Plan B Forum

It was the most startling of warnings. If the US does not get its finances in order “we will have a European situation on our hands, and possibly worse”, claimed Paul Ryan, the new Republican chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee.

As it stands today, the US borrows about 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Curbing the budget deficit has been the stated mission of Mr Ryan, a rising Republican star, for several years. But such calls for action have multiplied in Washington in recent months, igniting what some say is the fiercest debate over fiscal and budgetary policy in decades.

The risks are big. If the government rushes into austerity, cutting too much and too quickly, it could stunt economic recovery. But if the political system cannot forge some kind of consensus on steps to restore US deficits to sustainable levels, the danger is potentially even greater: a sovereign debt crisis in the world’s largest economy.

“It’s a weak period for the economy, so I don’t think you want to do serious deficit reduction anyway, but we are playing a dangerous game and we will start to pay a price for fiscal irresponsibility,” says Ethan Harris at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/31dbce8a-1f52 ... z1B3bfyBEG

Long Run wrote:The answer is valium.

dgs49 wrote:Fucked up enough that I don't know the difference between "debt" and "deficit."

Fucked up enough not to understand which branch of government controls taxes and spending.

Fucked up enough to keep talking out of my ass in this forum.

@meric@nwom@n wrote:I thought this was going to be like that joke: If you're an American when you go into the bathroom and you're an American when you come out, what are you while you are in there? European.(Yerapeein)

Thank you, I will be here all week.