To be fair it is not just the US but most of Europe. If I ran my household finances in the same manner I would probably be locked up. I'm not hopeful that anything will change for the good in the short term.
The US needs a fiscal conservative who is socially liberal. The cuts
are going to be painful at times, but they are necessary for long-term
prosperity.
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The American debt has always been growing and people have always been predicting that something bad was going to happen. Since then it has continued to grow and the predictions have also continued. Today the debt is still growing and guess what? People are predicting something nasty is going to happen
Some time back in the 1970s, Richard Feynmann said:
There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
The US needs a fiscal conservative who is socially liberal. The cuts
are going to be painful at times, but they are necessary for long-term
prosperity.
US needs VAT coupled with some serious austerity measures & that big deficit will go away.
Seriously?! I'd love that! Where do you get the corn syrup/molasses? My recipe needs those...maybe I can also steal your recipe?
Corn syrup. Really? I don't the the whoopie pie inventors used corn syrup & don't use it for anything! I'll look up my recipe & send it to you. I'm in BOS now. Do you want me to send you anything? with in reason. I'm not sending you a pottery barn couch! :P
US needs VAT coupled with some serious austerity measures & that big deficit will go away.
And they also need to raise income tax on the rich, stop some of the ridiculous subsidies to big business & plug the loop holes that allows corporations to send their profits overseas and not get taxed.
Mostly they really need to re-haul the system. But as was said way above, politicians are only worried about getting reelected and not fixing anything. There is some serious myopia in the US.
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Corn syrup. Really? I don't the the whoopie pie inventors used corn syrup & don't use it for anything! I'll look up my recipe & send it to you. I'm in BOS now. Do you want me to send you anything? with in reason. I'm not sending you a pottery barn couch! :P
It's for the marshmallow creme as I make that myself instead of using marshmallow fluff (which also isn't around these parts...is it?). It's from Two Fat Cats in Portland. Face-stuffingly good. I imagine the pumpkin with cream cheese filling in the autumn will be much easier to make.
I would love a nice cool breeze off the Cape right about now. I'm more of a C&B kinda home furnishings girl. You are lovely to offer, though, thank you.
And they also need to raise income tax on the rich, stop some of the ridiculous subsidies to big business & plug the loop holes that allows corporations to send their profits overseas and not get taxed.
Mostly they really need to re-haul the system. But as was said way above, politicians are only worried about getting reelected and not fixing anything. There is some serious myopia in the US.
I figured we were f-ed when SNL started in with scathing humour on Obama less than 1 year into his term. It's all more of the same and all it seems any of them are doing is lining their pockets and securing their parachutes. It makes me worry that if the bottom falls out if there will be some serious violence. Crazy times.
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It is not just the USA that is screwed but Western Europe as well.
It is not a case of your US person being in "Denial" but more a case of being ignorant and not giving a hoot until it effects them personally.
I see most younger people more concerned about their Iphone4/Android/Smartphone and their Facebook accounts than what is really going on.
They do not realise that there will be no pension or health care for them when they need it in about 20 years time.
They don't see that China, is in effect, becoming an empire by putting their country customers into debt with them (USA and Western Europe) and moving into continents (Africa etc) to extract their resources for their benefit and control of the world.
If the West thinks that it can just invent and design things and get China to make them for next to nothing; it has huge problems coming.
The Chinese are becoming great innovators themselves and the USA cannot keep up with them but instead use their services even in their own country: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ped-to-US.html
Chinas next economic move will be to buy some Western Brands in order to market its own products as those brands.
If the West think they can survive in the long term playing Financial Markets which is basically what they have been doing for the last 20 years then the Chinese correctly can ridicule them. The Chinese are quite capable of manipulating the markets themselves as their government has been printing their own money for years as well and that is the reason that they were able to screw the USA so fast. Bought commodities/raw materials in US dollars, printed their own money to pay the workers to make finished goods export/sale to the West that they would never be able to compete against obviously. The West virtually stopped manufacturing preferring to buy cheap but always improving Chinese goods.
The West may as well learn Mandarin and get ready to work (be slaves) to the Chinese and it could be argued that we deserve it.
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I do not have friends..........I have contingent liabilities
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Despite being born and raised in New England, and having lived there for half my life, I have never had (nor seen) a Whoopie Pie, and even had to look up what it is!
Tom
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By the way excellent article from the BBC. I read it yesterday and it really got me thinking about the US debt crises, since I currently live in the US. The article touched on some subjects that I think are very important in analyzing the US debt situation.
