Drive much?
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John Carson wrote:
As I remark elsewhere, LaHood is one of only two Republican Secretaries in the Administration and I think it more likely that he was out of touch with White House thinking
So Obama just put him in there as a placeholder? No real power, responsibility, or input?
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
Oakman wrote:
So Obama just put him in there as a placeholder? No real power, responsibility, or input?
I think he is new in the job. I seem to recall that Obama himself said that he would be setting the agenda. "The change comes from me", not from his cabinet secretaries. Of course LaHood will have power, responsibility and input, but 1. It is not reasonable at this early stage to assume that he speaks for the White House, 2. On any big policy questions, it will ultimately be Obama's call.
John Carson
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Chris Austin wrote:
I'd prefer usage tax versus income tax to fund road and highways.
Any reason to assume that we won't end up with both?
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
Not really. I wouldn't expect any state or the federal government to repeal cash-cows like that.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --?
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BoneSoft wrote:
billion toll booths
Funny, you should mention that. The highway that surrounds a local city here has these things that look like light poles with a solar panel near the top, about half way down the pole is a small box about the size of a usb hard drive pointed at an angle towards the road. Poles are about a quarter mile apart. I asked our state senator, "what's up with these polls", he said that they are for a future fare collection system for this city's beltway.
MrPlankton
The Second Amendment, the Reset Button on the ConstitutionActually, I noticed something similar here in town. At an intersection that already has a camera mounted on it. I've only seen one, but I haven't been looking for them. I'm kinda starting to wonder if this is still my country...
Visit BoneSoft.com for code generation tools (XML & XSD -> C#, VB, etc...) and some free developer tools as well.
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Oakman wrote:
So Obama just put him in there as a placeholder? No real power, responsibility, or input?
I think he is new in the job. I seem to recall that Obama himself said that he would be setting the agenda. "The change comes from me", not from his cabinet secretaries. Of course LaHood will have power, responsibility and input, but 1. It is not reasonable at this early stage to assume that he speaks for the White House, 2. On any big policy questions, it will ultimately be Obama's call.
John Carson
John Carson wrote:
1. It is not reasonable at this early stage to assume that he speaks for the White House, 2. On any big policy questions, it will ultimately be Obama's call.
Which probably explain why Geitner showed up in Congress, looking like an idiot. Imagine. People actually expected him to have started to deal with the problems! Obviously, it's "Obama's call" and he hasn't thought about it much yet.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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John Carson wrote:
1. It is not reasonable at this early stage to assume that he speaks for the White House, 2. On any big policy questions, it will ultimately be Obama's call.
Which probably explain why Geitner showed up in Congress, looking like an idiot. Imagine. People actually expected him to have started to deal with the problems! Obviously, it's "Obama's call" and he hasn't thought about it much yet.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
Oakman wrote:
Which probably explain why Geitner showed up in Congress, looking like an idiot. Imagine. People actually expected him to have started to deal with the problems! Obviously, it's "Obama's call" and he hasn't thought about it much yet.
I'm sure he has thought about it, but difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought.
John Carson
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Well it seems that the hefty federal gas taxes in the good ole US of A aren't enough.[^] So, you allowed social engineering (high tax per gallon) to push you into a smaller or greener vehicle and thought you were doing yourself a favor: more pricey vehicle, but gosh you get better mileage and we all ultimately save. Right? Well thank you very much, now we'll have to tax you on the basis of miles driven. and just think of the vehicle tracking possibilities! big brother would probably have ever so many opportunities to save you from yourself. pitchforks, the investment opportunity of 2009 and beyond.
Mike - typical white guy. The USA does have universal healthcare, but you have to pay for it. D'oh. Thomas Mann - "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." The NYT - my leftist brochure. Calling an illegal alien an “undocumented immigrant” is like calling a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist”. God doesn't believe in atheists, therefore they don't exist.
That seriously will not work and there will be serious opposition to it. You will never see me installing one of these devices in my vehicle and its laughable to think I'm going to pay any type of tax associated with this.
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Dude. I was giving an opinion on a set of proposals that are in an early state. We can't come up with something that will make everyone happy. But, if I was asked I'd take the one that favors my situation the most.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --?
Use your brain moron!
