And the feeling is mutual, so everybody wins.

If you can't cash something in without crashing it's value it's not a good asset. Regardless of left pocket/right pocket issues. It's about maintaining diversified holdings for risk management.

If an insurance company tried to fund one of their annuity's reserves with company bonds they would slap the cuffs on them. Same should happen to everybody involved with SS.

Anybody with money in US bonds should be aware there is no functioning market for those bonds. The fed buys all excess at low interest rates. There is no market clearing price or interest for US debt. The market is rigged at best, a completely broken charade at worst. No prudent fund manager keeps more in US bonds then the US government requires.

Ponzi scheme is an accurate assessment.

Leaving one ball inflated for kicks is the dead giveaway that they did it on purpose.

That's why my bank only carries short term debt at floating interest rates. They sell off the fixed rate stuff on the secondary market.

Most chronic debtors carry rotating, often refinanced, debt if not outright variable rates.

Pretending that a huge block of bonds are an asset is standard answer from the 'SS is healthy liars brigade.'

IIRC Productive midwest farmland bounced between 1k$/acre and 2K$ for decades. Last I looked it was $4K. Farmland isn't the same as residential land. Farmland is valued at present value of future earnings, just like any other productive asset. Future earnings is always a guess. Current investors have inflation expectations.

No sympathy for the Greeks, none for the bankers, some for the taxpayers who's money is being stolen to prop up the failed Greek state. But it a larger sense it's there own fault for voting for politicians who supported the EU.

On what planet do lenders issue loans at below inflation? (Except to central bankers of course.)

Your basic mistake is assuming it's the government's job to house and feed the people. That kind of thinking is what got Greece into this mess in the first place.

A mouse would twist that Brit thing in half.

What? It might not go so well for Spain and Italy but most of the Euro zone has similar enough economic conditions that they can survive under similar fiscal policies.

Greece should have never been allowed in.

I'm still drinking Brazilian rum I got for $.99/750ml when they crashed their currency.

They aren't considering leaving, the rest of the Euro is seriously considering kicking them out.

Bullshit. Speed limits are set for revenue generation.

Let me guess, your a great driver, but have had 3 wrecks in the last 5 years? Only two were your fault, no matter what the judge said?

Solyndra built cylindrical solar panels. Because somebody thought they would collect more power in a day then flat panels. That person _failed high school calculus!_

It was a horrible idea that barely sounded plausible to lawyers. It was a payoff to political supporters.