Sums it up for 2009:
>
> Well, at least Obama is mobilizing support for something! As The Specials
> once sang, “Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.”
>
And notice how they are going to cut it:
Support grows for tackling nation’s debt
By Elaine S. Povich and Eric Pianin
Dec. 31 (Fiscal Times)
The most vocal advocates of the idea are Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who this month jointly unveiled legislation to create an 18-member task force consisting of 16 members of Congress and two administration officials. Under the proposal, if at least 14 of the panel members reached agreement on how to rein in skyrocketing spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and reform the tax code, Congress would have to consider it immediately and give it an up or down vote, without amendment.
Obama and Democratic and Republican leaders agree that unsustainable entitlement spending and a massive accumulated public debt are threatening to undermine the nation’s economy and the U.S. credit rating abroad. Over the past year alone, public debt rose sharply from 41 percent to 53 percent of the economy, according to a study by the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. But there is widespread disagreement on how best to respond.
Happy New Year to you all!
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Anybody who believes that politicians will “reign in” anything, is dreaming.
Spending on Medicare, Medicaid, etc. is as safe as ever. If anything,this task force (whatever that means) will find out that more spending is needed.
“On Jan. 20, for instance, the Senate is expected to vote on raising the debt ceiling. Generally, this is a bipartisan vote, as the debt is a bipartisan creation. This year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told Majority Leader Harry Reid that if he wants an increase in the ceiling, he owns it and needs to find the votes for it. That’s the sort of budgetary brinkmanship that brings us back to California. ”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123103487.html
10 yr tsy seems to be attempting to trade in a horizontal band rather than past historical downward slope. Without a real jobs program implemented by March, the current high rate is unstable. Loan growth is falling again.
Perhaps now that bonuses have been paid and after the spending winds down, as planned by Mr. Summers, we will find our ‘crisis’.
Let’s see. Let’s see.
WAIT ! I know.
If all money is created as a debt, and all money IS created as a debt, then we MUST reduce the debt by reducing the amount of money in existence. It’s a quid for a quo kind of thing.
So, deflation it is.
But WAIT !
Either that, or read The Chicago Plan for Monetary Reform, or Milton Friedman’s “Fiscal and Monetary Framework for Economic Stability”.
Instead of reducing the debt through deflation – reducing the money, we create the money debt-free. The separation of the money-creation function from the banking function.
Simple as hell.
Let’s get on with it Warren.
Warren can you reach out to Kucinich-Sanders,Boxer or Feingold possibly Al Franken we badly need a “Loyal opposition”. Somebody needs to speak for the poor who just go on suffering in ignorance.