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Oakman wrote:
Which probably explain why Geitner showed up in Congress, looking like an idiot. Imagine. People actually expected him to have started to deal with the problems! Obviously, it's "Obama's call" and he hasn't thought about it much yet.
I'm sure he has thought about it, but difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought.
John Carson
John Carson wrote:
I'm sure he has thought about it, but difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought.
I was sure someone had told him he was elected almost sixteen weeks ago. Maybe he should have spent some time thinking about this problem instead of vacationing in Hawaii. It is rather important, you know - probably more important than getting the whores off the street in Louisianna - something which he has taken action on.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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That seriously will not work and there will be serious opposition to it. You will never see me installing one of these devices in my vehicle and its laughable to think I'm going to pay any type of tax associated with this.
CSS_Shadow(); wrote:
You will never see me installing one of these devices in my vehicle
No of course not. You would have to own a vehicle first.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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John Carson wrote:
I'm sure he has thought about it, but difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought.
I was sure someone had told him he was elected almost sixteen weeks ago. Maybe he should have spent some time thinking about this problem instead of vacationing in Hawaii. It is rather important, you know - probably more important than getting the whores off the street in Louisianna - something which he has taken action on.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
Oakman wrote:
I was sure someone had told him he was elected almost sixteen weeks ago. Maybe he should have spent some time thinking about this problem instead of vacationing in Hawaii. It is rather important, you know - probably more important than getting the whores off the street in Louisianna - something which he has taken action on.
I misunderstood your previous comment. I thought "he" referred to Geitner. Plainly it is up to the professional economists to come up with detailed plans. Obama gets to choose from a menu of plans (or perhaps a menu of future plans that are sketched in outline); Obama doesn't design the plan.
John Carson
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Oakman wrote:
I was sure someone had told him he was elected almost sixteen weeks ago. Maybe he should have spent some time thinking about this problem instead of vacationing in Hawaii. It is rather important, you know - probably more important than getting the whores off the street in Louisianna - something which he has taken action on.
I misunderstood your previous comment. I thought "he" referred to Geitner. Plainly it is up to the professional economists to come up with detailed plans. Obama gets to choose from a menu of plans (or perhaps a menu of future plans that are sketched in outline); Obama doesn't design the plan.
John Carson
John Carson wrote:
Plainly it is up to the professional economists to come up with detailed plans. Obama gets to choose from a menu of plans (or perhaps a menu of future plans that are sketched in outline); Obama doesn't design the plan.
I assumed that's how it worked, too. Presumably that's why Larry Summers, and perhaps some others who were entitled economic advisors, were talking about what needed to be done as long ago as last summer. I find it curious indeed, that Obama hasn't been offered that menu of choices and even more curious, almost frightening, that Geitner explains that he (who as Chairman of the FR Bank of New York has been intimately involved with all of the attempts to jump start the economy) has only been thinking about the problem "for a couple of weeks." It really was quite clear that the Bush administration leaned over backwards to make the transition as smooth as possible (a little surprising, when you remember that the Clinton administration did everything they could, including sabotaging the keyboards of white house computers, to give Bush a rough start) so I would have assumed that the Obama senior staff might have started working on the problems they faced before the second Monday in November. Apparently I was wrong. :-O btw: I've balanced your unavoter. Your answers are clear, precise and not ad hominem. That I, or someone, doesn't agree with you doesn't mean that your views should be grayed out. (imho)
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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CSS_Shadow(); wrote:
You will never see me installing one of these devices in my vehicle
No of course not. You would have to own a vehicle first.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
And own a driver's license.
-- Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit
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Mike Gaskey wrote:
I seriously doubt that fuel taxes are aggregated then targeted to road maintenance
Actually, the Federal taxes are largely dedicated[^] (a small percentage goes to mass transit). State gasoline taxes[^] on the other hand, are often still abused for general fund use, and can be the bigger portion.
Rob Graham wrote:
Actually, the Federal taxes are largely dedicated
thanks for the link. info is better than I had thought.
Mike - typical white guy. The USA does have universal healthcare, but you have to pay for it. D'oh. Thomas Mann - "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." The NYT - my leftist brochure. Calling an illegal alien an “undocumented immigrant” is like calling a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist”. God doesn't believe in atheists, therefore they don't exist.
