The excellent transportation in Europe is due to the massive investments they have made.
And no debt was issued by the national/local governments to build that transportation system? I would wager that they did.
Debt, if within manageable restraints and terms, is a good thing, so don't try and blame it all on debt.
EXCESSIVE DEBT is the issue.
What essentially happened in the US was a plethora of Asian savings (profits?) wanted to park itself here in the US. And we fully complied with their desires by giving them long term and supposedly low risk investments to keep that money here. To provide those assets, the mortgage industry provided them with the paper in the form of sub-prime mortgage loans.
And when that bubble popped, everyone went into Treasury debt, of which there is apparently not nearly enough to accomodate demand. In actuality, there has been tremendous naked short selling in Treasuries to meet the demand for that debt.
But to get back to the "massive investments" issue, I would agree that in these kinds of financial times when demand is minimal, the government can prime the pump by engaging in infrastructure and technology projects THAT WILL ENHANNCE PRODUCTIVITY.
I'm not seeing that yet. Thus, national debt is being increased on frivolous concepts, and not targeted to those things that will make emerge stronger as a global competitor.
Hawk |
