Mike, On the debt side, that only applies to long term bonds. That is why TNotes were invented in the first place, to skirt the debt limitations. So, with bills and notes available, there has been no need to panic the public.
I don't see any reason why a more powerful desktop or a car with a cd player should count in the economic numbers any more than the price at which it is sold. If it really has economic advantages, it will show up in dollars somewhere. The fact is, the cd player is total fluff, as is the faster pc for the most part. You certainly do not get higher productivity from either and an argument can be made that employees are now playing longer, more sophisticated internet games when they are supposed to be working.
As Landauer said in his classic "The Trouble With Computers," the influence of new technology has shown up everywhere except in the productivity numbers. True, productivity, even pre-phonying up of the numbers, has increased. But at the slowest rate in the Post-WWII era. In other words, new tech innovations add to productivity, but probably much less than other innovations in industrial history.
Yet, despite the total failure of tech innovations to actually do much of anything materially, we are counting them, with this hedonistic scam, as doing 8-12 times what they actually contribute. Total fantasy. |