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John Carson wrote:
Plainly it is up to the professional economists to come up with detailed plans. Obama gets to choose from a menu of plans (or perhaps a menu of future plans that are sketched in outline); Obama doesn't design the plan.
I assumed that's how it worked, too. Presumably that's why Larry Summers, and perhaps some others who were entitled economic advisors, were talking about what needed to be done as long ago as last summer. I find it curious indeed, that Obama hasn't been offered that menu of choices and even more curious, almost frightening, that Geitner explains that he (who as Chairman of the FR Bank of New York has been intimately involved with all of the attempts to jump start the economy) has only been thinking about the problem "for a couple of weeks." It really was quite clear that the Bush administration leaned over backwards to make the transition as smooth as possible (a little surprising, when you remember that the Clinton administration did everything they could, including sabotaging the keyboards of white house computers, to give Bush a rough start) so I would have assumed that the Obama senior staff might have started working on the problems they faced before the second Monday in November. Apparently I was wrong. :-O btw: I've balanced your unavoter. Your answers are clear, precise and not ad hominem. That I, or someone, doesn't agree with you doesn't mean that your views should be grayed out. (imho)
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
Oakman wrote:
I assumed that's how it worked, too. Presumably that's why Larry Summers, and perhaps some others who were entitled economic advisors, were talking about what needed to be done as long ago as last summer. I find it curious indeed, that Obama hasn't been offered that menu of choices and even more curious, almost frightening, that Geitner explains that he (who as Chairman of the FR Bank of New York has been intimately involved with all of the attempts to jump start the economy) has only been thinking about the problem "for a couple of weeks."
I remarked that "difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought" in order to emphasise the relatively short amount of time available relative to the scale of the problem, not to attempt to document exactly how long they have been thinking about it. My understanding is that, in his previous job, Geitner was involved in the first half of the TARP program, so his involvement and thought certainly extends over months at least. One of the defining properties of a capitalist economy is that information is decentralised. Indeed, the ability of the market to coordinate the actions of millions of people in possession of private information is one of its greatest strengths. As the other side of this coin, one of the most powerful arguments against government intervention is that the government lacks much of the information held by private individuals. Applied to the present problem, this means that we should expect that financial institutions will have much more information about their situation than the government will. Thus one reason for delay in coming up with a plan is that the government is only gradually accumulating information about the financial position of the banks and related institutions. The fact that the government is intervening it ways that it normally doesn't intervene means that it must acquire information that it normally doesn't need and hence normally doesn't have. Moreover, it is likely that, as information has been acquired, the need for still further information has gradually become apparent. Think of bankrupcy proceedings for a failed firm. Typically, they aren't completed quickly, partly because of the time taken to investigate the firm's financial position. A second reason for delay is that anything like this sort of situation hasn't been confronted within the US since the Great Depression. Thus the problem has to be thought through from basic principles, rat
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Oakman wrote:
I assumed that's how it worked, too. Presumably that's why Larry Summers, and perhaps some others who were entitled economic advisors, were talking about what needed to be done as long ago as last summer. I find it curious indeed, that Obama hasn't been offered that menu of choices and even more curious, almost frightening, that Geitner explains that he (who as Chairman of the FR Bank of New York has been intimately involved with all of the attempts to jump start the economy) has only been thinking about the problem "for a couple of weeks."
I remarked that "difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought" in order to emphasise the relatively short amount of time available relative to the scale of the problem, not to attempt to document exactly how long they have been thinking about it. My understanding is that, in his previous job, Geitner was involved in the first half of the TARP program, so his involvement and thought certainly extends over months at least. One of the defining properties of a capitalist economy is that information is decentralised. Indeed, the ability of the market to coordinate the actions of millions of people in possession of private information is one of its greatest strengths. As the other side of this coin, one of the most powerful arguments against government intervention is that the government lacks much of the information held by private individuals. Applied to the present problem, this means that we should expect that financial institutions will have much more information about their situation than the government will. Thus one reason for delay in coming up with a plan is that the government is only gradually accumulating information about the financial position of the banks and related institutions. The fact that the government is intervening it ways that it normally doesn't intervene means that it must acquire information that it normally doesn't need and hence normally doesn't have. Moreover, it is likely that, as information has been acquired, the need for still further information has gradually become apparent. Think of bankrupcy proceedings for a failed firm. Typically, they aren't completed quickly, partly because of the time taken to investigate the firm's financial position. A second reason for delay is that anything like this sort of situation hasn't been confronted within the US since the Great Depression. Thus the problem has to be thought through from basic principles, rat
John Carson wrote:
"difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought" in order to emphasise the relatively short amount of time available relative to the scale of the problem, not to attempt to document exactly how long they have been thinking about it.
