Friday, August 5, 2011

Wait a minute, I thought tough talk on the debt was supposed to help! You mean it didn't? Who could've guessed!

I feel behind on the news after being out of town, but this whole stock market thingy sounds important.

5 comments:

  1. We got some tough talk on debt certainly - all talk.

    Best take I have seen on our current situation: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-problem-with-this-market-crash-2011-8

    I really don't think it matters what economic school you belong to anymore.

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  2. Right, Gary. Daniel, you are setting up a straw man. No austerian [sic] in his right mind ever said, "If politicians make speeches saying they will get tough on the debt, that will help."

    If the budget deal actually balanced the budget within the next 3 years, and the stock market tanked, then you'd have a point.

    As it is, at best it allows annual average spending of $4.25 trillion, which is higher than the current year's "emergency" level. (I'm relying on Russ Roberts' calculations.)

    So no Daniel, if anything this proves that the austerians are right, and continued deficit spending isn't the solution.

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  3. This is what you austerians always do. When your policy doesn't work you always say "well we just didn't DO ENOUGH austerity".

    We have a situation where the politicians think they have actually accomplished something, and neither side is happy. I am no more setting up a straw man than you are when you say that this is an example of any kind of "continued deficit spending" that I would recognize as helpful. I did not title this post "Now Gary and Bob got what they wanted and the stock market crashed".

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  4. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/complete-slide-deck-ongoing-citi-us-downgrade-conference-call

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