For whom the bell tolls

In response to an article about Mr. Obama's economic policies, I posted a comment on some blog the other day to the effect that Mr. Obama had doomed his presidency while still a senator by voting for the preposterous, disastrous Bush bailout last October. Mr. Obama, I wrote, has accepted the borrow-and-spend approach of Mr. Bush and raised the ante by trillions. Colossal new debt will not fix a depression caused by colossal prior debt, I argued, because debt is not wealth and we will not be better off by going deeper into debt. I concluded that Mr. Obama, like Mr. Bush before him, will devastate the American economy and that Mr. Obama will soon rival Mr. Bush as the worst president of the 21st century.

Another poster made a snide comment that nobody understands what is going on (even though people pretend such understanding), and that we Americans should sit back and watch and let Mr. Obama work his magic and see what happens. I wanted to reply (but refrained) that if this poster does not understand what is going on, the reason is that he has not bothered to find out, but other people do indeed understand because they have read and studied sound economics and are able to apply their knowledge to the world they live in. I've written before about the astounding lack of literacy in America and that the government's own Adult Literacy Survey reveals that fully 80% of adult Americans lack sufficient literacy to read and correctly understand an edition of USA TODAY. So I'm not surprised that this poster doesn't understand what is happening all around him; apparently he's one of that 80% who couldn't find out even if they tried. "Let's wait and see what happens to us" is not the approach to life of a literate, informed, responsible person, especially in these increasingly desperate times.

So I refer you to another of Paul Craig Roberts' articles in which he argues just what I argued: crushing debt will crush us. The scale of this year's budget deficit is staggering; currently it is approaching $3 trillion. Put this sum in perspective. Mr. Bush was the first president to submit a $2 trillion budget (deficit included) early in his presidency, and a few years later he was the first president to submit a $3 trillion budget (deficit included). That's his miserable legacy. Now Mr. Obama proposes a budget deficit that alone exceeds the total federal budget of just a year or two ago! And he says that he must maintain multi-trillion dollar budget deficits for years to come. Who will pay for this? What fool would loan America a penny under these circumstances? Paul Craig Roberts will tell you.

Read it here