Monday, January 28, 2008

Thoughts to consider

Thought 1

I'm listening to the news as they talk about the asian markets continuing to plummet and the thought came to my mind...

Is it possible that the world economy is more dependent on our consumption than our economy is?

Thought 2

With our economy starting to slide, will our issues surrounding immigration issues decline?

I was think about the immigrants that reside here in the greater Cincinnati area. Now that the housing boom in this area has ended, the demand for labor has dramatically decreased. Instead of laying off Americans, builders are laying off many immigrants that will probably have no choice but to go home and work.

Thought 3

If both Congress and the President believe a tax rebate is good for the economy, what does that say about lower tax rates in general?

Thought 4

How is it that the pols can find billions for a tax rebate but can't seem to "find" the 3-6 billion to rebuild the Brent Spence Bridge? Think of the economic multiplier of such a monumental project.

Thought 5

I have some moderate beliefs in Keynsian fiscal policy. But our governments have bastardized the whole Keynsian model. Under Keynes theory, you run deficits in slow economic times but you retract government (budget surpluses) during good times.

Unfortunately, our government runs consistent deficits; good times and bad.

It's like fiscal heroin, it takes more to get the same effect because the economy has become accustomed to the deficits.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No. 3 is not a thought, it's a dream.

Anonymous said...

The scary part to me is that a big chunk of the budget is interest on past borrowing. That chunk, as a percentage of the budget, keeps growing and compounding. What happens when our interest obligation becomes more than our tax revenue? It's the one budget item you can't cut. What happens when we miss a payment on some T-bills that the Chinese have? Are they just going to let it slide? Not bloody likely. And still our politicians keep on spending.