Geithner admits spending in obama‘s budget is ’unsustainable’

[Gunner]

In testifying before the Senate Budget Committee Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made a candid admission, characterizing President Barack Obama’s own budget plan as “unsustainable” with interest payments and obligations that are “excessively high”:


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[Upgrade Dave]

How is this news? They've always admitted this but it was a necessary evil in a market where the private sector isn't/wasn't spending.

 

[Gunner]

How is this news? They've always admitted this but it was a necessary evil in a market where the private sector isn't/wasn't spending.

I hope you're just waking up! That doesn't make sense. Run up the deficit because the economy is in shambles for the private sector. Yeah this wouldn't be news, only if Bush did it i guess. LOL

Similar like how there is no daily count of the soldiers killed anymore.

 

[Upgrade Dave]

[/B]

I hope you're just waking up! That doesn't make sense. Run up the deficit because the economy is in shambles for the private sector. Yeah this wouldn't be news, only if Bush did it i guess.

It makes perfect sense. Unless your goal is a total meltdown, someone, private or public, has to spend to keep things afloat. The government can't cut spending at a time when the private sector is doing the same thing.
If no one is spending money, how do you get out of a recession or even keep it from being a full on depression? Hope?

Similar like how there is no daily count of the soldiers killed anymore.

The wars aren't front page like they were before (other things have happened to move them) but when soldiers get killed, it's still covered and reported. You might need to get some more MSNBC or maybe CNN in your life.

 

[Gunner]

it makes perfect sense. Unless your goal is a total meltdown, someone, private or public, has to spend to keep things afloat. The government can't cut spending at a time when the private sector is doing the same thing.
If no one is spending money, how do you get out of a recession or even keep it from being a full on depression? Hope?




The wars aren't front page like they were before (other things have happened to move them) but when soldiers get killed, it's still covered and reported. You might need to get some more msnbc or maybe cnn in your life.

i digress. I hope your not in control of your household finances.

 

[Upgrade Dave]

i digress. I hope your not in control of your household finances.

Unless my household finances are in the trillions of dollars, I fail to see the relevence.

Stay on topic. If the private sector isn't spending and, according to your wishes, the public sector isn't spending, how do you avoid a depression?

 

[Lamarr]

If the private sector isn't spending and, according to your wishes, the public sector isn't spending, how do you avoid a depression?

A depression is actually THE CURE! Instead of it being avoided, it should be embraced. What a recession/depression would do is cleanse the imbalances of the economy. Increasing public sector spending does not address the underlying fundamentals, which are steadily deteriorating.

The fallacy of giving "stimulus" to the public sector is that you have to take it, from those of the high income groups or to borrow it, both of which will destroy investment, thus shrinking the economy even more and causing more jobs to be lost.

You can finance it via inflation, of course, which will just set in motion another business cycle, in the future and harm consumers via higher prices which is a detriment to their standard of living. (The definition of inflation is this increase in money supply & the rising prices are just the result)

 

[Lamarr]

Solutions:

Close foreign military base because we cannot afford them maybe???? When people start realizing that their future social security beneifits are being used to "defend" Germany, Egypt, Korea, Japan etc. today, we might get a better congress elected.

 

[Upgrade Dave]

A depression is actually THE CURE! Instead of it being avoided, it should be embraced. What a recession/depression would do is cleanse the imbalances of the economy. Increasing public sector spending does not address the underlying fundamentals, which are steadily deteriorating.

The fallacy of giving "stimulus" to the public sector is that you have to take it, from those of the high income groups or to borrow it, both of which will destroy investment, thus shrinking the economy even more and causing more jobs to be lost.

You can finance it via inflation, of course, which will just set in motion another business cycle, in the future and harm consumers via higher prices which is a detriment to their standard of living. (The definition of inflation is this increase in money supply & the rising prices are just the result)

Interesting.
The problem with that is that it sounds nice as an intellectual exercise but there's no practical or real life basis to look at to see if it works.
We actually have had a depression in this country and the federal government did cut spending with the hopes of more private investment, the economy took a sharp downturn until WWII.

Solutions:

Close foreign military base because we cannot afford them maybe???? When people start realizing that their future social security beneifits are being used to "defend" Germany, Egypt, Korea, Japan etc. today, we might get a better congress elected.

Agreed fully.

 

[Lamarr]

Interesting.
The problem with that is that it sounds nice as an intellectual exercise but there's no practical or real life basis to look at to see if it works.

I look at it like this; the cure is a recession/depression and the disease is all the debt-based financing goin on.


