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Forums - General Discussion - Why Is Everyone a Fiscal Hawk NOW!

steven787 on 16 December 2008

People keep talking about "printing" too much money... ("printing" = buying bonds) That is not the US's problem right now. The US$ is over valued, along with the Yen. "A strong dollar" is not the same thing as an "Overweight dollar". When every other major economy on the planet is "printing" money like crazy, the US has no choice but to join in because it would kill US productivity if our money continues to outpace the Euro and the Pound. (Sorry, I don't feel like giving an economics lesson, someone else can explain why overweight currencies make for lower productivity.)



I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.

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Commando on 16 December 2008
akuma587 said:

Sorry, I just have to rant.  People act like the government is NOW wasting their money, but have conveniently forgotten that this has been going on for years.

Its ludicrous.  I have been saying for months and years that the deficits the government were running were unsustainable, but the deficits remained enormous.  Now that we are in a recession and there actually is a risk that the economy will slump into a depression, everyone is a fiscal conservative.  How ridiculous is this?

I just don't understand why people are so short-sighted.  NOW they care about being fiscally conservative.  What about the last eight years?  What the hell were they doing then?  Just turning their head while the government racked up innumerable debts while the economy was doing fine?  I'm just so frustrated that people are so hypocritical.  When the government has no need to be spending so much money, they don't care.  When the government probably should be spending the money so that the economy doesn't collapse, they think it is time to be a fiscal hawk.

Its just plain ridiculous, and everyone who now thinks the government is wasting the taxpayers' money but weren't protesting the deficits we have been running for the last eight years (excluding some of the recessionary periods such as after 9/11) is a flagrant hypocrite.

/End rant.

GREAT Post.  I really can't say much more than this.

People didn't see the egg until it started running down their face.

 



"Let justice be done though the heavens fall." - Jim Garrison

"Ask not your horse, if ye should ride into battle" - myself

akuma587 on 16 December 2008
steven787 said:

People keep talking about "printing" too much money... ("printing" = buying bonds) That is not the US's problem right now. The US$ is over valued, along with the Yen. "A strong dollar" is not the same thing as an "Overweight dollar". When every other major economy on the planet is "printing" money like crazy, the US has no choice but to join in because it would kill US productivity if our money continues to outpace the Euro and the Pound. (Sorry, I don't feel like giving an economics lesson, someone else can explain why overweight currencies make for lower productivity.)

Yeah, the dollar is artificially overvalued as of now due to the economic crisis.  Once things cool down, I'd expect it to plummet back down, especially when oil starts rising again.

But at least for now it will actually help us.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

steven787 on 16 December 2008
akuma587 said:
steven787 said:

People keep talking about "printing" too much money... ("printing" = buying bonds) That is not the US's problem right now. The US$ is over valued, along with the Yen. "A strong dollar" is not the same thing as an "Overweight dollar". When every other major economy on the planet is "printing" money like crazy, the US has no choice but to join in because it would kill US productivity if our money continues to outpace the Euro and the Pound. (Sorry, I don't feel like giving an economics lesson, someone else can explain why overweight currencies make for lower productivity.)

Yeah, the dollar is artificially overvalued as of now due to the economic crisis.  Once things cool down, I'd expect it to plummet back down, especially when oil starts rising again.

But at least for now it will actually help us.

 

But that's the thing, it doesn't help us.  China and India, our biggest customers for high tech goods, will go and buy from the EU because the Euro is cheap right now.  Europe, our best customer for machinery, will buy domestically or from China because the dollar is too expensive.  Meanwhile, low oil and other mineral prices mean further destabilization of oil producing countries and deeper poverty in South America, which will lead to food shortages... Where does the world buy its food from? America.

 



I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.

Commando on 16 December 2008

I just think it was a terrible idea to ditch the silver/gold standard in our money / mint. If our house of cards economy does collapse we won't even be able to melt down the coins.



"Let justice be done though the heavens fall." - Jim Garrison

"Ask not your horse, if ye should ride into battle" - myself

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akuma587 on 16 December 2008
Commando said:
I just think it was a terrible idea to ditch the silver/gold standard in our money / mint. If our house of cards economy does collapse we won't even be able to melt down the coins.

There was no reason to stick with a pegged standard, it wouldn't have helped anything.

Now something like a balanced budget amendment, THAT might do something.  Whether or not it would work is a different story.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson