"John R. Carroll" wrote in message
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Ed Huntress wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
"Wes" wrote in message
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"Ed Huntress" wrote:

I'm sure that most of them don't know how it all works. And they're
counting on most of the country not knowing how it works. That's how
they get people worked up and angry -- by selling them a bunch of
baloney, playing on their suspicions and their lack of
understanding. That's what creates paranoia.

My Mom and I are watching Beck every evening. It's becoming a sort
of past time.
She actually records his and Smith's daily broadcasts so we can
watch it together.
LOL

Now, THAT's entertainment. g

She's funny.
I haven't cross connected her new DVR to the new big screen yet so she's
limited in how much material she can store.
I swear Ed, watching her select an episode of Beck's show to erase in
order
to make space is painful G


For example, if you talk to someone who thinks that our national debt
is insurmountable, at 83% of GDP, and explain to them that it was
120% of GDP after WWII and was followed by two decades of high
average growth, they look immediately for a reason this couldn't be
true, rather than trying to figure out why it IS true.

You ought to use a more current example Ed.
I've had people respond that "things are different now" which is the
equivelant of "doesn't count".
LOL
When Belgium entered the EU they were a 240 percent of GDP, IIRC.
Today, they enjoy a higher standard of living than American's do.
That does count.

--
John R. Carroll

Yeah, but I avoid using European countries as examples when I'm talking to
self-styled "fiscal conservatives."

The whole issue is whether you can grow your way out of the debt. We have in
the past, and there are plenty of examples from around the world to show
what the economic pattern is that makes it happen.

And the final point is this: If we can get a good rate of growth going,
we'll wonder before long what we were worried about. If we can't get it
going, we're screwed anyway. The best shot at getting it moving, now that
monetary controls have crapped out and we're at near-zero interest, if
deficit spending. National debt won't matter much if we stall out, like
Japan did for over a decade, and like it's doing again.

If that happens, we'll all be on tenterhooks -- the US, Europe, and Japan --
hoping that we don't have a sharp downturn in the middle of it. The only way
out of that, should you have a big downturn while the debt is piled up, is
to inflate your way out (problematic, if the economy is slumping to begin
with) or to default. Neither one is a happy option.

So we should be doing everything possible to stimulate growth. It's looking
fairly good, except now we're entering the 1937 moment: Conservatives are
saying to stop the deficit spending now that GDP has flattened out. That's
just what they said in '37, which we did, and which whip-sawed us into the
second phase of the Depression.

--
Ed Huntress