Thursday, September 24, 2009

Robertson puts it in real simple terms for the fools on the Hill

...but somehow I doubt even these clear and irrefutable facts from one of the brightest minds in finance will make them listen.
When all you're thinking about is reelection, or your immediate problems - in the case of dimwitted constituents, it's hard to see past to the burgeoning debt load that will put a vice grip on future generations. At least we'll all be green - cars will be too expensive and dollars will be crowding out all other colors in landfills.
clipped from www.cnbc.com
The US is too dependent on Japan and China buying up the country's debt and could face severe economic problems if that stops, Tiger Management founder and chairman Julian Robertson told CNBC.
Julian Robertson
"It's almost Armageddon ... if the Chinese and Japanese stop buying our bonds, we could easily see [inflation] go to 15 to 20 percent.
It's not a question of the economy. It's a question of who will lend us the money if they don't. Imagine us getting ourselves in a situation where we're totally dependent on those two countries. It's crazy.”
“The other thing is, they're buying almost exclusively short-term debt. And that's what we are offering, because we can't sell the long-term debt. And you know, the history has been that people who borrow short term really get burned.”
"The U.S. has to quit spending, cut back, start saving, and scale backward," Robertson said. “I really do think the recession is at least temporarily over. But we haven't addressed so many of our problems and we are borrowing so much money that we can't possibly pay it back, unless the Chinese and Japanese buy our bonds.”

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