Word: debt
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...which has kept heavy pressure on member banks, eased the pressure. It did not counteract an increase in the "float," i.e., uncollected checks in transit between commercial banks, for which bankers get an automatic Fed credit. This was used by mem ber banks to cut their debt to the Fed by $158 million and made possible further borrowings from the Fed, thus could give banks more cash to lend...
Those who have struck it rich have sold everything from radioactive snails to massage chairs. Mario Maccaferri, for instance, sells ukuleles. From the nadir of his career when he had to pawn his wife's jewels and was $500,000 in debt, he has developed an enterprise which manufactures 3500 ukes daily along with 500,000 clothespins, 129,000 tiles, 5000 reeds and 200 plastic guitars. The editors' character revelations, which are bound up with statistics, are usually more fascinating than the inventories. Though the Maccaferris like strumming a ukulele "the music that gives him and his wife most pleasure...
Whether the Treasury makes it or not, many economists agree that it is high time for the U.S. to realign its thinking about the $275 billion ceiling since fiscal 1959 may bring even more serious debt management problems with heavier defense outlays in prospect (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). The main value of the $275 billion figure has been to act as a psychological drag on Government spending. Originally set in 1946, when the debt was $269 billion, the ceiling was low enough to remind the U.S. of the need for economy, but high enough to give the Treasury leeway...
...Treasury is often unable to take advantage of fluctuating short-term interest rates to refund big amounts of the debt lest it go through the ceiling, must often borrow at times during the year when seasonal demands of business make money tightest and most expensive. Another problem is that such independent borrowers as Fannie May usually cost the U.S. more in the long run. With a lower credit rating, Fannie May pays an average 3.96% interest for the money it borrows v. an average 2.78% for the Treasury itself. The ceiling also costs the U.S. money in departments that have...
...these reasons, many a financial expert thinks that the U.S. must not only lift the debt limit; it must also change the way it thinks of the debt. When the ceiling was put on, the debt was 130% of the gross national product. But as the economy grew, the comparative size of the debt shrank until now it is only 62% of the gross national product. Thus, the federal debt could be doubled-and the burden would still be less than it was ten years...