Engyo
Prince of Dorkness!
This one is on the money (emphasis below mine):
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Debt hysteria in Washington
Here are two numbers: 9.2% and 3.03%.
The first is the June unemployment rate.
The second is the interest rate of a 10-year U.S. treasury bond last Friday.
Youd never know this from watching our political debate. Washington has whipped itself into hysteria about our fiscal situation. High unemployment seems to prompt nothing much more than ritual hand-wringing. But the debt and the purportedly existential threat it poses to our national future is the invariable occasion of panic. We are going broke! Inflation is just around the corner! Terrible things are going to happen if we dont do something this very instant! And anybody who doesnt agree just doesnt get it! Indeed, an observer might think that our unemployment rate was 3.03% and the rate on a 10-year bond was 9.2%.
We do face an immediate economic crisis. Its called unemployment. And the reality is even worse than the 9.2% figure. The labor participation rate is the lowest since 1984, suggesting that large numbers of Americans have given up looking for work.
We do not face an immediate debt crisis. Indeed, the U.S. government can borrow money at some of the lowest rates in 50 years. If we fail to raise the debt ceiling, we can expect rates to rise, perhaps sharply. But that would be an entirely self-inflicted wound that has nothing to do with our national debt and everything to do with our batty politics.
Should we address our debt? Of course, but now is not the time to cut government expenditures. Yet our political class the serious people who make our policy and shape our discourse seems hell-bent on repeating the errors of Herbert Hoover.
See Santayana on history repeating itself.
Speaking of which: the last time I saw Washington in such a tizzy was when we were getting ready to invade Iraq. All the serious people knew what we had to do then, too. We all know how well that worked out.
Joe Barnes is the Baker Institutes Bonner Means Baker Fellow. From 1979 to 1993, he was a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, serving in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Debt hysteria in Washington | Baker Institute Blog | a Chron.com blog
*************************************************************************
Debt hysteria in Washington
Here are two numbers: 9.2% and 3.03%.
The first is the June unemployment rate.
The second is the interest rate of a 10-year U.S. treasury bond last Friday.
Youd never know this from watching our political debate. Washington has whipped itself into hysteria about our fiscal situation. High unemployment seems to prompt nothing much more than ritual hand-wringing. But the debt and the purportedly existential threat it poses to our national future is the invariable occasion of panic. We are going broke! Inflation is just around the corner! Terrible things are going to happen if we dont do something this very instant! And anybody who doesnt agree just doesnt get it! Indeed, an observer might think that our unemployment rate was 3.03% and the rate on a 10-year bond was 9.2%.
We do face an immediate economic crisis. Its called unemployment. And the reality is even worse than the 9.2% figure. The labor participation rate is the lowest since 1984, suggesting that large numbers of Americans have given up looking for work.
We do not face an immediate debt crisis. Indeed, the U.S. government can borrow money at some of the lowest rates in 50 years. If we fail to raise the debt ceiling, we can expect rates to rise, perhaps sharply. But that would be an entirely self-inflicted wound that has nothing to do with our national debt and everything to do with our batty politics.
Should we address our debt? Of course, but now is not the time to cut government expenditures. Yet our political class the serious people who make our policy and shape our discourse seems hell-bent on repeating the errors of Herbert Hoover.
See Santayana on history repeating itself.
Speaking of which: the last time I saw Washington in such a tizzy was when we were getting ready to invade Iraq. All the serious people knew what we had to do then, too. We all know how well that worked out.
Joe Barnes is the Baker Institutes Bonner Means Baker Fellow. From 1979 to 1993, he was a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, serving in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Debt hysteria in Washington | Baker Institute Blog | a Chron.com blog