I can't help thinking that once Obama realised the Presidency would be won or lost on the economy and not Iraq, he should have directed his advisors to get to work.
John Carson wrote:
My understanding is that, in his previous job, Geitner was involved in the first half of the TARP program, so his involvement and thought certainly extends over months at least.
He held what is arguably the second most important position in the Federal Reserve system. That would have, it seemed to me, made him uniquely qualified to have detailed plans of actions ready to go in a relatively short time.
John Carson wrote:
As the other side of this coin, one of the most powerful arguments against government intervention is that the government lacks much of the information held by private individuals.
But Geitner as the head of the quasi-public, quasi-private bank that headed the FR system in New York, the financial capital of the US, if not the world, should have been more able to know what he knew and more importantly, know what he didn't know and start finding out.
John Carson wrote:
Thus one reason for delay in coming up with a plan is that the government is only gradually accumulating information about the financial position of the banks and related institutions.
And yet Paulson and Geitner got Congress to spend almost a trillion dollars providing cash without that knowledge; then Obama got a stimulus bill passed by a Congress that -- to a man - had not read what was in the bill. If the government lacks the information necessaryu to act - why is there such a rush to act? I get a kick out of the pressure being applied to Japan to come up with its own jumpstart spending. The 90's gave that country more experience in dealing with prolonged deep recessions than anybody else - and more reason to question whether neo-Keynesian economics work. But why, if the US, UK, Australia, etc don't have a foggy clue about what to do and are still gathering information as you suggest they are, are they attempting to spend most of the
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And own a driver's license.
-- Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit
Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
And own a driver's license
I can't imagine that not having one would stop him; nor would not being insured, either.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
And own a driver's license
I can't imagine that not having one would stop him; nor would not being insured, either.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
Their you go, now you got the right idea.
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John Carson wrote:
"difficult problems can take more than a week or two's thought" in order to emphasise the relatively short amount of time available relative to the scale of the problem, not to attempt to document exactly how long they have been thinking about it.
I can't help thinking that once Obama realised the Presidency would be won or lost on the economy and not Iraq, he should have directed his advisors to get to work.
John Carson wrote:
My understanding is that, in his previous job, Geitner was involved in the first half of the TARP program, so his involvement and thought certainly extends over months at least.
He held what is arguably the second most important position in the Federal Reserve system. That would have, it seemed to me, made him uniquely qualified to have detailed plans of actions ready to go in a relatively short time.
John Carson wrote:
As the other side of this coin, one of the most powerful arguments against government intervention is that the government lacks much of the information held by private individuals.
But Geitner as the head of the quasi-public, quasi-private bank that headed the FR system in New York, the financial capital of the US, if not the world, should have been more able to know what he knew and more importantly, know what he didn't know and start finding out.
John Carson wrote:
Thus one reason for delay in coming up with a plan is that the government is only gradually accumulating information about the financial position of the banks and related institutions.
And yet Paulson and Geitner got Congress to spend almost a trillion dollars providing cash without that knowledge; then Obama got a stimulus bill passed by a Congress that -- to a man - had not read what was in the bill. If the government lacks the information necessaryu to act - why is there such a rush to act? I get a kick out of the pressure being applied to Japan to come up with its own jumpstart spending. The 90's gave that country more experience in dealing with prolonged deep recessions than anybody else - and more reason to question whether neo-Keynesian economics work. But why, if the US, UK, Australia, etc don't have a foggy clue about what to do and are still gathering information as you suggest they are, are they attempting to spend most of the
Oakman wrote:
But Geitner as the head of the quasi-public, quasi-private bank that headed the FR system in New York, the financial capital of the US, if not the world, should have been more able to know what he knew and more importantly, know what he didn't know and start finding out.
