Wondering who really caused the giant U.S. government deficit?
Since WWII, conservative Republicans seem to be worst for the government debt, while Clinton (a conservative-ish Democrat) seems to be best. Found this interesting* history of the U.S. debt compiled from by blogger Steve McGourty using data in Microsoft Encarta and the 2006 U.S. Govt Office of Management and Budget .
Big government debt leads to inflation and, at wost, a Federal Reserve who will restrain themselves from lowering interest rates to stimulate an ecomony. What am I doing with my portfolio? Well, I hold inflation indexed bonds and am short long term U.S. treasuries. See last week's entry in Neubert's Trades on inflation and Bernanke.
*First found this link from my RSS feed to Good Magazine's Website
Disclosures and Confessions: I am exposed to the U.S. national debt in the following ways:
ASSETS:
I own Tbills, Treasury Notes, Fanie Mae Debt (unofficially backed and sponsored by U.S. govt), I own TIPS (inflation indexed bonds), I have a bank account in an FDIC insured bank (Federal Deposit Insurance Co (FDIC) is backed by U.S. Government), I am vested in the U.S. Government back-up pension insurance plan (called Socially Security), I hold U.S. currency in paper form in my wallet (what I can buy with those dollars – actually a form of an interest free loan to the government goes down by about 3% a year – inflation) I am short both Ten Year Treasury Futures ZNM7, and Long Bond Treasury Futures ZBM7. Inflation Indexed Bond ETF TIP (TIP) is my largest discretionary position (Accumulated over the past year my cost is below here at $99.45)
LIABILITIES:
I am proud (most of the time) to be a U.S. Citizen and Resident. I pay U.S. Federal taxes and thus am jointly responsible for paying the national debt. I pay gasoline taxes. I have to pay extra for the ethanol in my gasoline thanks to U.S. tariffs against much much cheaper U.S. Ethanol Made from sugar cane. I hold dollars and pay a kind of tax in the decline in value of those dollars every year. I pay state taxes in New York State and City. Those taxes go up because the U.S. government continues to decrease it's support of soclal programs that my state must make up.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this trade log is meant to be specific financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell. I do not give investment advice. Do your own research. Do not rely on anything in this weblog to make investment decisions. I do not log all my trades here. I only describe or mention those that I think might be interesting. Consult an investment professional familiar with your specific financial situation before buying or selling any security. Options may be for me but they are are not for everyone. Futures are highly speculative. You can lose more than your initial investment in futures.