dagblog - Comments for "15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction"

Gracias Senor. !Muchos

bwakfat — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:39:03 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

Gracias Señor. ¡Muchos gracias!

Shorter Peegalito: There is a class war going on, and we ain't even close to winning it. Time to get out the peetchfokes. I think, like C'Ville, I will repost as mucho es possibul.

Someone is channeling Maxine, that wonderful girl economist. I miss her, but not so much today.

Vaya con Dios.

Miguelito, as usual you have

CVille Dem — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 01:27:05 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

Miguelito, as usual you have honed this down to a few paragraphs. I don't know that ANYTHING else needs to be added. Thank you for this. I plan to re-post it all over the place!]

Jan

Good idea, Emma. I think the

Red Planet — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:42:04 +0000

In reply to Cash Management Bills with

Good idea, Emma. I think the Taylor Rule suggests the current interest rate should be about -4%.

Now, if we could sell enough treasury notes to Pete Peterson at that rate, we'd be up and running quickly.

Seriously though, the problem is that you're being logical again. Everyone knows that this is the time and place to push through cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Just as it took a Republican (Nixon) to open the door to China, it takes a Democrat (Obama) to push the "Entitlements" self-destruct button.

The game's afoot.

Cash Management Bills with

EmmaZahn — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:23:00 +0000

In reply to Excellent summary. I'd add a

Cash Management Bills with zero or negative yields?

Last auction was for $15B for six days at .041% (investment rate) -- really close to zero.

Does not look like they had any problem rounding up bidders either -- almost $83B

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2011/R_20110608_1.pdf

Maybe it is time for Treasury to begin reaping some of the benefits of real negative interest rates.

XVI. The GOP has no intention

NCD — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:04:45 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

XVI. The GOP has no intention of doing anything to reduce, eliminate or find a solution for the deficit issue, except to use it as a partisan political prop to exploit for votes and create division.

In order to persuade those

Elusive Trope — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:13:56 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

In order to persuade those not already persuaded, I would add two more things - (1) what assurances can be given that Congress will stop spending at the increased amount to get the economy going once the economy gets back on its feet; and (2) how are the Republican/conservatives wrong that taxing the "job creators" in order to increase revenue will not result in hurting the economy and thus reducing revenue and creating more unemployment.

Excellent summary. I'd add a

Red Planet — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:35:43 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

Excellent summary. I'd add a couple of thoughts.

The phrase "deficit crisis" probably doesn't convey what you intend. The actual crisis is a historical confrontation between the extraordinarily wealthy, who believe they are politically strong enough now to manipulate all the levers of power, and the rest of us, who only vote. The deficit is just an excuse. (Krugman and Baker are great on this.)

Second, you might want to move "You should be very angry" to the top of the list.

Here's an interesting post from our old friend Josh Marshall (h/t Brad DeLong).

He's talking about what happens if the debt ceiling isn't raised:

"There's enough money coming into the Treasury to service the payments on the current debt. But if you don't borrow more money you have to shut down vast amounts of federal outlays. And the most logical places to start are with Social Security payments and Medicare reimbursements. Stuff like cutting Social Security checks in half starting the following week… And if this all sounds hyperbolic, where exactly do you think the money is going to come from if there's no deal?"

Great stuff!

Dan Kervick — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:18:34 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

Great stuff!

Well done! The Center for

Michael Maiello — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:14:49 +0000

In reply to 15 things Every American should know about deficit reduction

Well done! The Center for Economic And Budgetary Priorities, using CBO numbers, thinks that the recession costs in 2009 and 2010 were $400 billion and will persist at or near that level until the tax base is rebuilt by bringing unemployment down. Those costs are larger, on an annual basis, than either TARP or the stimulus. You cannot balance the budget with 9% unemployment and falling really wages.