Tags
% of GDP, average debt maturity, baby boomers, budget deficit, Debt/GDP Ratio, European sovereign debt crisi, fiscal cliff, fiscal deficits, Intragovernmental Holdings, Reinhart & Rogoff, Sell in May, Social Security, US Congress, US government finances, US government revenues, US government spending, US Treasury
Continued from here.
Apologies, readers. Deficits left me feeling a little nauseated, I had to take a little breather on this series! In my last post, I highlighted the 2010 total US budget deficit (ignore the primary deficit, it’s irrelevant) was a whopping 8.9% of GDP. In the past half-century, this is the 2nd largest deficit on record (2009 being the winner), but it’s in good company. Nine of every 10 years politicians have outspent revenues, and in 2009-12 the deficit’s expected to consistently exceed $1 trillion (and 7.5% of GDP). It’s no longer surprising how quickly politicians can turn the truly exceptional into the simply mundane…
I think I also sidestepped the quicksand of Republican vs. Democrat debate?! This debate, and their respective philosophies, seem utterly pointless when there’s no credible attempt to eliminate deficits – it’s just moving the deck chairs ’round the Titanic. And deficit rhetoric’s always presented as ‘spending cuts, no tax hikes‘, or vice versa. Such one-sided (and unworkable) solutions are ludicrous – the only sensible solution is a deficit elimination plan based equally on tax hikes & spending cuts.
