CYNICONOMICS |

This is the final article and summary of the “Deadly Sins” series. For those who missed the first six articles, we’ve combined a cold, hard look at the way the government presents its finances with a gaming challenge you might find in a third grade vocabulary book. We’ve been matching topics to “sins” in the diagram below.

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This is the sixth article in a series that considers the true state of our government’s finances.  I’ve been listing the many ways that policymakers mask the severity of our debt problem, while adding the competitive element of a word match challenge. Okay, I know, there’s not much competition involved, but have a look at the diagram below and see if you can match the seven “sins” on the right to the topics on the left.

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This is the fifth of a series of articles featuring the “Government Finances Word Match” in the diagram below. You don’t need to read the other four to follow this one, but if you were to go here, here, here or here, you’d find that we’re using word games to demonstrate the many problems with the way the government presents its finances.  The earlier articles matched the first four topics to the “sin” that fit best. The discussion here covers topic #5: net government debt.

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This article takes us halfway into a series that exposes many misconceptions about our government’s financial position.  In case you missed the first three articles in the series, the diagram below shows how they tie together:  We’re playing word match with the seven “sins” on the right and the seven topics on the left.

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In this article, I’ll reveal the third of the seven “sins” introduced in “Word Matching the ‘Deadly Sins’ – #1”. In case you missed the first two articles, we’re matching items from the columns in the diagram below. Each match adds more clarity to a message that our government’s finances are in far worse shape than people think they are.

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This is my second pass at the “Government Finances Word Match” in the diagram below.  If you missed the first article in the series, we’re matching seven “sins” in the right-hand column to the seven topics on the left. Individually, the topics may seem to be only modestly important.  But when they’re added together, I’ll show that they describe a dangerous gap between our true financial position and the false picture that policymakers seem to want you to believe.

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I offer a challenge that requires vocabulary and reasoning skills and may bring back memories of elementary school. And it’s not talking your way out of detention.

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You may have noticed we took a big step forward this weekend. We finally learned what Feedburner is and does, which means we now have RSS and e-mail distribution options. They’re on the right under the search box, and you’re welcome to use them if you’d like an occasional helping of cynicism sent your way.

But that’s all that’s new this week, since we won’t publish a new article (put this down to spring break and tax deadlines). Instead, we’ll repost the first six “Deadly Sins” articles with updates, edits and new titles. The idea is to bring them into the same time frame as the final article in the series. We’ll post an article a day starting later today and will finally publish the last “sin” next week.

So check back next week for the final word match answers, or sooner if you want an update on denial, neglect, chicanery, pretense, subterfuge, treachery and hypocrisy.

Thank you for reading CYNICONOMICS.

In one of a few early hints that Europe might surprise the world with its Cyprus bailout, on February 10^th the Financial Times leaked the content of a secret EU memo. It reported that bank depositor haircuts were among three options being considered to reduce bailout costs. And the memo also warned ominously that “such drastic action could restart contagion in eurozone financial markets.”

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We’ve known for awhile that the Cyprus bailout would be different to those that came before, but did anyone expect it to be this different? Let’s set aside the past week’s events for a moment and consider the bumbling March 16^th decision to attempt a haircut on insured depositors. Although it was soon rejected by the Cypriot parliament, the inclusion of insured depositors in the initial agreement punctured the relative calm in Europe and seemed to catch everyone by surprise. I’ve yet to find an earlier analysis that flagged it as a realistic possibility. Which begs the question: Could it have been predicted? I’ll argue here that the answer is “yes.”

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