REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Re: Gross Public Debt

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Thursday, July 28, 2011 16:15
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 11:52 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Kiki wrote:
Quote:

So anyway - any sane adults care to have a discussion?

I was wondering about the graph - how can we have an even higher per-GDP debt load in the 40s and 50s and have a booming economy, while today it's staggering under less load? And when you look around the world you see similar patterns. Singapore with a very high debt load is thriving. Countries with lower debt loads are stumbling.

So I think the debt per se has very little to do with economic health.

What I think marks the 40s and 50s in the US is the aggressive Eisenhower redistribution of wealth. Top tax rates were at 91%. And I suspect corporate taxes were higher than now. Now, maybe the reason was to pay down the debt, but the effect was to move wealth from the dead-end holdings of the very wealthy back into the economy.

Anyone have any historical or other tidbits or thoughts to share about this?

Kiki asked some very good questions, so what the heck, I'll put it up and see if anyone wants to discuss this. I even shrunk the chart and uploaded it so we could all see it.



I take it the pertinent question is "how can we have an even higher per-GDP debt load in the 40s and 50s and have a booming economy, while today it's staggering under less load?"

Anyone?


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off



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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:25 PM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

The problem with the current economy is that it doesn't consider value created by real world products and labour.

1950s, US was in debt, but it was the one standing economy left in the world that was still PRODUCING things with a real world value.

Now, not so much. We do still produce some things, but either much of it is going over seas, or it is resources that are quickly consumed and have questionable value (bullets, bombs).

Also, not near as much debt in #dollars.



Quote:

As someone who scrimps and works and pays for everything in cash because of it, including college, I am concerned about the debt. But moreso I'm concerned about who OWNS the debt and credit economies.

That ground looks very unstable from where I'm standing. Especially when you factor in corporate greed and the real world products with tangible monetary value being mostly overseas. IMO, our money only seems to have value because we say it has value. That concerns me. All the social programs we have, all of it would be for nothing if our economy collapsed, and what's more, we'd be talking all of us in a great depression -maybe-famine kinda setting.

That's not getting into other stuff I think about, like more robust safety nets and alternative economics.

That said, I thiiiink I'm okay raising the debt ceiling, and I'm even okay raising taxes for now, but I also really think we need to cut out some of the spending and pay some of this back somehow. In the very least so it doesn't get held over us and we're forced into stuff that's basically slavery or "kill us all."



Gonna get my ass attacked for this, but generally that's my answer.

Also, economy discussions make Bytemite

Not my forte or my most favourite thing ever.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:59 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


I agree with virtually everything you said, Byte. We definitely need to cut, I don't think ANYONE disagrees with that, but I'd like to see it an issue over which we and our lives aren't not held hostage. Raise the damned thing, then get SERIOUS about cutting, and let the Bush tax cut expire for the wealthy. What ever happened to "shared suffering"? What suffering are THEY sharing, exactly?

It's too bad we can't get some common-sense politicians in there. We need cuts AND REVENUE to dig our way out of this, and instead they've made it so all of us will most certainly pay dearly just for the delays. The world has to be watching us and shaking it's head with a sad smile...once great country won't even be able to pay their debt. What a shame.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off



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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:08 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Yup, you CAN have the debt actually be more than the GDP at times, and not have it be a calamity, and still have a robust economy.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:25 PM

BYTEMITE


And bad lending practices and bad policy from the Federal Reserve causing people to lose their homes and jobs left and right is not such a positive economic sign.

Depends on the KIND of debt, Kwicko, as well as the market itself, before you can go and call an economy robust.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:37 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Originally posted by Bytemite:
And bad lending practices and bad policy from the Federal Reserve causing people to lose their homes and jobs left and right is not such a positive economic sign.

Depends on the KIND of debt, Kwicko, as well as the market itself, before you can go and call an economy robust.



True. And I certainly wouldn't call THIS economy "robust", even though we're technically OUT of the recession now (but it sure as hell doesn't FEEL like it!). Just pointing out that debt in and of itself is not a bad thing.

If I take out a $250,000 mortgage to buy a house, that's quite a bit different than if I take out $250,000 in debt, buy a shitload of cocaine and snort myself into oblivion. Same debt amount, but totally different outcomes! :)



"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:39 PM

BYTEMITE


...ehhh...

No comment.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:48 PM

FREMDFIRMA



Well don't look at me - I support neither Keyesian OR Austrian economics, seeing both as a thin tissue of lies over a ponzi scheme, something I point out often enough with "Eleventh Round/Marble" parables.

One thing we should do is start backing the currency with something tangible - of course Siggy pointed out we don't HAVE enough tangible asset to do it, but at least as a start we could do a partial backing, and slowly reduce the currency instead of inflating it - which is a stealth tax on the poor by robbing the currency they ALREADY have of it's value in order to enrich the shitheads who can print out as much as they want anyhow.

Oh, and of course, quit spending so much resource and effort on war-war-war, which is a no brainer for anyone who HAS any brains.

But honestly I know fuck-all about economics, and seems like every time someone tries to explain it to me I wind up poking holes in and calling bullshit on, damn near every sentence out of their mouth, ergo I am forced to regard the "science" of economics as a religion, since it seems based on myth and lies instead of concrete facts.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:50 PM

FREMDFIRMA


Quote:

Originally posted by Kwicko:
If I take out a $250,000 mortgage to buy a house, that's quite a bit different than if I take out $250,000 in debt, buy a shitload of cocaine and snort myself into oblivion. Same debt amount, but totally different outcomes! :)


Unless you bought that house in Detroit, that is...


-Frem
you were begging that one, mikey, and you know it!

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 2:13 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Quote:

Originally posted by Kwicko:
If I take out a $250,000 mortgage to buy a house, that's quite a bit different than if I take out $250,000 in debt, buy a shitload of cocaine and snort myself into oblivion. Same debt amount, but totally different outcomes! :)


Unless you bought that house in Detroit, that is...


-Frem
you were begging that one, mikey, and you know it!




Location, location, location!

Buying a home in Detroit seems quite a bit like buying an invasion in Iraq. Costly, never really regains its value, and has a nasty tendency to leave a body count - all too often caused by those who are the so-called "protecters" and having the goddam run of the place!

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 3:10 PM

BYTEMITE


Frem: yay!

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 3:59 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Originally posted by Bytemite:
Frem: yay!




More agreement.

Might be time for a Hot Dog Summit!

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:15 PM

DREAMTROVE




The end of that graph is deceptive, it assumes things about the debt and the gdp which are not so. We're already at an all time high i believe, and no, it was never sustainable.

Also, the 1945 economic crisis was alleviated by the fact that other nations held huge debts to the US, most of which were paid, which is not the case today.

Also, our GDP today is inflated, and the debt is deflated. I would say it would be more honest to say we have a debt of 19.3 trillion since the govt. Acknowledges that, and our more accurate GDP when you exclude internation non-industrial and overseas corporations, ie, take it down to the taxable is closer to 7 trillion.

Our govt, spends more than twice what the second biggest spending (china) spends, or over four times when you accept we have two govts: federal and state, and we have 1/4 the population.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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