Voices: Keep it in the USA

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November 25, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Wed Nov 25, 2009, 06:06 PM CST

There’s a lot of money sitting round not doing much. Let’s put it to work! The Forbes 400 Special Edition catalogs 400 American billionaires, every one a winner. In fretting over the huge debt our government has built, with no plan to avoid default, I thought: “The collective net worth of the 400 is over a trillion dollars. If the government made a deal with China to buy back bonds and if the 400, along with lesser billionaires, millionaires, et al., bought those bonds at market, for their own portfolios, then we could avoid foreign debt default.”

This scheme may seem like successful people are bailing out the government, but the new bondholders will realize, collectively, annual interest in the billions of dollars. That interest would stay in the USA. The principal would be paid to the bondholder at maturity.

Payment of principal at maturity could be, the payee willing, a new USA bond of equal value.

This is so simple that there must be some bureaucratic “can’t do.” No-can-doers are invited to offer a more feasible scheme to restore the good faith and credit of the USA.

John Cragin

Joplin

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Voices: Keep it in the USA

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