♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Credit Crisis
at 2/26/2009 01:19:00 PM
News of the Obama administration projecting a $1.75 trillion deficit in 2009 comes as no surprise to anyone. Some thoughts:- We may be reaching the upper end of estimates in our favorite parlor game, "How much more will Sammy the Beggar owe in 2009?" I say this because the Bush administration routinely overshot the mark in making these estimates. The "logic" is that the executive can subsequently claim, "See? Our fiscal responsibility ensured that we didn't run a deficit as high us our estimates." Nevertheless, outdoing the debt fetishist Bush would be some achievement;
- The "special FX" of dollar strength as the US gets ready to print money like mad is becoming more pronounced. For how long can repatriation flows buoy this piece of junk? Yes, Virginia, markets can be illogical, insensible, and downright delusional;
- Obama keeps talking of "hard choices." How about raising personal income tax rates across the board to pay for this spending spree? He offers no change, just bigger deficits. History may well regard the Obama years as a continuation of the Bush untax-and-spend ones;
- America is the global poster boy for how not to run a country. What a shining example of capitalist liberal democracy. Welcome to Blagojevichland; it reeks, baby, it reeks.
