3 ms·

Not a problem. Lets just pass 1 more stimulus plan (to make it a trifecta) and then implement national health care. Because we all know the best way to lower pr

by jpcx01 17y ago

Not a problem. Lets just pass 1 more stimulus plan (to make it a trifecta) and then implement national health care. Because we all know the best way to lower prices is increase demand. No doubt this problem is going to catch the country completely by surprise in the next 3-5 years. Paul Krugman will be shocked, just shocked, that the government is out of money.

DanielBMarkham 17y ago
In the immortal words of Monty Python during the killer rabbit incident: "run away!" I blame myself as a partial culprit. Boy was I a sucker. Even though I am an independent, I have picked a party to vote for based on which one I thought would keep spending under control. I used logic, reason, historical trends, etc. Boy was I a sucker. Seems like each side is playing "who can run the biggest debt up" game. One bunch takes it to new levels, and the next bunch tries to outdo the first. Not only is the slope of the equation bad, the first derivative is bad too. I honestly don't see a political way out of this. For the first time, I wrote a letter to my senator and asked him to do what he could about spending. Don't make a scene, I said, and don't play politics with this. Just try to do the right thing. In reply I got a form letter with a political speech in there about how he's such a great guy for voting for such great bills. sigh
- TomOfTTB 17y ago
  As a Californian I think there is a political way out. Calfiornia has gone down the road that the U.S. is headed down so you can sort of see the results. Basically what has happened here is that conservatives who believed in small government lost out to liberals who promised the government would solve everything. Those conservatives then becamse "social conservatives" and started focusing on a bunch of hedge issues while promising to spend as much as the liberals (which is basically where the U.S. is now). Now we're out of money and those "social conservatives" are now turning back into "fiscal conservatives" because the public has finally started to realize spending like there's no tomorrow doesn't work. For the record I think there's one more step here where liberals start to become more fiscally conservative and focus on ideals that don't cost anything to change like gun control. Think Clinton era liberalism. But that's just my opinion. So really the political answer to the problems the U.S. now has is to get into enough financial trouble to give political cover to those politicians who would propose spending cuts.
- fauigerzigerk 17y ago
  I think the last president who kept spending under control was Clinton. Did you vote for him Daniel? ;-) But seriously, I wonder if this is really the right time to keep spending under control. And that's not a rhetorical question. I'm really not sure. At the start of the great depression they did keep spending under control, but that turned out to be an expensive disaster. On the other hand we seem to be sliding straight into 1970s 2.0 with stagflation, big fat government and oil shock 3.0. One helpful aspect of the current situation may be that US government debt is denominated in USD. So inflation will help to lower the debt burden without leading to default. And it's not just about government debt, which is pretty average in the US, but also about household debt, which is at catastrophic levels.

by jpcx01 17y ago

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

In the immortal words of Monty Python during the killer rabbit incident: "run away!" I blame myself as a partial culprit. Boy was I a sucker. Even though I am an independent, I have picked a party to vote for based on which one I thought would keep spending under control. I used logic, reason, historical trends, etc. Boy was I a sucker. Seems like each side is playing "who can run the biggest debt up" game. One bunch takes it to new levels, and the next bunch tries to outdo the first. Not only is the slope of the equation bad, the first derivative is bad too. I honestly don't see a political way out of this. For the first time, I wrote a letter to my senator and asked him to do what he could about spending. Don't make a scene, I said, and don't play politics with this. Just try to do the right thing. In reply I got a form letter with a political speech in there about how he's such a great guy for voting for such great bills. sigh

TomOfTTB 17y ago
As a Californian I think there is a political way out. Calfiornia has gone down the road that the U.S. is headed down so you can sort of see the results. Basically what has happened here is that conservatives who believed in small government lost out to liberals who promised the government would solve everything. Those conservatives then becamse "social conservatives" and started focusing on a bunch of hedge issues while promising to spend as much as the liberals (which is basically where the U.S. is now). Now we're out of money and those "social conservatives" are now turning back into "fiscal conservatives" because the public has finally started to realize spending like there's no tomorrow doesn't work. For the record I think there's one more step here where liberals start to become more fiscally conservative and focus on ideals that don't cost anything to change like gun control. Think Clinton era liberalism. But that's just my opinion. So really the political answer to the problems the U.S. now has is to get into enough financial trouble to give political cover to those politicians who would propose spending cuts.
fauigerzigerk 17y ago
I think the last president who kept spending under control was Clinton. Did you vote for him Daniel? ;-) But seriously, I wonder if this is really the right time to keep spending under control. And that's not a rhetorical question. I'm really not sure. At the start of the great depression they did keep spending under control, but that turned out to be an expensive disaster. On the other hand we seem to be sliding straight into 1970s 2.0 with stagflation, big fat government and oil shock 3.0. One helpful aspect of the current situation may be that US government debt is denominated in USD. So inflation will help to lower the debt burden without leading to default. And it's not just about government debt, which is pretty average in the US, but also about household debt, which is at catastrophic levels.