You seem to be assuming that he didn't. I don't think the fact that Geitner is showing public caution means anything more than that he is faced with a difficult problem and is deliberating about it carefully.
Oakman wrote:
And yet Paulson and Geitner got Congress to spend almost a trillion dollars providing cash without that knowledge; then Obama got a stimulus bill passed by a Congress that -- to a man - had not read what was in the bill. If the government lacks the information necessaryu to act - why is there such a rush to act?
I don't think the stimulus bill requires as much information as the financial rescue plan. Be that as it may, I think the answer to your question is that a judgement was made that a poorly designed intervention was better than none at all because of the dramatic deterioration in economic conditions. It was "emergency room medicine", if you like. I think that they now want the second installment of the financial rescue plan to have some of the thought go into it that ideally should have gone into the first installment.
Oakman wrote:
I get a kick out of the pressure being applied to Japan to come up with its own jumpstart spending. The 90's gave that country more experience in dealing with prolonged deep recessions than anybody else - and more reason to question whether neo-Keynesian economics work. But why, if the US, UK, Australia, etc don't have a foggy clue about what to do and are still gathering information as you suggest they are, are they attempting to spend most of the earnings not of me, but of my grandchildren?
Throughout most of the 90s, Japan grew and was not in recession. It merely failed to match the much higher growth rates of earlier decades. Japan had a long export-driven boom in the 70s and 80s (much to the detriment of the US car and consumer electronics industries --- and Australia's car industry, for that matter) and then faced increased competition from places like Taiwan and Korea in the 1990s. I think you are making too much out of the fact that Geitner wanted a little more time to develop the
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Oakman wrote:
But Geitner as the head of the quasi-public, quasi-private bank that headed the FR system in New York, the financial capital of the US, if not the world, should have been more able to know what he knew and more importantly, know what he didn't know and start finding out.
You seem to be assuming that he didn't. I don't think the fact that Geitner is showing public caution means anything more than that he is faced with a difficult problem and is deliberating about it carefully.
Oakman wrote:
And yet Paulson and Geitner got Congress to spend almost a trillion dollars providing cash without that knowledge; then Obama got a stimulus bill passed by a Congress that -- to a man - had not read what was in the bill. If the government lacks the information necessaryu to act - why is there such a rush to act?
I don't think the stimulus bill requires as much information as the financial rescue plan. Be that as it may, I think the answer to your question is that a judgement was made that a poorly designed intervention was better than none at all because of the dramatic deterioration in economic conditions. It was "emergency room medicine", if you like. I think that they now want the second installment of the financial rescue plan to have some of the thought go into it that ideally should have gone into the first installment.
Oakman wrote:
I get a kick out of the pressure being applied to Japan to come up with its own jumpstart spending. The 90's gave that country more experience in dealing with prolonged deep recessions than anybody else - and more reason to question whether neo-Keynesian economics work. But why, if the US, UK, Australia, etc don't have a foggy clue about what to do and are still gathering information as you suggest they are, are they attempting to spend most of the earnings not of me, but of my grandchildren?
Throughout most of the 90s, Japan grew and was not in recession. It merely failed to match the much higher growth rates of earlier decades. Japan had a long export-driven boom in the 70s and 80s (much to the detriment of the US car and consumer electronics industries --- and Australia's car industry, for that matter) and then faced increased competition from places like Taiwan and Korea in the 1990s. I think you are making too much out of the fact that Geitner wanted a little more time to develop the
John Carson wrote:
I don't think the fact that Geitner is showing public caution means anything more than that he is faced with a difficult problem and is deliberating about it carefully.
Then he shouldn't show up in Congress having been touted by others, including the President, as having "the plan," should he?
John Carson wrote:
It was "emergency room medicine", if you like
But, since I know one, I can assure you that Emergency Room specialists are highly trained generalists who have had years and years of experience dealing with the kinds of problems they face. It is hard to believe that Paulson and Geitner - both intimately involved in getting us into this mess, by the way - have had the experience in fixing these problems that would permit them to assume the mantle of ER specialist.
John Carson wrote:
Throughout most of the 90s, Japan grew and was not in recession
Throughout most of the nineteen thirties, the US economy grew but that was not of much comfort to the tens of thousands who remained underemployed.
