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[akachan ningen]

If you got your data/analysis from blogs, don't even bother sourcing it.

Thing is, you probably could come up with the same gloom and doom scenarios by doing some actual research into credible sources.

Also, America will be fine. Relax. Yeah, we need to fix some things. But we've been through worse.

sounds like normalcy bias to me.

 

[ixix]

Has anyone checked out the links that they use for a source for this infographic? Judging by the URLs alone, they sound like conspiracy websites.

Well at a glance, thetruthwins.com has convenient links to eBay auctions for gold coins, silver coins, and iPods, which leads me to conclude that somewhere out there in the vast aether there exists a school of thought which recommends hoarding MP3 players as a hedge against inflation.

I find this idea delightful.

 

[louis89]

1. Reduce defence spending
2. Introduce a reasonable level of taxation

Crisis averted

 

[Plasmid]

using the US to get my doctorate, then going to italy or somewhere else to practice psychology.

 

[jay]

C'mon. Do you really believe that the worry over the massive amount of accumulating debt is nothing but a scare tactic used to cut welfare programs? Have you seen the projected debt numbers In 10 years?
The interest payments alone will be hard to manage.

The question he asked was how are unemployment and price of gas directly related to the deficit, which is what I was interested in hearing answers to.

 

[Chichikov]

Letting Bush tax cuts expire may help things, but unless we have meaningful entitlement reform it wouldnt make much of a difference. I would hope that we can all agree that things can't continue on the current course.

You keep saying that, but you're not backing it up with facts.
Also, you're wrong.

 

[Kosmo]

1. Reduce defence spending
2. Introduce a reasonable level of taxation

Crisis averted

3. Go back on the gold (or some commodity) standard.
4. Tell those we owe debt to "Hey, fuck off, we're not paying that."

 

[ToxicAdam]

Wait .. Obama and the Democrats had the power to end the Bush tax cuts. They should be relabeled the Obama tax cuts now.

 

[jay]

Wait .. Obama and the Democrats had the power to end the Bush tax cuts. They should be relabeled the Obama tax cuts now.

That can't be true; I hear Obama is the most liberal president we have ever had.

 

[AntoneM]

Wait .. Obama and the Democrats had the power to end the Bush tax cuts. They should be relabeled the Obama tax cuts now.

No, actually they didn't. They didn't have the super-majority necessary in the Senate to override the Republican filibuster.

 

[Clevinger]

Wait .. Obama and the Democrats had the power to end the Bush tax cuts.

At the expense of poor and middle class tax hikes.

 

[vicissitudes]

Most of these stats are crap and aren't even relevant to the statement in the thread title.

Examples:

Debt will top $13.6 trillion in 2011 (so what? The number by itself means very little. As a percentage of GDP we're nowhere near historically high levels)

The U.S. has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007 (it's a recession, of course tons of jobs are lost)

55% of the U.S. has experienced unemployment/reduced hours/part-time work (they could have experienced this years, or decades ago. That's not made clear. Also, is this higher than it was in years past? No idea.)

The average American spends 23% on food and gas (is that higher than before? Lower? Gas prices are near record-highs, but $4/galloon will hardly bankrupt the U.S.)

For the first time in history, more than 40 million are on food stamps (and the population of the U.S. is larger than ever before in history.....again the number by itself means nothing)


You get the idea.

 

[Chichikov]

No, actually they didn't. They didn't have the super-majority necessary in the Senate to override the Republican filibuster.

That's not true.
The tax cuts were extended and signed into law by Obama.

 

[AntoneM]

That's not true.
The tax cuts were extended and signed into law by Obama.

Technically, what I said is true because an Obama veto wouldn't have ended the tax cuts, it would have just sent the bill back to congress. Obama and the Democrats couldn't end the tax cuts because they couldn't override the filibuster.

 

[Chichikov]

Technically, what I said is true because an Obama veto wouldn't have ended the tax cuts, it would have just sent the bill back to congress. Obama and the Democrats couldn't end the tax cuts because they couldn't override the filibuster.

Again, this is not how it happened.
There was no filibuster and a filibuster wouldn't have helped them anyway.
Those tax cuts were scheduled to expire, and you only needed inaction to make it happen.
There was a new bill (The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010), it was voted on, and passed with a massive bipartisan majority.

And a veto would've ended the tax cuts, but that bill had a veto proof majority.

 

[AntoneM]

Again, this is not how it happened.
There was no filibuster and a filibuster wouldn't have helped them anyway.
Those tax cuts were scheduled to expire, and you only needed inaction to make it happen.
There was a new bill (The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010), it was voted on, and passed with a massive bipartisan majority.

sorry about the stealth edit

Goddamnit, I forgot about the self expiring language in the law.

 

[Chichikov]

It's not really stealth edit if you apologize for it, now is it?

worst. ninja. ever.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

America is "too big to fail". The other nations of the world wouldn't allow the US to default on its debts, period, because it would destroy the economies of all the other nations too. In that sense, the US will get a bailout if needs one, the same as the big investment banks.

 

[Jackl]

1. Reduce defence spending
2. Introduce a reasonable level of taxation

Crisis averted

Not enough. Defense spending is huge, but is only a fraction of our budget. Even without defense you'd have to raise taxes 1trillion+ to make up the deficit. Anything else is just continuing to grow the debt.

It comes down to if it's not entitlements? It's gotta go. Anything that is detrimental to operation of the country get tax increases for funding.

I find it difficult to believe the rich are going to "pay more" with our convoluted tax code. Gotta remember who really owns Wash DC.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Technically, what I said is true because an Obama veto wouldn't have ended the tax cuts, it would have just sent the bill back to congress. Obama and the Democrats couldn't end the tax cuts because they couldn't override the filibuster.

No, you are definitely wrong. Congress leadership could have chose to never bring the issue to the floor and they would have all expired. A threat of a veto made no difference.


The Democrats chickened out. They sought a compromise by trying to make the middle/lower class cuts permanent and letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire. Republicans wouldn't go along with that.


Krugman

 

[marrec]

he's probably sourcing those because they aggregate lots of stats there. they are probably nutty sites but that doesn't mean this stuff isn't real. This is the same stuff that Ron Paul says every time he's on TV.

Wow, you really aren't helping me believe these facts by saying that Ron Paul espouses them.

 

[Jackl]

Most of these stats are crap and aren't even relevant to the statement in the thread title.

Examples:

Debt will top $13.6 trillion in 2011 (so what? The number by itself means very little. As a percentage of GDP we're nowhere near historically high levels)

True, but our current rate of deficit spending is extreme. With projections running around 1trillion till 2020 our total federal debt may double within that period.

We currently spend 200billion on interest with low rates. Should nominal rates return with that amount of debt we could be in serious trouble. Dealing with the deficit now is much better then market imposed austerity in the form of 1trillion+ interest payments later.