So it wasn't really the debt ceiling after all? One asks the question based upon the reaction of the markets?
I recognize that Wall Street is not the economy, but the confidence of the investors buying and selling stocks is, to some degree, a reflection of the confidence people have in the overall US Economy.
I hope tomorrow is better.
Regards — Cliff
2 comments:
Why would tomorrow be better? The largest consumer in the economy is cutting back and going to cut more, and more importantly the main problem is being ignored: the fact that the American people think somehow we can get it for free. It's a giant bubble and we need to come to grips with that. We need to restructure health care where there are no curbs or incentives for cost and the free market isn't working (or it is working as it should all too well in an unregulated world). AND it isn't free, and we can't grow our way out of it and someday will have to pay for it: revenue.
Actually, the percentage of Americans "who think somehow we can get it for free" is right around 51%. That is the current percentage of folks who pay ZERO income taxes (aka in Demcratic parlance "revenue"). I think the balance of folks are quite willing to pay for government services...the ones that are essential..but not for things like handing out government funded condoms to 12 year old boys in school.....or building bridges to nowhere.....or using tax money to help build extravagant memorials to people who have died. Health care is one of the things that government DOESN'T do well.....and its constant involvement drives up costs by the CMS's own admission.
We CAN grow our way out of it provided that we create a climate that encourages private sector growth and that means not penalizing business while rewarding sloth. The alternative is Big Government providing more than it can afford to more and more who can't and won't pay for it.
Regulation is NOT the panacea as very often the regulators only regulate that which doesn't impact their own self interest. Moreover, regulation only means greater and greater expansion of government, the least cost effective investment a society can make...other than providing for its defense...and even that has proven under bipartisan self aggrandizement to be cost ineffective.
But no worry, in order to take care of the unable and the unwilling, we intend to gut the Defense capability to the estimated tune of $850B over the next decade. That figure is likely to grow as folks trade future security for immediate gratification.
As King George said, speaking on behalf of the EU to the colonists, "You can run but you'll only submit tired to European collectivism."
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