Posts in "Economics"

By Sam Swedberg at 3:50PM

Feb 8, 2010

$107 Trillion

social uh oh

In 2009 alone we had $107 trillion worth of unfunded liabilites, 10 times our national debt. Unfunded liabilities are the difference between the promised benefits of current and future generations and the amount of taxes and Medicare premiums collected. How long will the American people, especially the younger generations, allow blatent stealing of their money for programs they'll never benefit from anyway? I haven't met anyone who is complacent about money they've rightfully earned, yet most people still don't bat an eye when looking at their paychecks. Is it based on a blind faith that government will always provide? Whatever the reason may be, something must change. The sooner the better.

This article from the National Center for Policy Analysis is a great tool for anyone interested in arguing why Medicare or Social Security should be scrapped.

Posted in:

Add new comment

By Luke Walker at 12:22PM

Feb 7, 2010

Jon Stewart Defends Ron Paul Against Fox News

My biggest criticism/question of the "Tea Party" movement as it has grown into a national phenomena has been, Where were all these protesters of big spending and big government when the Bush administration was doing all of the same things the Obama administration is doing? In a recent interview with Jon Stewart on Bill O'Reilly's "The Factor" Jon brought up this very point. Though in the process he asked something that made me take back all of my criticisms of Mr. Stewart over the past year.

Jon Stewart: "Here's another thing about the Tea Party Movement. Where was the anger? When we were spent into a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit under the Bush Administration. This has appeared out of no-where."

Bill O'Reilly: "It should have been there, and I'm partially to blame for that."

Jon Stewart: "Then why did Fox News not treat Ron Paul better? When he's been talking about this stuff for the past 8 years... 10 years."

O'Reilly of course shrugs it off and not only dodges the question but scoffs at the notion that Ron Paul is to be taken serious. Hats off to Jon Stewart for proving the point that Fox News is the same ole' propaganda machine for the Neo-Conservatives. Forward to the 6 minute mark of this clip to hear the exchange.

Posted in:

6 comments

By Matt Ciepielowski at 3:46PM

Feb 5, 2010

Americans Say "No" to Keynes

According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 70% of Americans think that deficit spending should be decreased in tough economic times. Rasmussen goes on to say:

Rejection of Keynesian economics is found across demographic and partisan lines. Republicans and those not affiliated with either major party overwhelmingly reject the notion that increasing the deficit is the right prescription in difficult economic times. Among Democrats, 21% agree with the Keynesian approach, and 47% do not.

We're all Keynesians now, indeed.

Posted in:

1 comment

By Joseph Gauthier at 7:06AM

Feb 5, 2010

Should NASA Return to the Moon?

As an aerospace engineering student at The University of Texas at Austin, I am particularly affected by this decision. In addition, I have reaped the benefits associated with funding NASA:

zerogravity
(this picture was taken aboard NASA's Weightless Wonder)

I will admit that I once dreamed of working at NASA. Not anymore. In approaching any problem, I often desire to comprehend the underlying principles. This time is no different. One cannot deny that there are benefits to returning to the moon. According to NASA, a few reasons to return to the moon are:

To "[extend] human presence to the moon to enable eventual settlement."
To "[pursue] scientific activities that address fundamental questions about the history of Earth, the solar system and the universe - and about our place in them."

Government Massively Underestimates Severity of Recession

What a surprise. From CNN Money:

As bad as the government's jobs readings numbers have been during the Great Recession, we'll soon find out the real situation likely was worse.
Much worse.
Job losses during the recession may have been underestimated by close to a million jobs. So instead of employers cutting just over 7 million jobs from their payrolls since the economic downturn began in December 2007, it's expected that the Labor Department's new estimate will be a loss of 8 million jobs.
"It's an enormous understatement of the severity of the crisis," said Heidi Shierholz, labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a union-supported think tank. "It confirms that things were actually worse on the ground than what the reports suggested."

Getting Worse

Times are rough out there -- but to what extent?

When it comes to the economy we found out today that it's in even worse shape then we were originally lead to believe. It seems there was a slight lack of transparancy when it came to the true job loss levels. This is not too shocking considering its coming from an administration that talks about transparancy from behind closed doors.

It turns out there were almost a million more jobs lost from April 2008 to March 2009 that weren't reported. This fudging of the job market numbers is an annual occurance but it just so happens this was the largest one in 18 years. Who knows, maybe next year the government can break their '08-'09 record?

Posted in:

3 comments

By Bonnie Kristian at 12:51PM

Feb 3, 2010

With government, "change" almost always means a change to more government.

And "bringing new ideas to Washington" means new ideas for how to spend your money. Bush's budgets were horrific, of course, but Obama has definitely made things worse (particularly note that large increase in aggressive war -- er, defense -- spending):

Click on the image for a larger view.

Posted in:

Add new comment

By Seth Man at 12:28PM

Feb 3, 2010

Federal Spending as Share of GDP

From Cato via BigGovernment.com:

Federal Spending

Posted in:

Add new comment

By Roy Antoun at 3:56PM

Feb 2, 2010

Deficit & Debt: Goodbye American Power

The United States has an interesting role in global markets. Since World War II, the US has entangled itself in superfluous alliances and Keynesian markets, engaging in the same illusory markets as its European counterparts. As Jihan discussed, we have recently learned that President Barack Obama’s proposed federal budget may put the United States' economic legitimacy in even greater risk than it has been before for several reasons. Primary, our deficit is running off “nearly 11 percent of the country’s entire economic output.” But as the NY Times has stated, most deficits are usually brought down during peacetime. However, with the way the United States has been handling foreign policy as of recent, any form of “peacetime” seems like an ocean away from any “hope.”

From NYT - Carrying the Budget

“How long can the world’s biggest borrower remain the world’s biggest power?”

That question was asked by Obama's Chief Economic Adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, one year ago. It's a question worth asking, because America's skyrocketing deficits will eventually have a global political impact. This is a chilling wake up call for those who believe arrogantly that the U.S is immune to the bankruptcies of empires in the pages of our history books.

The coming year's projected deficit (not the national debt -- just this year's deficit) is about 11% of the country's economic output. Meanwhile, deficits are not anticipated to return to sustainable levels over the next decade but to increase by 2019 or 2020 by about 5% of the gross domestic product.