11.06.2007

The Slow Puncture

Back in my prison days, there was a term "slow puncture" that referred to a cruel way to murder another inmate. A "slow puncture" meant giving an inmate HIV, via means you can surely imagine, and letting him die a slow, painful death from AIDS.

When facing insurmountable debt, third-world countries give their creditors the equivalent of a shank in the shower: they default. Not the U.S. Facing insurmountable debt, the U.S. is giving its creditors the Slow Puncture. Sure, we'll still pay you the nominal dollars we owe you, but by the time you get them, those dollars will be so devalued you won't recognize them. We'll give you your 4.5% annual interest as you watch your principal decline in value far faster than that. The Slow Puncture.

The Chinese Treasury investing its trade surplus in the U.S.? They get the Slow Puncture.

Oil companies and countries putting their petrodollars into Treasuries? They get the Slow Puncture.

Little old ladies in Pasadena living on 2% Social Security increases as the cost of living rises in the double digits? They get the Slow Puncture.

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