One issue that the article does leave out are state debt liabilities. Many states (California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey) have extremely high debt liabilities with additional debt to be added on because of entitlements, state pension liabilities and social spending programs (Medicaid) issued by the state that will be incurred in the future. State debt is held separately from federal debt and in some states (New York) the state government has created governmental authorities and municipalities that have the capability of issuing their own debt that is held separately from state debt.
The consequences of paying off the interest of this debt have been increased regulations that trigger more taxes, force smaller businesses out of the state, and decreased budget allocations for educational purposes, heath care and security(police etc). I write interest because many states are constantly refinancing their debt pushing maturity further down the line. In addition, most of the states with higher debt figures suffer from some of the highest unemployment figures (California). While states try to combat high unemployment they are scaring away businesses through high rates of taxation and are instead dolling out increased social welfare program expenditures that keep the unemployed barely above water financially. Obviously this is not a sustainable model of governance.
Politically, within many of the states there are a lot of big promises that are made during each campaign with regard to fixing the budget deficit, but a lot of the ideas get bogged down in political debate that often result in some sort of compromise by both parties that includes a lot of earmarks and does not appropriately address the problem. This has been a problem on the federal level as well. (example Obama extending estate tax cuts in order to gain continued unemployment insurance).
Although the state deficits in each respective state pale in comparison to the overall federal deficit what makes me particularly worried about the state and federal debt situation is how engrained debt has become as part of governmental policy. When politicians and policy makers face a fiscal problem they do not want or know how to deal with they just issue more debt, leaving the future generation on the hook. There is no institution that meaningfully controls how debt is spent in this country.
Despite being born and raised in New England, and having lived there for half my life, I have never had (nor seen) a Whoopie Pie, and even had to look up what it is!
Tom
What, was your mom a tree hugger or something? They even have them at Whole Foods these days.... It's like the world's most perfect food for kids as it is two cake-like cookies with a marshmallow filling between them. Freshly baked, there are few more perfect treats on earth. I made a gingerbread version with a gingered filling last christmas and I made a lot of friends. It's both the form and the function that make them so incredible.
And, yes, Yanks are in denial about the debt as, I think if everyone really understood what was going on, there'd be rioting in most of the major coastal cities.
Mostly they really need to re-haul the system. But as was said way above, politicians are only worried about getting reelected and not fixing anything. There is some serious myopia in the US.
Nicely put. The current US tax system is unsustainable.
It is not just the USA that is screwed but Western Europe as well.
Sadly, Japan makes the list too; they have been reckless with their finances for the past 20 yrs.
The best performing economies in my opinion? Gulf countries i.e. oil producers. They earn X amount of $$, spend way less, borrow none, and end up with surpluses. Their governments invest their savings & so do their individuals who also save & reinvest...
But I guess it'll get to them one day, you'll see Kuwaitis borrowing money from the bank to buy laptops, ipods & ipads they don't need.
Despite being born and raised in New England, and having lived there for half my life, I have never had (nor seen) a Whoopie Pie, and even had to look up what it is!
It has a lot to do with declining tax revenues on the richest (1%) Americans. I tend to agree with Robert Reich on this.
As for the rest of it, I don't know if people are in denial, I know a lot of people are scared because the middle class seems to be dissappearing. Politicians are pontificating rather than working together - this is a real dissappointment to me. Buch of losers on both sides - but who wants to be a politican? And the uS is spending too much money on defense abroad, leaving not enough money for infrastructure and social programs....
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It's for the marshmallow creme as I make that myself instead of using marshmallow fluff (which also isn't around these parts...is it?).
You don't need corn syrup. You can use sugar syrup which is sugar and water. But if you really want corn syrup you can get it at American Market or you can use golden syrup at the British market or you can use glucose which you can get at the Asian stores. I use sugar and water unless I have golden syrup around.
Despite being born and raised in New England, and having lived there for half my life, I have never had (nor seen) a Whoopie Pie, and even had to look up what it is!
Tom
Apparently it's a MA & PA Amish thing.
As for the debt issue (must stay on topic) my last comment on this is "Let them eat whoopie pies".
The best performing economies in my opinion? Gulf countries i.e. oil producers. They earn X amount of $$, spend way less, borrow none, and end up with surpluses. Their governments invest their savings & so do their individuals who also save & reinvest...
It's maybe easier to balance a budget in a police state where leaders are not accountable to their people and the police can lock up and torture dissidents. The absence of a free press is very convenient for a government that likes to sweep things under the carpet. Many of the Gulf oiligarchies may have a shock coming as they move to proper democracy.
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I'll look up my recipe & send it to you. I'm in BOS now. Do you want me to send you anything? with in reason. I'm not sending you a pottery barn couch! :P
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