Posted on 11/20/2012 1:53:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The next four years are likely to be unpleasant. There are already several crises heading towards us, and in the fiscal, monetary, regulatory and general economic areas the Barack Obama administration's policy is likely to be counterproductive.
In these circumstances, there's only one sound course of action for the Republican congressional majority: they must abandon all their natural politicians' preference for avoiding short-term pain and adopt a root-canal approach, welcoming short-term economic pain for the sake of preserving the US economy intact for better times ahead.
For the past four years, Obama's trillion-dollar deficits and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's negative real interest rates
have reinforced each other. The deficits have removed capital from the US economy, as banks and international investors pile into Treasury bonds, starving small business of financing.
Bernanke's policies have not only made it easier for the US Treasury to finance its trillion-dollar deficits, by buying much of the long-term paper issued, but have also suppressed saving in the domestic economy. To balance the minimal domestic saving and massive government borrowing, the corporate sector has run a surplus while the United States as a whole has run a gigantic balance of payments deficit.
Should these short-term-oriented policies continue until January 2017, it's possible the initial effect on the US people as a whole will be limited, provided inflation remains within bounds (by no means a certainty). Ultra-low interest rates will push consumers into further spending, which will be financed by a massive expansion of credit card and second mortgage borrowing, as in 2002-06. Until credit lines start to be called in, consumers will happily outspend their incomes.
My money would be on one or more gigantic recessions during that period, combined with a substantial decline in real median incomes (but not necessarily in real median spending).
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
The debt ceiling will be raised and the printing presses will continue to churn. Root canal? The GOP doesn’t know how to pop a zit.
But actually, root canals are painless.
If you want pain, I recommend root extraction.
The government does not know how to fix problems...it only subsidizes them.
The R’s should compromise with the Kenyan and give him everything he wants, except for the supreme court. That’s the only thing that cannot be reversed. Otherwise, let ‘em go nuts. The public wants it, the R’s are intrisically inclined to roll over anyway, it all fits. Spend, spend spend! Tax, tax, tax! Hey, the public has spoken.
Let’s see how they like living in that world.
At some point, we need to realize that we can’t pour out the treasury to pay people to simply to exist.
I’d fix that real quick...just give me the authority. Half the people in Washington would be gone and a lot of parasites waiting for a check from Uncle Sam that would never get there.
I just got back from the grocery store and 2 men were in front of me buying everything from Coke and Poptarts to expensive cereal and after they rang up a $178 tab out came the EBT card. These were not folks that looked like Obama voters and they certainly looked healthy and capable of work. When I went to my car they were loading the back of a nice Ford SUV and of course standing there smoke a cig. Once these people get used to having an EBT card loaded every month how in the world to you persuade them to get off the dole?
Sorry .. we (pubbies) have to play golf ..
And show up at the same course as zero
Claim diplomatic immunity when the SS tries to shoo us away.
This article is actually rather optimistic - it assumes that sequestration from the ‘fiscal cliff’, will eliminate most of the deficit.
What Obama is trying to do is, raise taxes and ensure that spending does not get cut. I believe this is the most likely option - taxes will go up and spending will go up to about 2 trillion dollar deficit/ year. That changes most of his prognostications.
[ The next four years are likely to be unpleasant. ]
Yah think?... Well Duuugh...
UNLESS you tax the federal givernment to the MAX... tax them by being dependant.. in an independant way..
ONLY way for any sanity is for the federal givernment to go totally bankrupt..
Become Greece on Steroids.. don’t be democrat or republican..
Then who they blame it on ... WHO CARES..
I wish they’d stop using the “root canal” analogy. I’ve had a half dozen of them, not one of which was painful in the least.
They were so boring, no pun intended, that I fell asleep during some of them
I agree. There’s a furniture company here in Houston that has a commercial where a salesman goes up to the owner and tells him someone wants to finance some furniture but has bad credit. The owner yells “Let him have it!”
I say to the republicans “Let ‘em have it!”
That happens a lot in our office. I work for an endodontist. Most come out so excited because they heard such terrible things about rct’s. They come in all scared and leave very happy.
“What Obama is trying to do is, raise taxes and ensure that spending does not get cut. “
The Republicans control the House so they control both spending and taxes. If the government is spending more than it is taking in, you have only Mr. Boehner and his fellow Republicans to blame. If they don’t appropriate the money, it can’t be spent.
Too bad they don’t have the guts to stand up and cut appropriations so they are in line with revenue.
RE: I wish they’d stop using the “root canal” analogy. I’ve had a half dozen of them, not one of which was painful in the least.
OK how about this -— Root canal with no anesthesia?
“they must abandon all their natural politicians’ preference for avoiding short-term pain and adopt a root-canal approach, welcoming short-term economic pain “
Is this the GOP we all know and loathe? I think not. Bernanke is already calling for the debt ceiling to be raised. Tammy Faye Boehner and his merry band of go along get alongs will be caving in to every Obama demand for higher taxes and more spending.
If you are not buying food and ammo you will live to regret it for a very short time.
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