The World’s Greatest Ponzi Scheme

In the month of March, the U.S. government spent more than eight times its monthly tax receipts, including money spent for maturing U.S. treasuries.

The U.S. treasury cleared $128.18 billion in tax receipts during the month of March, but paid out a total of $1.05 trillion, which included $49.8 billion in Social Security benefits, $47.4 billion in Medicare benefits, $22.58 billion in Medicaid benefits and $37.9 billion in defense spending. The real financial beating springs from maturing U.S. treasuries where the U.S. paid out $705.3 billion.

In order for the U.S. government to stay afloat with only $128.18 billion in tax receipts, it had to spend $72.5 billion from the balance of cash on hand. This closed the month at $118.1 billion, including the sales of $18 billion worth of TARP assets. Most importantly, the U.S. treasury had to sell $786.5 billion in new treasury bonds, which it will be required to mature at a still higher in the future in order to keep the shirt of its’ back. Surely this is the greatest Ponzi scheme ever executed on the world as the government endlessly seeks to outrun the debt that it creates. The nation is able to fund government expenditures and pay off maturing debt instruments by issuing new and larger amounts of debt. Up to now the Federal Reserve interest has made this debacle survivable.

At this time the interest payments on the United States national debt is the government’s largest monthly expenditure. The world is waking up to the fact that the U.S. government is truly insolvent and that the benefits of propping up the U.S. dollar will no longer be worth the expense to foreign creditors. The U.S. government Ponzi scheme is being exposed for the world to see.

China is becoming more reluctant to continue buying U.S. treasuries as it positions the yuan to be the world’s new reserve currency. Japan needs to raise $300 billion to rebuild parts of their country that were destroyed by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. They will be unable to invest handily in the U.S. or may opt to invest outright in China as money is available. The U.S. desperately needs Japan and the Arab world to roll over national treasuries into larger amounts of new ones. With Arab revolutions taking place across major Saudi states and the U.S. occupying Libya for no good reason at all, the nation is likely see a global disdain for its previously valued treasures that it must sell to cope with the runaway spending and deficits of Congress.