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Borrowing from ourselves to make us appear richer.
invite response
2012 Apr 20, 2:53am 2,881 views 8 comments
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bubblesitter
2012 Apr 20, 3:26am
Borrowing from ourselves to make us appear richer.
No,we went one step further.
Borrowing from future generations to make us appear richer.
freak80
2012 Apr 20, 4:54am
If capitalism fails, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Seems like capitalism has a history of self-distruction. Capitalism is a lot like nuclear fission. It's great if it's got some regulation and direction. If not...meltdown!
For example, Glass-Stegall was put in place to prevent a meltdown. But we thought it was too old-fashioned and got rid of it.
FortWayne
2012 Apr 20, 8:03am
No,we went one step further.
Borrowing from future generations to make us appear richer.
Vicente
2012 Apr 20, 8:31am
This is needlessly vague thread.
Did we "borrow against ourselves" to fight WWII?
BIG TIME, with a debt-to-GDP of 120%.
Do you "borrow against yourself" when you take out a loan?
Yes you do.
If you want a pre-banking environment, you can find it.
If you want to envision a totally debt-free government, they wrote a paper about that once. It involved some worries over what happens when we have no Treasuries to market to the world and the consequences of that.
At least in WWII they sold War Bonds and they were clearly identified as paying for the war effort.
tdeloco
2012 Apr 20, 10:16am
At least in WWII they sold War Bonds and they were clearly identified as paying for the war effort.
Furthermore, all that debt was invested productively. This time around, we've been borrowing and throwing good money after bad.
Do you mean sec. 8 , WIC and food stamps for my friend Maricela paid for by debt might not be productive?
tdeloco
2012 Apr 20, 11:38am
Do you mean sec. 8 , WIC and food stamps for my friend Maricela paid for by debt might not be productive?
I mean bank bailouts and the like.
When the idea to borrow against ourselves first got tabled, someone should have been shot IMHO. Dead on the spot. As an example for the next stupid idea in the room of our best and brightest. If capitalism fails, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
"But the difference has been made up for with interest paid by the Treasury on the $2.6 trillion that the federal government owes the program."
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/20/news/economy/social_security_medicare/index.htm?iid=Lead