Tax Reform in This Election Year: It's Not Likely
Walmart's New Health Food Push: Is It Too Hard to Swallow?A digital clock in New York City counts up the U.S. National Debt. But the current administration broke the clock which only had enough digits to count up to $9,999,999,999,999. As Dick Cheney said, Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. I wonder whether this broken clock is proving Cheney wrong?
The clock has an interesting history. The now-deceased Manhattan real estate developer, Seymour Durst, built this sign in 1989 because he thought that the then $2.7 trillion debt was too high. The debt kept growing after he put up the sign but by the end of Bill Clinton's second term, it was down to around $5 trillion. Since January 2001, the national debt has grown to $11.3 trillion thanks to the $850 billion bailout bill.
The good news is that the clock, which currently counts the deficit by substituting a 1 for the $ sign that was there before, will be fixed next year -- adding two digits. Too bad fixing the clock won't make the U.S. economy any less perilous. At 81% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), our national debt is way above the 60% that the IMF considers to be a risky borrower.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-09-2008 @ 6:05PM
Fulvia said...
I'm really very very sad for this country, it's spiraling towards a great downfall. People had good jobs, and good benefits,but they had to strike and ask for more -greed is a killer-many steel companies in the U.S. closed, airlines like Pan American, Trans World Airways and many other, closed. People borrowing like there's no tomorrow to reckon with. Banks lending, even to the point of pushing people to borrow not caring if they are viable to pay back, even despite the fact that they know the person applying for a loan has very bad credit. Companies with very bad business practices borrowing as well, not able to pay back. Whatever happened to good sound wisdom like-Live within your means, Don't borrow if you know you can't pay it back, Save for a rainy day, by George rainy days do come and sometimes it's a deluge with mud slides,and that's what happening now. One more thing, I believe that all those big CEO that are probably enjoying themselves in the Bahamas, should be made to pay back and make restitution and brought to trial for their negligence and bad banking practices. You can't live your life like a gambling casino, much less a country. We all lose in the end.
10-09-2008 @ 10:12PM
Jetliner said...
Dear Fulvia,
Your sentiments strike a chord in almost every American ( except those that recently stated all was alright!). Unfortunately we have all lived through an era of lies and deceit mostly propagated by the White House and Wall Street who have had ample warning that the "whole barrel of fish" was starting to stink! Greed is a powerful force and many were led to believe that over-leveraging business was good and the free market society is fine while things are good, but when things go bad ( in any leveraged situation) everybody starts crying for help.
We are a society of people living beyond our means with overpriced lifestyles. It is peculiar to me that what the nation has needed for years is deflation, and we need it more now than yesterday. Yet the only deflation most of us see is in home prices and car prices. Energy has moderated , yet we still pay $0.60 to $0.75 per gallon more than we should?? Walk through a supermarket, has the price of food essentials dropped even as much as the grocer raised them to cover the cost of $145/bbl oil. Deflation will be healthy for this economy given all the government flushing of money, more importantly it will bring the prices we pay for almost everything back to the reality we yearn rather than the "dream" that has truned into a nightmare.
10-10-2008 @ 12:26AM
Blabrmouth said...
If this post isn't poetic I don't know what is. We broke the friggin' debt clock. Go figure. It's like the Mayan calender, isn't the world supposed to end now?