Posted on 01/20/2020 10:20:49 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The decade that just ended saw a period of uninterrupted economic growth. In the decade to come, we'll pay for squandering it.
Since the so-called Great Recession officially ended in the third quarter of 2009, the United States has enjoyed 42 consecutive quarters of solid if unspectacular economic growth. That's the longest run of uninterrupted growth since government economists began tracking the business cycle in the 1850s, far outpacing the average economic expansion of 18 months. Employment has increased by 12 percent, the jobless rate reached record lows, and America's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by more than 25 percent.
It has been, by almost any measure, one of the best times in American history. Almost.
Hanging over this decade of good news is the gloom of a missed opportunity. After piling up trillions of dollars in deficit spending during the last recession, the federal government took some modest steps towards reducing that red ink during the middle years of the 2010s. But after Republicans took full control in 2017, spending skyrocketed and the deficit inflated again.
Since Trump was inaugurated, Washington has added $4.7 trillion to the national debt—almost entirely the result of a gigantic spending binge, but with a small assist from the 2017 tax cuts, which reduced revenues without offsetting spending cuts.
Now, more than a decade after the last recession ended, the United States is carrying a record amount of debt: more than $23 trillion. The country is on track to add more than $1 trillion to that total in every year of the coming decade, with old age entitlements ramping up as Baby Boomers retire and the country as a whole ages.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
PING!
It will be.
But on the state level.
The road ends for the can for certain states with massive deficits, exploding pension obligations, loss of populations and democrats in power...
Just abolish the fed and we’re debt free! :)
Reads left. Does it usually?
...after republicans took control....since Trump...
and I don’t remember any attempt at all at fiscal control in the mid 2010s
Actually we were in an economic depression until Obama left office, the economic gains were negligible compared to the damage the country suffered and continued to suffer. Things only really turned around once Trump came in and started nullifying all of Obama’s illegal actions that were choking the economy. (E.g., many of America’s corporations had fled abroad to escape Obama’s punitive corporate taxation—highest in the world next to Greece—which made American businesses non-competitive with foreign corporations.) Unfortunately, Obama had already run the debt up to $20 trillion at that point and it is going to keep on accelerating since despite rosy surface performance the U.S. is basically bankrupt.
First up, Illinois.
One would certainly think so. Of course the ‘80s were supposed to be the end too, and the ‘90s, etc. Predicting has been notably off when it comes to financial doomsdays.
I agree with your comment. Bankruptcy/insolvency for one-party states like CA, NY, IL is the only way political change can happen. No bureacracy will willingly just go away - Just look at the Soviet Union, for example. America’s progressives are hardly any different.
The problem is government and its many dependents, will go down kicking and screaming, by raising taxes outrageously, and doing their best to steal whatever they need to survive.
Another red flag is his static approach to the debt. There’s a clear indication that higher taxes would reduce the debt whereas no extra revenue would be generated by economic growth.
So, if one believes such a future what is one to do?
Horde gold and commodities, that will not be liquid?
Invest in stocks that will crash?
Invest in bonds whose price will collapse as interest rates sore?
States were watching what happened in 2008.
Go to the US Congress with a sufficiently butt-puckering Chicken Little tale of impending doom and terror and you WILL receive a bailout.
No matter how many people don’t want them to.
We’ll just crank the printing presses up from 11 to 12 and go on as usual. The rest of the world will shrug and go along. They’ll have little choice.
Yes, that’s what it seems like here. Rather odd for a libertarian author to be using a static interpretation. You would think that he would be all-in for dynamic forecasting.
That would have been 'sequestration'. That's why the deficits were going 'lower' in the latter part of Obama's term.
There was the Budget Control Act, with its sequester provision, which kicked in after our public serpents couldn’t come up with a deficit reduction agreement. That was actually adhered to for awhile, but not anymore.
I believe the corporate tax was still 35% prior to the Idiot entering office in 2009.
The feds will continue to do what they’ve been doing for over 50 years by borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. The federal government is the servant of the states. There are two ways of looking at this. Either the states come up with the revenue to handle their progressive pandering, or the feds just shut the government down and make the states fend for themselves.
The federal government is a business under the control of the states based upon initial creation. The problem is not the way it was created but the acceptance of what the populous has allowed. Therefore, if the federal government cannot pay their bill, and they cannot find budget money not earmarked for a program, then they don’t pay the bill. This is why people don’t take vacations to the moon that they can’t afford. State within their means, and this doesn’t happen. Otherwise, some of the pandering has to go.
rwood
That’s what the reasoning of the natural mind says.
But faith which trumps natural reasoning (but is not unreasonable) says the 2020’s will be the best decade yet - freedom, growth, and wealth.
Snore and double snore
Bottom line: money is not real
I’m staying in the stock and bond markets for now. If it all falls apart, the rich guys at the top will be in the same boat as the rest of us, and they aren’t about to let that happen. Not a great need for gold as long as you can trade a reasonable amount of paper Federal Reserve Notes for the stuff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.