Comments by "Wojtek The Bear" (@wojtekthebear4958) on "vlogbrothers" channel.

  1. Wrong. National banks are owned by, shock, the government. Here's a US government website claiming the Federal Reserve is part of the US government: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/federal-reserve-system This is also a bad time to make your claim considering the new chairman of the Federal Reserve was just confirmed (meaning accepted) by Congress and the president. You know, because all chairmen of the Federal Reserve have to be.
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  2. I did. How do you think I got my evidence to prove they aren't private? They are an autonomous agency within the government, just like the USPS, Smithsonian, and FBI. Their Board of Governors and Chairman still have to be approved both by the Senate and US president though, and any revenue they make have to be remitted back to the US Treasury: http://www.businessinsider.com/fed-remittances-to-treasury-to-decline-2013-3) Here's a quote from the article: "With the expansion of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, yearly remittances have roughly tripled in recent years, with payments to the Treasury totaling approximately $290 billion between 2009 and 2012.6"
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  3. Not regulated, owned. Also the Fed owns bonds due to congressional legislation. If the US government (name the president), ever wants to disband the Fed, they'd have to take on all the cash themselves, which are liabilities. This would hurt the government budget. To get around this, Congress passed a law requiring the Fed to hold an equal value in US bonds as they do in USD so they can be safely disbanded without serious (budgetary) repercussions. It's discussed here: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages/legal-tender.aspx Also you should read your own sources, specifically the conclusion tab, as it discusses just about everything I already have. Just for more evidence here is a direct quote from a similar FAQ on the Federal Reserve System's website: "Some observers mistakenly consider the Federal Reserve to be a private entity because the Reserve Banks are organized similarly to private corporations. For instance, each of the 12 Reserve Banks operates within its own particular geographic area, or District, of the United States, and each is separately incorporated and has its own board of directors. Commercial banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System hold stock in their District's Reserve Bank. However, owning Reserve Bank stock is quite different from owning stock in a private company. The Reserve Banks are not operated for profit, and ownership of a certain amount of stock is, by law, a condition of membership in the System. In fact, the Reserve Banks are required by law to transfer net earnings to the U.S. Treasury, after providing for all necessary expenses of the Reserve Banks, legally required dividend payments, and maintaining a limited balance in a surplus fund." (https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_14986.htm)
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  4. Inflation and the debt are two completely different things, duh.
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  5. The dollar is supported by the entire US economy, all $18 trillion in GDP of it. It's value comes from people's demand for money. In other words, you're full of crap.
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  6. You forgot the Federal Reserve, which owns about 30% of the total government debt, the largest chunk owned by any single entity.
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  7. That's because our debt to GDP isn't too bad. It currently sits at around 106%. To put this in perspective, Japan is currently sitting at 250% and are operating perfectly fine. Also only 30% of the debt is actually held by foreign entities anyway. Besides most every country has debt after coming out of an economic downturn. This is in no way unusual.
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  8. While our government makes more and more on taxes due to increasing economic activity.
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  9. Nevermind you're still hilarious. You really have no idea how the Federal Reserve, banks, the government, or even economics work, do you?
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  10. Yawn, wow, I have heard the conspiracy theory a millino times by now. It's not like Sadam, Ghadafi, and Assad are all brutal dictators who have oppressed their like populations (like the Kurds), used chemical weapons on their own civilians (Assad), etc. No, they were totally nice dudes that the US only killed because their weak economies would've somehow destroyed the US economy, which is now the second largest oil producer in the world (http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html). Because that makes sense.
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  11. I'm not exactly fond of your second point. Yes, the bonds but by pension and social security funds would lose value if interest rates rose, but that risk has already been calculated into their current rate offered. This is known as the maturity premium (http://www.investopedia.com/exam-guide/cfa-level-1/quantitative-methods/time-value-money-interest-rates.asp?lgl=myfinance-layout-no-ads). Furthermore, the payout of the bond is still the same. A bond offering 10% interest is still going to pay that 10% whether interest rates overall rise or fall, so those funds should still expect to make money off of their investments as long as they don't sell them.
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  12. I can answer this. As of right now the government has taken steps to reduce their yearly deficit, slowing the growth of the debt. That being said, as our debt stands right now (something like 100% of GDP, though the estimates vary), it isn't as huge of a problem as you may believe, and definitely not anywhere close to crisis level. This is mainly due to the fact that investors still have the upmost confidence in US Treasury bonds, what makes up our debt, as it's nearly impossible for a country that prints its own currency to default on its loans as it can, well, print its own currency. Of course this has problems of its own, but it does make our debt issue a lot better. That along with the fact that the government itself still owns most of our debt means its not a major issue. As a real life example of it not being an issue. Look at Japan, which has debt 250%% over their GDP and they're still operating fine. They are also in a similar situation where the government owns most of their debt. The US economy is also on the up and up. Unemployment is at its lowest point in a while, 4.5%, which is considered full employment by economic standards (https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000). The Fed has begun to slowly increase interest rates again (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/business/economy/fed-interest-rates-yellen.html?_r=0), and both GDP and inflation are expected to grow (https://www.thebalance.com/us-economic-outlook-3305669), both indicators of increased economic activity. By most accounts, the effects of the Financial Crisis are starting to dissipate. PS: If you were wondering, the country that now owns the most US debt is Japan, not China (https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-overtakes-china-as-largest-u-s-bondholder-1429129765)
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  13. Because eventually the velocity of money will increase when the US reaches capacity (which last I checked we are closer to than you suggest) (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPPOT). US GDP is at $18 trillion and US potential real GDP is $20.5 billion, so our capacity is a little over 85%. If velocity of money increases and the money supply was already inflated, than the US will get a really large inflation rate (as inflation is velocity of money * money supply).
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  14. What you said made no sense.
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  15. Okay?
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  16. This has little to do with our welfare programs.
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  17. That's because your claim is completely false. Around 30% of the government debt is owned by the Federal Reserve and other funds within our government (like the Federal Reserve Fund), another 40% is owed by private investors (most domestic with some being foreign), and the last 30% is owed to foreign governments (https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/treasBulletin/current.htm)
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