India: Fiscal Deficit And Government Debt

The situation in India is a situation where the fiscal deficit is essentially very high and obviously the government debt is increasing. The rating agencies do their ratings. I don’t pay much attention to that. But obviously although they have a time lag, they probably are in the right direction in terms of downgrading India. - in Economic Times

Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.

Marc Faber : The fiscal deficit of the U.S. will stay around 1½ trillion dollars for as far as the eye can see,

Marc Faber : I think they (The FED) do not necessarily want to support the bond market, because the debt issuance is so huge, they almost have to monetize part of the debt. I have read Treasury reports in 2010 by Tim Geithner saying the U.S. government debt increased by more than2 trillion dollars during that period of time. The deficit, in my opinion, mathematically,cannot come down, because 80% of the budget is mandatory expenditures, in other words, you cannot cut them. Legally, they have to be met.Of the remaining 20%, you can cut a little bit, but not that much, because then services collapse. In my view, the fiscal deficit of the U.S. will stay around 1½ trillion dollars for as far as the eye can see, and maybe even go to 2, or 2½ trillion dollars, and then the interest expenditures on the debt go up. So actually, over time, in my view, unless taxes are increased significantly, and spending is cut significantly, not by a little bit here, a little bit there, the budget will never again be balanced, and that will then necessitate, in time, QE-III, QE-IV, and QE-V. Taxes cannot be increased dramatically, because if you increase them very substantially, we will go straight back into a recession..."
in a recent interview with radio host MacAlavany