"If you think we can solve all of the problems at once you have more confidence than I do."
But I don't... I just think the time for delay and prevarication is well past, and the crisis is nie upon us, so it's well past time to get serious.
"BTW - IMO the ability to print money is much like the ability to sign up for ever more credit cards, and dig deeper into debt."
You make an interesting point I hadn't considered... I guess if there was *NO CREDIT SCORING* and approval for new credit lines was always automatic....
(Still, even with sovereigns able to print *ALL* the paper fiat currency they want --- such as the Weimar Republic, Argentina, or any other sovereign... say: the US --- even there a day of reckoning where lenders demand better terms to accept their debts is always just over-the-hill, it's not a mere theoretical possibility... it's a real fact of economic life.)
"As you have seen, the debt as a percent of GDP is not soaring."
Depends on what you consider 'soaring' to be. It's rising FAR too fast for my druthers.
"Recent news reports indicate that the trade imbalance is shrinking."
Oh, please! A minor dip in one month's numbers (yet still near all-time historical highs) does not confirm a significant change in trend... (And, this during a time of economic recovery! The business cycle hasn't been repealed: so what effect will the next recession [perhaps '06] have upon the numbers if our 'progress' on the trade numbers is tortuous at best during *good times*?)
"President Bush proposed eliminating many wasteful programs,"
LOL! Presidents' propose a lot of things. How many HAS he eliminated? Clinton & Reagan had some success at restraining the growth of federal bureaucracy... but not this guy: not one veto YET!
"and is demonstrating more fiscal restraint than any previous time as President."
PLEASE!!!!!!!! You are just making this stuff up as you go!
We haven't had as fiscally irresolute an administration since the *LAST 'TEXAS PRESIDENT'*, LBJ, who (coincidence anyone?) was also the LAST guy to believe that a deficit-financed program of GUNS & BUTTER was a really good idea.
"The debt is climbing more rapidly than most people realize because of the unenumerated liabilities caused by the PayGo system."
LOL! No, THIS ONE 'ya gotta explain to me!
The PAYGO rules *expired* years ago --- and had only a very modest beneficial effect at restraing new spending when they were in effect.
(Still, I'll take even a modest benefit.)
So, how in the Hell do you conclude that "PAYGO rules caused unenumerated liabilities"??????????
(If all you were trying to say was that scheming, lying politicians *always* try to evade and work around whatever rules or constraints are placed upon their pork-barrel spending abilities, I'll grant that is a 'given'.... But it DOES NOT THEREFORE MEAN that a condition of *no restraints upon spending* is superior!!!!!!!!!!) |
