Comments on: Recall that frequently I harp on the idea that austerity can kill a recovery?

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:14:41 +0000

It’s really not a difficult concept to figure out. You don’t reign in spending during bad times, you do it in good times. NOW is exactly the time to do the stimulus spending. When the economy is roaring that is the time you pay back the debt. Unfortunately politicians see good times a chance to spend the additional tax revenues. Look how long it took Bush to blow the $300B surplus he inherited.

By: alcaray

alcaray — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:22:32 +0000

Educate me.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:43:04 +0000

I see your point

Cuts in Federal spending amount to a negative stimulus. But people that balance their checkbook and live withing their means see things differently.

If they have to suffer just to keep their net income at zero, they want the Government to do they same.

It’s the same at the state level. States can’t print their own money and are being force to make cuts, some that actually hurt. They are still in debt.

The difference is the consequences of the interest that’s being paid on the federal debt and the financial solvency of the country.

I said I understand your point about spending cuts during a dismal recession. It’s about the same concern that I have about the burden and confusion of Obamacare.

By: TB

TB — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:04:38 +0000

I see you only noticed part of that economic recovery equation.

By: ER

ER — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:23:07 +0000

The CBO will be roundly condemned as irrelevant or biased when it makes a pronouncement that gores someone’s sacred cow; just as it is proudly pointed to as the wisdom of God when it justifies someone’s preconceptions.

I’ve given up trying to make sense of it all. People will support what’s best for them, and not what’s best for everybody. It’s all a matter of naked self-interest. I can understand that. It’s when someone tells me that what’s best for them must be best for me that I move my wallet to the front pocket of my jeans.

So why do I pick sides (other than naked self-interest, of course)? Because there are more of US than there are of THEM;
and because THEY have more resources available to them than WE do.

They call this “class warfare”. I call it “taking responsibility for my own welfare”; because they sure as hell don’t care about mine, so why should I give a fig about theirs?

By: ER

ER — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:06:55 +0000

The Republicans are always complaining that our problems are due to our having “the highest corporate taxes in the world”.

Does this mean they would prefer a corporate taxation system like the one they have in “Socialist Europe”?

By: bowser

bowser — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:17:16 +0000

Sorta like stopping chicken soup after two days. However, higher taxes could help. Low taxes on the wealthy simply free up money for derivatives, hedge funds, currency speculation and other counter-productive investments. Tax the wealthy at 75%, tax the flow of money outside the country at 80%, and cut taxes on those people who will actually spend the money.

And don’t call it class warfare until the CEO makes less than the janitor.

Invest in crying towels. They will be a big seller.

There will be a new breed of wetback, as the patriots busily try to move their money off-shore.