Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OX who wrote (4785)	10/5/2001 5:55:34 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

The rapid increase in fails was different from merely : "a lot of people are short." Jon.

To: OX who wrote (4785)	10/6/2001 12:08:08 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 33421

Yeah... the way I look at it is that the Fed issued 5 and 10 year bonds since there exists a shortage of those instruments... This is where we get back the argument of whether having a certain level of governmental indebtedness is crucial to the stability of the US financial markets.. And back to the argument of whether we should even be attempting to pay off the outstanding US national debt, or merely preventing it from increasing. The US public debt only amounts to 37% of our annual GDP, compared to 140+% for the Japanese, and god only knows what, for all the members of the EU. That's the biggest asset the US currently has, imo... the ability to deficit spend in a manner that other western nations cannot. And the next question is what kinds of fiscal stimulus is the most effective?? Should it be good old Keynesian pump priming and infrastructure projects, or personal and/or corporate tax cuts. Personally, I'm in favor of corporate tax cuts at this time since corporations are just tax collectors for the government. They past on the cost of those taxes to the public anyway through higher prices. I'm a little bit concerned that giving further tax cuts to individuals, we'll merely see that money socked away in savings which is NOT what we currently need at the moment. It's the quintessential "pushing on a string".. Whereas, corporate tax cuts would help profitibility, as well as providing corporations some leeway when it comes to further layoffs. After all, personal tax cuts mean very little to someone who's been laid off. Whaddya all think?? Hawk