They are solvent as long as the U.S. government remains so.
If you really want some fun - establish a hypothetical comparison of the U.S. government vs an individual citizen, based upon debt load and derive a credit score. Use the same criteria that the 3 credit bureaus use.
The government cannot get a mortgage.

lindblad: The big difference is that the government can take money from you at gunpoint legally. This means that the credit bureaus would have to take the average American's credit score as their score.

Question: If you don't understand how the Fed operates, should you be blogging or even owning stocks? I suppose one can drive a car without understanding the engine...

The blind leading the rich is more like whats going on. Blind to the fact it takes more to run a country than merely saying we need regulations. We have a national debt and the best way to insure our success is to run it as high as we can then dont pay it back.

The US has a lot of things it can do to prevent problems. Taxes are relatively low so in a worst case scenario it is likely there will be some tax increases even though it is politically difficult. Energy taxes are far lower than in other countries so there is room for a tax raise there if we are serious about solving the long term energy problems we face. Likely there will be some problem in getting the Bush tax cuts extended no matter who gets elected-- Obama or McCain-- the issue is what can be salvaged. The Democrats control Congress thanks to some Congressional indiscretions and the best we can hope for is that the dividend cuts and some of the long term cap gains cuts will be kept for a good part of the investing public. In any case, taxes will go higher and some of the tax money might actually be put to good. That's not great for the economy which will remain in a slow growth mode but it doesn't spell disaster either.

in 1909 heads of 12 banks met on Jeckel island and started the federal reserve it was to provide specie (dollars) for banks that at that time were printing their own bills when Nixon floated us off the gold standard the treasury no longer could issue "silver certificates" instead we went to federal reserve "notes" basically fancy checks the fed prints em up and gives them to naughty banks who do not have the !) % of cash in "reserve" to handle the day to day business of the bank (which is mostly done on checks which could considered "personal dollar bills" when the fed gets paid back the money simply "disappears" it no longer exists along with a certain amount of "interest" charged by the fed its only asset is government IOU's or "bonds" the currency is basically backed by the national debt (now do you feel better?) the sick thing is when the fed gives a bank 1 million dollars at the discount window the bank "deposits " that money as a "reserve" and by law can loan out 10 times that or 10 million in loans (don't forget most mortgages are backed by the 10% deposit you hand the bank they as well as the fed "create" the money out of thin air to do the job at hand most of the money the fed gave the banks was used to narrow the "spread" for the bank (to reduce losses of reserve) and was not funneled out to joe sixpac for new loans (big surprise)the federal Reserve is not a government entity (find which branch of government it is under i dare you)

Great nations can become insolvent. Just go ask Pharoah or Caesar, and they'll tell you all about it.

Makes the Fed out to be the US financial trash can. Little wonder if its balance sheet smells, but, after all, and according to long-standing Republican principles, the government can always print more money to square up the Fed's balance sheet.

We created this mess by fiscal policy (tax cuts plus spending and borrowing) and are trying to solve it with monetary policy. Fiscal policy affects the location of money in the economy, monetary policy affects the volume of money in the economy. If the economy were a balloon, fiscal policy squeezed the balloon in the middle, pushing money to the top (supply side), and to the bottom (the national debt). We are trying to solve the problem by adding more air (money) to the balloon, which will eventually pop the balloon (a national default/worthless money) without solving the problem. Raise taxes where they were cut and cut spending (e.g, the war). For those who think raising taxes is the worst thing in a recession, recall that cutting taxes and federal spending in the Depression worked not because federal spending is magic, but because it moved the money from where it was to where it wasn't. The govt wasn't in hock to the point of insolvency then. To solve this mess, we need to move the money from where it is (increase taxes on the supply side and cut spending) to where it isn't (the federal govt and everywhere else).
Raise taxes. Otherwise we default and you can use your dollars to cover the holes in your shoes.

FIRST WE NEED TO ASK THOSE THE FED AND IT'S CHAIRMAN HAVE ANY CREDIABLITY.

ANSWER NO

LR CHAS. SC

Ben made it quite clear where the capital comes from before he was appointed. "we have a printing press and a helicopter." That's why he's called Helicopter Ben.

The real question is, "What has the Fed ever done since it's creation in 1913 to earn any money"?
It runs a printing press, buys bonds, lends pieces of paper to banks for interest, and then buys more bonds to start the cycle over again. They have never produced anything, so why should they have any assets?