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WHAT’S A FEW TRILLION DOLLARS?: Obama’s Deficit Projections Don’t Jive With CBO (Guest in CST)
Not that the President was ingratiating himself with Americans when his administration announced that its budget would put the U.S. in the red some $8.5 trillion by 2020. But when the nonpartisan and much more credible Congressional Budget Office (CBO) weighed in, the White House still appeared to be somewhat dishonest with its claims.
The CBO says Obama’s big-spending plan, particularly in light of proposed tax cuts for the middle class, will further bury the U.S. under a debt more in the neighborhood of $9.7 trillion.
So what’s a few trillion? Available for interviews to offer an assessment that goes beyond sobering and heads straight for frightening is Bob Chapman, a seasoned economist and publisher of The International Forecaster, who has been extremely critical of the U.S. government’s fiscal irresponsibility and, in particular, the Federal Reserve’s power to control monetary policy.
“Quite frankly,” says Chapman, “The CBO estimate is probably conservative. As you can see, socialism is really expensive. On the other hand, we see no way the Treasury can continue to borrow the money it needs to keep this Titanic afloat. We wouldn’t be surprised if 90 percent wasn’t purchased by the Federal Reserve from money created out of thin air.”
In just the first year alone—the one landmark where the White House and the CBO are still aligned—the nation’s $1.5 trillion deficit would equal 10.3 percent of the overall economy—the highest since WWII.
The President says his plan is designed to bring that deficit down to 3 percent of the GDP. Chapman says, “That is pure fiction.” And the CBO says, under the White House plan, the national debt will instead take off to become 90 percent of the economy.
So how do we turn this “Titanic” around? Should the middle class brace for more taxes, contrary to Obama’s campaign promise? Is it time to get serious about the reality of a United States gone bankrupt and how our lives will change dramatically?
Call Special Guests today to schedule an interview with Bob Chapman.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE MAY BE USEFUL FOR SHOW PREP:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030502974.html
ROBERT J. CHAPMAN BIOGRAPHY:
Mr. Chapman is 73 years old. He was born in Boston, MA, and attended Northeastern University majoring in business management. He spent three years in the U. S. Army Counterintelligence, mostly in Europe. He speaks German and French and is conversant in Spanish. He lived in Europe for six years, off and on, three years in Africa, one year in Canada and another year in the Bahamas.
Mr. Chapman became a stockbroker in 1960 and retired in 1988. For 18 of those years he owned his own brokerage firm. He was probably the largest gold and silver stockbroker in the world during that period. When he retired he had over 6,000 clients.
From 1962 through 1976 he specialized in South African gold shares. He and his family lived in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) and Johannesburg, South Africa from 1970 to 1973. During that time he did a great deal of further study into the South African mining industry.
Mr. Chapman belonged to The Traders Association for 25 years. He did all his own trading. During his South African years some was done directly through Johannesburg, but 95% was done through London brokerage firms. Hence, he has extensive contacts, both in London and on the Continent.
Starting in 1967 Mr. Chapman began writing articles on business, finance, economics and politics having been printed and reprinted over the years in over 200 publications. He owned and wrote the Gary Allen Report, which had 30,000 subscribers. He currently is owner and editor of The International Forecaster, a compendium of information on business, finance, economics and social and political issues worldwide, which reaches 10,000 investors and brokers monthly directly, and parts of his publication are picked up by 60 different websites weekly exposing his ideas to over 10 million investors a week.
In 1976, after the Soweto riots, Mr. Chapman began buying North American shares exclusively for his clients. Up to that point only a handful of American and Canadian issues interested him, due to the high dividends the South African shares had paid out over the years. Between 1976 and 1988 his business surged from 1,000 to 6,000 clients, so the bulk of his business ended up being Vancouver Stock Exchange issues. For this reason he is very conversant with the quality of management, geologists, properties and traders on today’s North American scene. He is well known.
From 1976 to present he has spoken and given workshops at over 200 business conferences worldwide, and has been on radio and TV thousands of times. Until his retirement he was always judged by the attendees to be one of the top three speakers and never once was lower than first in workshops due to his vast knowledge of the mining business and his grasp of worldwide financial markets and political scenes.
In June of 1991, at the request of business associates, and due to retirement boredom, he began writing the International Forecaster.
Over the past 40 years, Bob Chapman has immersed himself in the study of world politics and economics. His articles have run in more than 200 publications. His newsletter, "THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER,” has active subscribers all across world. Bob Chapman has conducted hundreds of workshops at business conferences and has been a featured guest on hundreds of radio and television programs.
Some of his uncanny predictions include:
* Called the top of the market in April 2000.
* Predicted 9/11 or an event like that, nine months early, within 33 days of it actually occurring.
* Predicted the invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq two years before they happened.
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