Saturday, May 02, 2009

A Little Perspective

Honestly! Can somebody stop this train wreck? I want off!

8 comments:

Cap'n Franko said...

Hi,

I don't remember if I've ever commented here before but I do read you. I referenced you in a post I just made. If you'd prefer not to be mentioned in that context, lemme know and I'll delete you.

We differ sociopolitically but agree that unschooling rocks!

My post is here

Stephanie said...

Thanks to Frank I just found you!
Another Libertarian Unschooler, woohoo :)

Wendy said...

Ditto what Stephanie said. I'm not quite Libertarian (there are some social issues I disagree with) and it's great to find another one out there. :-)

Stephanie said...

I'm sorry I actually just assumed you were Libertarian, so sorry if you aren't.

Cap'n Franko said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog after I pinged you like this.

See you at Good Vibrations! Maybe we can grab some adult beverages and discuss sociopolitical philosophies!

Rene Benthien said...

That's presentation was a little misleading.

The new deal was 3.5% of the US GDP for 8 years. The stimulus is only 2.5% per year for only 2 years.

Many economists (Krugman, who has been predicting this for the past few years, Solow, Stiglitz, Johnson) say this is below the spending needed to steer clear of the abyss. They are calling for 3% plus of the GDP.

The question "...wow can spending get us out of this mess" is also misleading. Spending did not get us here. It was deregulation of financial securities and bad loans. The pre-existing deficit in the United States is making it harder to get out of this recession, because we can't provide the stimulus that is actually needed.

I'm an Australian. Here there was no deficit before this recession. Plus we had much tighter regulations on the financial markets. But our economy is minuscule compared to yours, and you guys are dragging us into your recession. Thanks very much! :)

Rene Benthien said...

sorry I should have said 'spending isn't the only think that got us here.'

Spending and excessive credit are obviously things that contributed. Their main contribution is that now that we actually NEED to spend, we are finding it hard to do so from both a political and financial perspective.

Unknown said...

All I can say is wow! That is scary.