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Posts Tagged ‘Debt’

Erza Klein: A bigger Deficit is needed

by Phantom Ace Comments Off on Erza Klein: A bigger Deficit is needed
Filed under Economy, Headlines, Progressives at March 12th, 2013 - 10:50 am

Economic ignorance is very prevalent among Progressive pundits. erza Klein whom some consider a genius, is illiterate when it comes to economic matters. He advocates more deficit spending.

Today’s deficits are, if anything, too small. Yes, I said it. Too. Small. We’ve seen real, clear damage from spending cutbacks — if public employment had remained steady since 2008, unemployment would be down to about 7.1 percent — and the world is begging us to borrow more money. In fact, they’re paying us to borrow more money; real interest rates on Treasury debt have, amazingly, turned negative. We should accept the world’s generous, limited-time offer.

This is the moment to pass a big tax cut for employers who hire new workers, to rebuild our infrastructure at bargain- basement rates, and to help state and local governments reverse the deep cuts they’ve made in recent years. It’s not the moment to begin sequestration.

Future deficits are a legitimate concern. But as either Yogi Berra or Niels Bohr said, predictions are very difficult, especially about the future. And future deficits are, annoyingly, situated entirely in the future. So most everyone in Washington has outsourced the difficult task of estimating future deficits to the genial and diligent wonks at the Congressional Budget Office.

I thought stimulus was supposed to be about infrastructure? Erza Klein never took an economics lesson in his life.

Fitch may downgrade U.S. credit rating

by Phantom Ace ( 144 Comments › )
Filed under Business, Debt, Economy, unemployment at January 16th, 2013 - 7:00 am

These are the glory days of the Progressive movement. They have control of every facet of American life. Obama gets whatever he wants and does as he pleases. He has become a god-king to many Americans and acts like a 3rd World dictator. The media publishes daily stories about how strong the US economy is and that these are the greatest economic times in this nation’s history. Statistics of long term unemployment being at it’s highest levels since WWII get no play in the media. Reality is not playing along with the Progressive fairy tale.

The credit rating agency Fitch is now warning that it may downgrade the America’s credit rating. They cite our dysfunctional political system, deficit and debt as the reasons.

LONDON (AP) — The United States could lose its top credit rating for the second time from a leading credit agency if there’s a delay in raising the country’s debt ceiling, Fitch Ratings warned Tuesday.

[….]

Fitch already has a negative outlook on the U.S. as the country’s debt burden has risen to around 100% of its gross domestic product and has said it will make a decision on the rating this year, regardless of how the debt ceiling discussions pan out.

The U.S. government reached its statutory debt limit of nearly $16.4 trillion at the end of 2012 but has engineered extraordinary measures that should see it through February.

[….]

Despite his cautious tone on the rating, Riley said the U.S. has a number of huge advantages and that getting the country’s public finances into shape will not require the same level of austerity that many countries in Europe have had to enact over the past few years, partly because the U.S. economy is growing at a steady rate.

Other factors Fitch says support the U.S.’s AAA rating are the country’s economic dynamism, lower financial sector risks, the rule of law as well as the global benchmark status of the country’s bonds and the dollar.

However it says these “fundamental credit strengths are being eroded by the large, albeit steadily declining, structural budget deficit and high and rising public debt.

We are just like a 3rd world nation. We do not have a free press, one political party controls business, academia and politics. We are printing money to monetize the debt and we have huge deficits yearly. We deserve a credit downgrade for our fiscal irresponsibility.

Budget Deficit for October was $120 Billion

by Phantom Ace ( 4 Comments › )
Filed under Business, Economy, Headlines at November 13th, 2012 - 11:16 pm

The Budget deficit for this October was 120 Billion. That’s an increase from last year’s 98 Billion.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The budget deficit rose in October, the first month of fiscal year 2013, as looming negotiations over expiring tax cuts and imminent spending reductions dominated the post-election political landscape.

The Treasury said on Tuesday the October deficit was $120 billion, larger than economist forecasts for a $114 billion gap and up from $98 billion in October of 2011.

Growth in expenditures outpaced rising receipts, deepening the deficit. Outlays grew to $304 billion from around $262 billion in the same month last year while receipts rose to $184 billion from $163 billion.

None of this matters anyway, since the American people love their man-god Obama.

Saturday Lecture Series: Why debt endangers economic growth

by coldwarrior ( 59 Comments › )
Filed under Academia, Economy, Open thread, saturday lecture series at July 16th, 2011 - 8:30 am

This is a lecture on debt and its relation to economic growth. Please follow the following link out to the lecture. Yes, this is a reading a assignment.

Yes there is a fresh carafe of Ethopian Yrgacheffe with fresh croissants and preserves right over there to munch on while you read.  —->

Reinhart and Rogoff Explain:

 

An Excerpt:

At what point does indebtedness become a problem? In our study “Growth in a Time of Debt,” we found relatively little association between public liabilities and growth for debt levels of less than 90 percent of GDP. But burdens above 90 percent are associated with 1 percent lower median growth. Our results are based on a data set of public debt covering 44 countries for up to 200 years. The annual data set incorporates more than 3,700 observations spanning a wide range of political and historical circumstances, legal structures and monetary regimes.

We aren’t suggesting there is a bright red line at 90 percent; our results don’t imply that 89 percent is a safe debt level, or that 91 percent is necessarily catastrophic. Anyone familiar with doing empirical research understands that vulnerability to crises and anemic growth seldom depends on a single factor such as public debt. However, our study of crises shows that public obligations are often hidden and significantly larger than official figures suggest.

 

(Carmen M. Reinhart is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Kenneth S. Rogoff is a professor of economics at Harvard University. They are co-authors of “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.” The opinions expressed are their own.)