John Carson wrote:
The US national debt is currently around 10 trillion, most of which was run up during the Bush Administration.
I was pointing out the growth of the debt from 2004 onwards - once it became clear that Rumsfeld intended on miring us down in Iraq for more than six months. However, Obama is not required to attempt to best his predecessor's record and do it in four years, to boot.
John Carson wrote:
Relative to GDP, the US debt is not out of line with that of other developed countries
I don't know why you think this would comfort me. Since the year 2000, the ratio in the US has increased from roughly 40% to roughly 60%. On a straight line projection, that would mean 90% by 2018 - and in things like this, straight line is the conservative projection, n'est-ce pas?
John Carson wrote:
but the IMF has also had some experience dealing with domestic financial crises.
Unfortunately, the IMF is still dependent on the G7 to provide the vast majority of their funding. As such they are still coming back to the same wells to fill their bucket. And the water is running out. As long as the IMF's answer is to get from to rich
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John Carson wrote:
I don't think the fact that Geitner is showing public caution means anything more than that he is faced with a difficult problem and is deliberating about it carefully.
Then he shouldn't show up in Congress having been touted by others, including the President, as having "the plan," should he?
John Carson wrote:
It was "emergency room medicine", if you like
But, since I know one, I can assure you that Emergency Room specialists are highly trained generalists who have had years and years of experience dealing with the kinds of problems they face. It is hard to believe that Paulson and Geitner - both intimately involved in getting us into this mess, by the way - have had the experience in fixing these problems that would permit them to assume the mantle of ER specialist.
John Carson wrote:
Throughout most of the 90s, Japan grew and was not in recession
Throughout most of the nineteen thirties, the US economy grew but that was not of much comfort to the tens of thousands who remained underemployed.
John Carson wrote:
The US national debt is currently around 10 trillion, most of which was run up during the Bush Administration.
I was pointing out the growth of the debt from 2004 onwards - once it became clear that Rumsfeld intended on miring us down in Iraq for more than six months. However, Obama is not required to attempt to best his predecessor's record and do it in four years, to boot.
John Carson wrote:
Relative to GDP, the US debt is not out of line with that of other developed countries
I don't know why you think this would comfort me. Since the year 2000, the ratio in the US has increased from roughly 40% to roughly 60%. On a straight line projection, that would mean 90% by 2018 - and in things like this, straight line is the conservative projection, n'est-ce pas?
John Carson wrote:
but the IMF has also had some experience dealing with domestic financial crises.
Unfortunately, the IMF is still dependent on the G7 to provide the vast majority of their funding. As such they are still coming back to the same wells to fill their bucket. And the water is running out. As long as the IMF's answer is to get from to rich
Oakman wrote:
Then he shouldn't show up in Congress having been touted by others, including the President, as having "the plan," should he?
You seem to me to be inordinately concerned with marketing details.
Oakman wrote:
I can assure you that Emergency Room specialists are highly trained generalists
After I wrote it, I thought that "battle field medicine" might be a better metaphor. Perhaps you will tell me that those people are pretty hot as well. In any event, the point is not my ability to come up with a good metaphor. The point is that the situation was urgent and there was no time to come up with a perfect plan. Obama put it well (albeit nor originally): we shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Oakman wrote:
Throughout most of the nineteen thirties, the US economy grew but that was not of much comfort to the tens of thousands who remained underemployed.
Yes, so the trick is to not let unemployment rise to 25% in the first place. Hence the urgency. That is my point.
Oakman wrote:
On a straight line projection, that would mean 90% by 2018 - and in things like this, straight line is the conservative projection, n'est-ce pas?
I don't think there is anything intrinsically conservative about a straight line projection. Debt was going down under Clinton. These things are matters of choice, not natural law.
Oakman wrote:
Unfortunately, the IMF is still dependent on the G7 to provide the vast majority of their funding. As such they are still coming back to the same wells to fill their bucket. And the water is running out. As long as the IMF's answer is to get from to rich to give to the poor, they are no answer for what ails the major powers.
I am not flying a big flag for the IMF. They are not going to be the saviour in all this. However, you are choosing to focus on one aspect of what it does and ignoring its general role in establishing and promoting regimes of financial regulation. That role gives it some relevant experience that could be tapped. That is all I am claiming.
John Carson