Yosemite Sam Gets Worried About Federal Debt

In a talk which garnered little attention, one of the Deep State’s prime operatives, National Security Advisor John Bolton, cautioned of the enormous and escalating US debt.

Deep State operative John Bolton, a.k.a. Yosemite Sam [PT]

Photo credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Speaking before the Alexander Hamilton Society, Bolton warned that current US debt levels and public obligations posed an “economic threat” to the nation’s security:

“It is a fact that when your national debt gets to the level ours is, that it constitutes an economic threat to the society.And that kind of threat ultimately has a national security consequence for it.”*

Annual federal surplus/deficit and total federal debt. Things have clearly gotten a bit out of control in recent years. [PT]

What was most surprising about Bolton’s talk was that there has been little reaction to it from the financial press, the markets themselves, or political commentators. While the equity markets have been in the midst of a sell-off, it has not been due (as of yet) to US deficits, currently in excess of $1 trillion annually.Instead, the slide has been the result of fears over increase in interest rates and the continued trade tensions with China.

Interventionism is Expensive

While Bolton’s warning about the debt is self-serving, it is accurate in the sense that the US Empire which, in part, he directs is ultimately dependent on the strength of the economy.

“National security” is not threatened by a debt crisis which would mean a compromised dollar, but such an event would limit what the US could do globally.Real national security is defense of the homeland and border control – not intervention abroad.

War mongers like Bolton are fearful that a debt crisis would necessitate a decline in US power overseas.America is fast approaching what took place with the British Empire after its insane involvement in the two World Wars and its own creation of a domestic welfare state which exhausted the nation and led to the displacement of the British pound as the “world’s reserve currency.”

The US-led wars in the Middle East have been estimated by a recent Brown University study to have cost in the neighborhood of $4 trillion.** Despite this squandering of national treasure and candidate Trump calling the Iraq War a “disaster,” as president, Trump increased “defense” spending for FY 2019 to $716 billion.***

US military bases around the world. Note that these numbers fluctuate from year to year, and to some extent also from source to source, but this map shows a fairly credible approximation. [PT]

Wily Enemies and the Coming Crisis

Profligate US spending and debt creation has, no doubt, been noticed by those outside of the Empire. It is probably why Russian President Vladimir Putin has been so hesitant to take any serious action against the numerous provocations that the US has taken around the globe and against Russian interests directly.

The wily Putin probably figures that an implosion of US financial markets would eventually limit America’s ability to foment mayhem and havoc internationally.

Russian Czar Vladimir Wily E. Putin meets with Field Marshal Trump and his trusted sharp shooter YS and still finds time to say cheers to everybody… then he ponders who should be beheaded, exchanges locker room talk with the FM and later on coolly puts on his KGB disguise, lest we believe he got soft. [PT]

The Trump Administration’s latest bellicose act, engineered by – you guessed it – John Bolton, has been the withdrawal from the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty (INF).

The treaty, signed in 1987, was a landmark achievement of the Reagan Administration which deescalated tensions between the two super powers and kept a lid on a costly arms buildup that neither can afford.

The next financial downturn will certainly dwarf the 2008 crisis, the latter of which nearly brought down the entire financial system.The next one will be far worse and will last considerably longer since nothing has been resolved from the first crisis.The only thing that has occurred has been the creation of more debt, not only in the US, but by all Western nation states.

Under current ideological conditions, a change in US foreign policy to non-intervention is unlikely. Public opinion is decidedly pro-military after years of indoctrination and propaganda by the press, government, academia, and the media.

It will take a fall in America’s economic power, specifically the loss of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, which will ultimately bring down the empire. That is what has neocons like John Bolton concerned.

Day of Reckoning

Unfortunately, until that time, the US will continue its rampaging ways.The day of reckoning, however, appears to be fast approaching and instead of a defeat on the field of battle, the US Empire will collapse under a mountain of debt.

It would be more than fitting that such a scenario should play itself out which would thus begin the very necessary retribution process that may, at least in a small sense, compensate those who have suffered and died from America’s murderous foreign policy.

A comprehensive list of involuntary recipients of US-made moral clarity raining from the skies since the end of WW II. [PT]

References:

*Tyler Durden, “John Bolton Warns National Debt Is An ‘Economic Threat’ To The US Security” Zero Hedge,01 November 2018.

**Jason Ditz, “Study: US Wars Cost $4 Trillion, Killed 258,000”  Antiwar.29 June 2011.

***Military Benefits: “2019 Defense Budget Signed by Trump”  Military Benefits, September, 2018.

Charts by St. Louis Fed, maps by Global Security.org, curiousmatic.com

Chart and image captions by PT