The Forgotten Depression of 1920

The economic situation in 1920 was grim. By that year unemployment had jumped from 4 percent to nearly 12 percent, and GNP declined 17 percent. No wonder, then, that Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover — falsely characterized as a supporter of laissez-faire economics — urged President Harding to consider an array of interventions to turn the economy around. Hoover was ignored.

Instead of "fiscal stimulus," Harding cut the government's budget nearly in half between 1920 and 1922. The rest of Harding's approach was equally laissez-faire. Tax rates were slashed for all income groups. The national debt was reduced by one-third.

The Federal Reserve's activity, moreover, was hardly noticeable. As one economic historian puts it, "Despite the severity of the contraction, the Fed did not move to use its powers to turn the money supply around and fight the contraction."[2] By the late summer of 1921, signs of recovery were already visible. The following year, unemployment was back down to 6.7 percent and it was only 2.4 percent by 1923.

 

[thoughtone]

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[Upgrade Dave]

I look at it like this; the cure is a recession/depression and the disease is all the debt-based financing goin on.


The Forgotten Depression of 1920

This is very interesting.

I wanted to reply but when I looked up this "forgotten depression" the first half dozen to eight links took me to or quoted the same thing Lamarr quoted. That's odd. I'll keep looking. I'm interested in the whole story (causes of said depression and other things) and not just what one side likes to portray.
Good stuff, Lamarr.

 

[Lamarr]

This is very interesting.

I wanted to reply but when I looked up this "forgotten depression" the first half dozen to eight links took me to or quoted the same thing Lamarr quoted. That's odd. I'll keep looking. I'm interested in the whole story (causes of said depression and other things) and not just what one side likes to portray.
Good stuff, Lamarr.

At the heart of the matter is the question; Should the govt intervene to "stimulate" the economy or let the market rebalance? Keynesians argue for intervention and since it is taught at 99% of the universities, this is the philosophy that is practiced. Those that follow the "Austrian" school of economics are demonized because they identify the beneficiaries of these inflationary policies!

“By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” - John Maynard Keynes

 

[QueEx]

I look at it like this; the cure is a recession/depression and the disease is all the debt-based financing goin on.


The Forgotten Depression of 1920

Hmmmmm.

That link points to:

The Ludwig Von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue •
Auburn, Alabama​

That makes it automatically suspect to me.

I even deleted the cookie so that the <s>website</s> <u>my friends</u>
will never know that I've ever visited such a vile place.

Please do not post links to that place/word without first saying so.

Thanks,

Roll Tide

 

[Upgrade Dave]

Hmmmmm.

That link points to:

The Ludwig Von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue •
Auburn, Alabama​

That makes it automatically suspect to me.

I even deleted the cookie so that the <s>website</s> <u>my friends</u>
will never know that I've ever visited such a vile place.

Please do not post links to that place/word without first saying so.

Thanks,

Roll Tide

I live in the heart of UNC-Duke territory so I feel you.

 

[Upgrade Dave]

At the heart of the matter is the question; Should the govt intervene to "stimulate" the economy or let the market rebalance? Keynesians argue for intervention and since it is taught at 99% of the universities, this is the philosophy that is practiced. Those that follow the "Austrian" school of economics are demonized because they identify the beneficiaries of these inflationary policies!

Being a person who likes to at least understand both sides, I don't see that the two are mutually exclusive. The government intervened with Chrysler and it's working out for all parties. On the other hand, I think intervention was not the best idea with the financial market since they weren't forced do many substantive changes so the only people helped ended up being the guys who got us in this shit in the first place.

 

[Lamarr]

Hmmmmm.

That link points to:

The Ludwig Von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue •
Auburn, Alabama​

That makes it automatically suspect to me.

I even deleted the cookie so that the <s>website</s> <u>my friends</u>
will never know that I've ever visited such a vile place.

Please do not post links to that place/word without first saying so.

Thanks,

Roll Tide

2 words for you...........................................Nick Fairley!!!

 

[QueEx]

2 words for you...........................................Nick Fairley!!!

Lamar, not only do you not reside in Football Country, but you don't know me well enough to get in here. LOL. Blood is thicker than mud and family counts a lot; but you're reaching waaaay inside now. BTW, I divorced my first wife when she had the gall to wear an old orange sweatshirt with blue trim one Saturday in late November. Hell, LOL, I forgot those were her high school colors.

RTR

 

[Lamarr]

Lamar, not only do you not reside in Football Country, but you don't know me well enough to get in here. LOL. Blood is thicker than mud and family counts a lot; but you're reaching waaaay inside now. BTW, I divorced my first wife when she had the gall to wear an old orange sweatshirt with blue trim one Saturday in late November. Hell, LOL, I forgot those were her high school colors.

RTR

I learned in my college days, SEC ball is religion down there.

 

[QueEx]

AfuckinMen.