I'll try to come back to the Canada issue as I used to use their '90s fiscal austerity as an example to support US fiscal spending reduction until I better understood elements like sectoral balances.

That household debt-to-GDP ratio is a good start, though. As the USA's Government sector became a larger net spender (fiscal deficit), the household sector went from being a net spender (household deficit) to a net saver (household surplus) which allowed a big reduction in household debt-to-GDP. The current account (aka trade) balance was a deficit the whole time.

Meanwhile, Canada has been running a household deficit for the past several years, ever since its government sector starting running balanced/surplus fiscal balance of payments and a current account (aka trade) surplus.

More recently, with the global financial crisis, the Canadian government sector has been deficit spending - but not as much as the USA as a % of GDP - and has moved to a trade deficit. Corporations are net saving but households still are not.

 

 

 

We have come full circle.

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I'll be pushing my kids for an education beyond high school, but I'm not sure that education will include college in the traditional sense.

 

I will tell you in a million years I just could NOT see this coming....

Fitch Threatens to Lower US Credit Rating - Reason 24/7 : Reason.com

 

You know what will happen if Fitch lowers the credit rating of US Treasury securities?

Not much. If anything, interest rates are likely to go down, not up. That's the same misinformed commentary from when S&P threatened to and then did downgrade their rating.

Not to let operational facts get in the way or anything. :(

Picture thread:

 

Anyone want to tell me whats up with all these conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting? I know there are conspiracies about everything, but I'm rather shocked that many people I have friended on facebook are posting things about it and how the government planned it, etc. Do people really think that the government organized a massacre to push through gun legislation that is pointless and useless? What do you say?

 

people are morons and people on facebook don't live in reality.

 

Who is Sandy Hook?

 

Thanks, I just had to check to make sure. I was just getting my jimmies rustled.

 

911 was bush. Obama is keyna.

 

Interesting graphic. This shows the amount of crude oil imported to the various refinery areas of the USA and the country of origin, measured in millions of barrels per day. So, PADD I takes in about 0.9 million barrels per day of crude. Of that 0.9 MMbbl/d, 0.2 comes from the Middle East and about 0.5 comes from Africa (including Nigeria and Angola).

For PADDs II and IV, all of the crude they take in comes from America's hat.

 

 

 

Start cutting on the right side and we can run a surplus

 

cut?! i dont understand what that word means.

 

I don't understand why we can't just cut everything across the board. EVERY budget item gets 5% less than last year. No raises, first of all. If that isn't enough, do another 5% next year. Everyone will scream, because no on wants their pet project cut. But it's what taxpayers have to do. Welfare/SS/medicare people should all have to do the same.

 

Why cut anything at all?

Has the US Federal government made any significant cuts in the past few years?

Is a surplus assumed to always be a good thing and a deficit always a bad thing?