America needs to just do what Iceland did......Jail all the corrupt bankers

That is a very wreckless thing to do.  Why do you think other countries would be so reluctant to stop trading with the USA?  Looking into the not-so-distant future, China and South America will usurp the US as the trade giants of the world.  Do you realize that China's middle class is larger than ours now?  They're growing while we're rapidly vanishing.  We're vanishing because our currency is collapsing, our work force is shrinking, we live far beyond our means, and we're no longer in a competitive arena with which to do global business.

Taxes, regulations, etc... it all sounds good in a speech and on paper, but you can't force businesses to come to the US, and they won't come here if they can't make a profit. That's what we're seeing right now.  Our relevance to the rest of the world is rapidly fading.   We're not a special case... we have to work hard at being competitive or we will be left in the dust.  Way too many people have their heads buried in the sand over that simple reality.

You cannot simply 'default so it doesn't exist anymore'.  We owe that money to China, Japan, western Europe, Singapore, etc... they need to be paid back.  With interest.  Before too long, the interest alone on the national debt will exceed our annual GDP.  We're suffocating over here and most people don't even realize it.  We're too busy giving people food stamps and 99 weeks of unemployment.

just shows you how much we suck

I dunno, it's worked out pretty well for Germany, Australia, New Zealand... pretty much every country that avoided major financial crisises.

Additionally it's paying off well for Ireland.

Really it's all a matter of what you mean by work. 

Does Austerity fix the problems right away?   No.   However lack of austerity causes problems to last longer, because government spending can not create real growth, but only assisted growth, which doesn't properly represent the market, and therefore causes a longer reorginization, where when goverment money is pulled away, stuff that relied on such money failed.

So really it's a matter of, do you want Austeroty, and then bottom out quickly and recovery quickly.

Or do you want more spending, and have a very slow very weak recovery for a while, followed by another drop/stalling forever as everybody has to readjust to an economy that doesn't really work.

Me, i'd rather have a short amount of hardship with a quick recovery that puts us far ahead of where we would be as we try and gently pull on a bandage.

This.

Yep they are really the whole reason for the debt.

Funny how they never have anything smart to say but to talk down on me. LOL

First off...there isn't any money in the "Social Security Trust fund".

You can tell this, because Obama said the first thing that would go if we hit the debt ceiling was payments to people owed social security.

If there was money to be paid there....

Secondly, according to your own previous views, it was the republicans who last balanced a budget.   Underneath Clinton.

Thirdly, you can't really blame Iraq and Afganistan for the GFC if your advocating stimulus based Neokeynsian economics... this is the kind of thing that shows the difference between studying economics and holding a more liberal view, and just political hackery where you claim everything you don't like is bad for every single thing ever and never holds any positive thing ever.

Afgahnistan and Iraq were huge government spending vehciles, which should of boosted the economy according to neokeynsian economics.  Note how they are the last lot that believed WW2 got us out of the last world war.   Basically any reason you can blame Iraq and Afgahnistan for causing the GFC are reasons you would use AGAINST stimulus based economics.

sounds like you already have your mind made up about the situation. But in my opinion, democrats are just as much to blame.

It's funny how this is all spinned to look like it's just republicans fault. And I love how you assume everyone gets their news from fox news. Even if they did, it doesn't mean their stupid or uneducated. But believing that wrong news only comes from fox news and their sound bites makes whatever your studying sound irrelevant to anyone that wants to actually think for themselves.

Is that why gas is $4 a gallon these days?

And I thought it was 4 words that led us in to war with Iraq... weapons of mass destruction.

The government establishes markets/money and do have the money. You cut when your economy is good and spend when it is down. It brings the economy back up.  We have no problem selling bonds. Just forget it, People on this site don't get the difference between a government and a house hold.