html

The federal debt crossed the $16 trillion mark this week. What’s more remarkable than the number of zeros in that figure is that Washington somehow didn’t see this coming. The Congressional Budget Office is responsible for predicting the budgetary effects of policy changes. Politicians cite CBO figures when telling us what to expect in the future. But it turns out that CBO forecasts, taken out of a very limited context, aren’t very accurate.

Every January, CBO forecasts the U.S. economy for each of the subsequent 10 years. Since 1997, the agency has underestimated the yearly debt in 85 out of 110 tries.. Almost 80% of the time, the CBO produces (and politicians parrot) a ridiculously optimistic picture of the future.

Ten years ago, the CBO predicted that we’d be $7.6 trillion in debt by now. At $16 trillion, the reality is more than twice as bad. Unfortunately, that’s par for the course. Since 1997, the agency’s forecasts of the debt five or more years into the future have been 40% too low on average — even ignoring the 2008-2009 recession.

This financial house of cards was decades in the making, and it will take years to correct. Correcting the mess requires four ingredients: freer markets, sound money, restricted spending, and time.

When people are strapped for cash, they make tough choices. It’s time the government did too. We need a constitutional amendment restricting government spending to 20% of GDP or less.

As for the last ingredient, we have little time left. If our leaders do not address these matters quickly, the laws of mathematics will force a solution on us.

Terminated CBO Whistleblower Shares Her Full Story With Zero Hedge, Exposes Deep Conflicts At "Impartial" Budget Office

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/terminated-cbo-whistleblower-shares-her-full-story-zero-hedge-exposes-deep-conflicts-impartial-

The Farce Is (Again) Complete: Former Obama Budget Chief Orszag Says Official Economic Projections "Too Optimistic"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/farece-again-complete-former-obama-budget-chief-orszag-says-official-economic-projections-too-o

And so the comedy circle is complete yet again after none other than former White House budget chief Peter Orszag throws cold water in the face of the White House, the Treasury and everyone else who has so far been so stupid to continue to deflect blame for America's horrendous fiscal situation purely on S&P and its "colossal $2 trillion mistake." Because if the guy who up until a year ago personally came up with the White House's voodoo numbers is telling you they are full of shit (the numbers, not the White House), perhaps it does put the administration's claim that it is all S&P excel spreadsheet skills that are at fault, in a slightly different light.

• ORSZAG: OFFICIAL U.S. ECONOMIC PROJECTIONS 'TOO OPTIMISTIC'
  
• PETER ORSZAG IS A FORMER WHITE HOUSE BUDGET CHIEF
• CITIGROUP INC.'S PETER ORSZAG COMMENTS ON BLOOMBERG TELEVISION

CBO: Social Security to Run $45 Billion Deficit in 2011

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/cbo-social-security-run-45-billion-defic

Obamacare will bankrupt us, according to former CBO Director

http://moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Obamacare-Bankrupt-Us-DouglasHoltz-Eakin/2010/03/24/id/353700

Obama budget is optimistic

I would argue Obama's budget forecast is unrealistic. The CBO numbers will prove to be optimistic as well--government economic projections always are--even if "independent."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abu_W64CzGy4&pos=8