Oil shock, Euro crash, U.S. fiscal cliff paint dark future says Dr. Doom

May 3, 2012 08:26


Nouriel Roubini who is famous for predicting the financial collapse which earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom” cited a Middle East conflagration oil crisis, “austerity fatigue” and “bailout fatigue” in Europe, and the “fiscal cliff” faced by the U.S. in a doom and gloom scenario.

 

 

CNN:

‘ “The entire Middle East is a mess, and it’s not just Iran and Israel,” said Roubini. “The Arab spring will become an Arab winter.”‘

 

Reuters:

‘Roubini went on to torpedo Europe, where he thinks the euro will unravel under the pressure of “austerity fatigue” among the euro’s poorer members and “bailout fatigue” among its richest. Onto the United States, where a looming fiscal cliff next year will sap GDP growth, and political gridlock will continue no matter who is elected president.’

 

He’s not the only one to worry about the “fiscal cliff” that record spending in the last four years has led us to. Here are some other voices:

What Obama said about debt out of the other side of his mouth:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” – Barack Obama

“Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, its time to try something new. Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” – President Barack Obama on his Office of Management and Budget website.

“We have a crushing burden of debt that is coming to hit our economy. This is what it all comes down to. We are driving our country and our economy off of a cliff.” “You can’t have sovereignty, self determination as a country if we are relying on other governments to cash flow half of our deficit. This is where we are.” – Rep. Paul Ryan

Obama’s debt increase “radical, unprecedented” – Charles Krauthammer

“Our debt per capita  is $44,000 per person. That’s greater than Greece. It’s greater than any other country in Europe. It’s unsustainable. And under the president’s budget that he just submitted a weeks ago it will go to $75,000 a person over ten years.” Sen. Jeff Sessions

“Whether one believes leaves in a large, very active government or something more limited, mathematically, the amount of debt we already have and the terrifying rate at which it is accumulating will lead to national ruin,” – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels

“Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth.” -Alan Greenspan

“Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. A substantial part of the confiscation is effected by taxation. But the welfare statists were quick to recognize that if they wished to retain political power, the amount of taxation had to be limited and they had to resort to programs of massive deficit spending, i.e., they had to borrow money,by issuing government bonds, to finance welfare expenditures on a large scale.” – Alan Greenspan

“I have long argued that paying down the national debt is beneficial for the economy: it keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes.” – Alan Greenspan

When asked why the markets haven’t reacted to the US being on the precipice of collapse, Erskine Bowles said its because the US economy is  “the best lookin’ horse in the glue factory.”

Alan Simpson (former senator from WY) and co-chair of Obama’s debt commission  said economic collapse will ‘be very swift and very dramatic’.

Former Treasury Secretary Rubin said the debt crisis could explode any minute.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Council on Foreign Relations that our national debt is a national security risk echoing previous statements by Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen, head of U.S. intelligence – Dennis Blair, and all of America’s intelligence agencies.

“After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money we don’t have. But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country.” – Michele Bachmann

“There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.” – Richard Feynman

“All of the problems we’re facing with debt are manmade problems. We created them. It’s called fantasy economics. Fantasy economics only works in a fantasy world. It doesn’t work in reality.” – Michele Bachmann

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’. The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.” – Joe Biden

“Mr. Obama plans to boost federal spending 25 percent while nearly tripling the national debt over 10 years. Americans know that this kind of spending will have economic consequences, including new taxes being imposed by the new progressives.” – Karl Rove

“By the year 2025 three programs, social security, medicaid and medicare, plus our interest consume 100% of all federal revenue.” – Rep. Paul Ryan

“Nobody wants to admit the real problem and that is we’re bankrupt! … We have to change our idea about what the role of government is.” – Rep. Ron Paul

“Ask yourself this question … why are we not addressing the preeminent existential threat to our country that exists today, which is our over-spending and expansive government and the debt which is absolutely unsustainable. When Admiral Mullen says the greatest threat to our country– the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — is not Islamic terrorism, it is not China, it is not Russia. It is our debt. Tell me why we are not addressing that, right now, rather than playing political games about the election come November 2. When in fact, the future of our children and grandchildren, their standard of living, their ability to supply themselves what is needed for them and their families is put at risk?” – Sen. Tom Coburn

 

 



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