The Magnitude Of The Mess We're In

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 16 September 2012 | Schultz, Boskin, et alia

[zeestephen]

The next Treasury secretary will confront problems so daunting that even Alexander Hamilton would have trouble preserving the full faith and credit of the United States.

[DannyTN]

It's FIXABLE....Here's how.

We currently generate $5 trillion in government revenues despite having a seriously impaired economy with 25% unemployed.

Raise import tariffs and get our people back to work. If we generate $5 Trillion with 25% unemployed, we'd probably generate $6 to $7 Trillion a year with only 5% unemployed.

And if you have people employed then safety net outlays are going to fall. So now you've got any extra $1 to $3 Trillion dollars before you've even made a single budget cut.

Now with low unemployment, you can safely cut government without having a political backlash.

[MtBaldy]

Buy food. Buy water. Buy Guns. Buy ammo. Buy rural and defensible land. It’s coming. That light at the end of the tunnel REALLY is a train.

[manc]

that is lies, we are getting better, we are digging ourselves out of the hole Bush did, we are now ont he right track

well the media told me this

ARF, ARF, ARF

I’m sick of seeing polls saying obama is in the lead but then the next poll is is the country on the right track and most say no.
I’m sick of hearing the left and the media which are one of the same tell us how things are better

[Carry_Okie]

If Romney is elected, the Fed will “discover” higher interest rates the moment he takes office. In my lifetime, I’ve seen this cycle at least three or four times, the RINOs take the heat for the pain of “the fix,” and as soon as it starts to work the Slave Party moves in to loot again.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— as soon as it starts to work the Slave Party moves in to loot again -—

And the gimmee crowd votes in the Dems..

[zeestephen]

Re: “The Fed will “discover” higher interest rates the moment he takes office.”

And the MSM will “discover” the economy is a disaster and getting worse every day.

[WileyC]

Raise import tariffs and get our people back to work.

This is basically a tax on everyone in the country, but primarily the poor. We aren't buying locally because we can't produce the goods at a competitive price. Plus, then you get backlash from all our trading partners and we all spiral down together.

The real answer is simply less government spending, taxing and regulation. A free(freER) market will figure out what needs to be done and will hire people. MORE big government 'fixes' are not the answer!

[cherry]

havn’t you noticed?....we have no homeless, no hungry, no dissallusioned, no poor.....its the obamanation where if its not reported by the SCM, it doesn’t exist...

[djf]

It’s different this time because of interest rate swaps.

If interest rates go up, it would evaporate something like 100 trillion of hedge funds, and crush almost all of the TBTF’s.

The Fed is painted into a corner. And the guy with the brush just keeps on painting!

[DannyTN]

"This is basically a tax on everyone in the country, but primarily the poor. We aren't buying locally because we can't produce the goods at a competitive price. Plus, then you get backlash from all our trading partners and we all spiral down together. '

It can be viewed as a tax on anyone not buying Made in America. It can more correctly be viewed as a tax on the foreign firm for selling their product in America. After all, who eats the tax? China still has to sell their product at a competitive price. So they may not raise prices at all, but fore go profit. Or the tariff may make the Chinese product uncompetitive and Americans go back to work. Either way we win.

I'm not worried about our trading partners. Our first obligation is to keep the American market strong for Americans.

[DannyTN]

And the founding fathers thought it was wise. In fact we had significant import tariffs up until the 1980’s.

[familyop]

"We aren't buying locally because we can't produce the goods at a competitive price."

In my area, there's another reason. It's illegal to do any manufacturing, no matter how small. It's illegal to do any auto repairs. It's illegal to use one's own private property in many good ways. There have been official confiscations of livestock. There's an "impact fee" along with other fees for owner-building. "Main street" flooring is owned by one person. And this is the middle of nowhere. There's hardly any population.

Who wants to buy from people who regulate against any new, small competition and their neighbors' do-it-yourself projects? Regulations like that and the tension they cause are the reason you're going to see a bond collapse before long--a bond collapse followed by skyrocketing interest rates, "haircuts" against pensions as well as bond investors, and the remainder of the default process in every level of government. And most properties abandoned because of property taxes.

Some people are being harassed and threatened for refusing to buy local, at times, and they'll still refuse to buy. Do you see what's really happening?

The answer is to shut down the planning and building offices. They're not doing anything but occasional pork projects from Uncle Sam's pile of debt anyway. Shut down the rackets of the so-called "industrial park" and main street flooring thievery. Shut down public education, or at least give it a good trimming. There aren't many kids. Repeal/abolish the environmentalist/animal-worship regulations. Refuse local gossips and HOA queens. They can bake cookies. Shut down the HOA de facto, despotic, little governments.

Otherwise, on to economic collapse.

[familyop]

On tariffs, an example followed by the law of our land (USA).

WTO helping China Loot Caterpillar
americanthinker.com ^ | 10/04/2010 | Howard Richman & Raymond Richman

"Why can’t Caterpillar make a profit exporting mini-excavators to China? The answer is simple: China has a 30% tariff on all excavators. In fact it has a similar high tariff on just about every vehicle, be it a Ford car, a GMC truck, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, or a giant mining machine made by Bucyrus International."

The United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;...To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,...”

The Tariff Act of 1789 was the first national source of revenue for the newly formed United States.

[DannyTN]

see post 11.

More jobs you don’t want?

What backlash were you expecting Wiley? They gonna raise their tariff on our goods from 30% to 60%. I say let’s spiral down. We don’t need China to have a strong American Market. But China needs access to the American market to continue their communist policies and amassing wealth, capability and know how.

[DannyTN]

Actually that’s see post 14.

[Carry_Okie]

I have a solution for that. It looks like an adobe wall with serious “woodpecker damage.”

[muawiyah]

Around here they recognize that as the argument on behalf of the mattress store that never goes out of business.

[rdb3]

If Romney is elected, the Fed will “discover” higher interest rates the moment he takes office. In my lifetime, I’ve seen this cycle at least three or four times, the RINOs take the heat for the pain of “the fix,” and as soon as it starts to work the Slave Party moves in to loot again.

It always works out that way, doesn't it?

The pain you feel today is the strength you'll have tomorrow.

[DB]

You seem to have no idea how interconnected the world really is these days. A large number of things manufactured here depend on materials/components from all over the world. If those components get more expensive American businesses will have to eat the increase or go out of business. A good number of things are nearly impossible to manufacture here these days due to EPA requirements. In addition trade barriers will be raised in other countries in response to us raising our own. America IS the largest exporter of goods and services in the world and if trade barriers rise against our products and services it will hurt us badly. Raising trade barriers was tried in the last Great Depression and had disastrous results.