Could CA And U.S. Debt Be A Security Risk?

January 24, 2007
Could CA And U.S. Debt Be A Security Risk?

The federal and state debt figures are staggering and difficult to comprehend. But to make it more understandable, let's put it this way: to retire the federal debt would take 303 years, the California debt, 84 years.

However, bond debt and deficit budgets alarm Haas Business School Dean Tom Campbell. He told the Commonwealth Club today that the federal debt is now $6.3 trillion dollars and California's debt is $63 billion dollars. What that means is that for every $10 dollars in the federal and state budgets, $6 dollars goes toward debt payments and social programs -- fixed expenses -- leaving only $4 dollars to pay for everything else.

-- 16 percent is held by Japan
-- 10 percent by China
-- 9 percent by the United Kingdom
-- 15 percent by other nations

Israel May Have Violated Arms Pact, U.S. Says

January 28, 2007
Israel May Have Violated Arms Pact, U.S. Says

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 — The Bush administration will inform Congress on Monday that Israel may have violated agreements with the United States when it fired American-supplied cluster munitions into southern Lebanon during its fight with Hezbollah last summer, the State Department said Saturday.

The finding, though preliminary, has prompted a contentious debate within the administration over whether the United States should penalize Israel for its use of cluster munitions against towns and villages where Hezbollah had placed its rocket launchers.

US Debt Held By Foreign Countries: $1.785 Trillion

January 25, 2007
US Debt Held By Foreign Countries: $1.785 Trillion

The Fed said its holdings of Treasury and agency debt kept for overseas central banks rose by $11.48 billion in the week ended Jan. 24, to stand at a total of $1.785 trillion.

Overseas central banks, particularly those in Asia, have been huge buyers of U.S. debt in recent years, and own over a quarter of marketable Treasuries.

Democrats to Bush: You're no longer solely in charge

January 23, 2007
Democrats to Bush: You're no longer solely in charge

WASHINGTON -- Democrats blistered President Bush's war policy Tuesday night, challenging him to redeem the nation's credibility -- and his own -- with an immediate shift toward a diplomatic end to the bloody conflict in Iraq.

"The president took us into this war recklessly," the Democrats' chosen messenger, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, said in response to Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday evening. "We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable -- and predicted -- disarray that has followed."