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I'd flock to treasuries, too, but I'd travel three hours north to do it. Canada's still AAA.You would think, with a credit rating downgrade, the rates would go up because people are less likely to purchase something where they don't trust they'll get something in return...
Yup, many think it was the undoing of Gingrich as Speaker. Clinton came out of the shutdown smelling like a rose, Gingrich not so much.
These results are something I would have expected, and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that someone actually has undertaken a serious academic study of the subject.
One of the biggest factors depressing government revenue is slow economic growth. If we had a higher annual rate of economic growth, many of the "revenue" problems would be less severe, and on top of that, many of the outsize expenditures also would be reduced as well.
The study referenced above indicates that there is a strong correlation between the expanded "safety net" and reduced workforce participation rate. A lower workforce participation rate means lower economic growth (both fewer productive workers and also more constrained consumption as well).
The implications are pretty clear cut: we've gone "too far" and need to re-balance. It's not to say we do away with it at all. The problem is that the "safety" net is no longer limited only to safety! It has become a "comfort and convenience" net too. and that is the problem. Imagine if you could wake up in the morning, mutter "i don't feel like going to work today" and then just roll over and go back to sleep again, and you suffered no adverse consequences. In the short run that might sound luxurious; but in the long run it is unhealthy for you, you have less self-esteem because you haven't really accomplished anything of meaning with your life. Meanwhile all the other people who do have the self-discipline to get up are now resenting you for freeloading on them.
it's not an "either / or" problem it's a "matter of degree" problem. and with the Panderer-in-Chief that we have now, coupled with Dumb and Dumber in the House, it's very likely neither party will address this civic cancer in any meaningful way.
These results are something I would have expected, and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that someone actually has undertaken a serious academic study of the subject.
One of the biggest factors depressing government revenue is slow economic growth. If we had a higher annual rate of economic growth, many of the "revenue" problems would be less severe, and on top of that, many of the outsize expenditures also would be reduced as well.
The study referenced above indicates that there is a strong correlation between the expanded "safety net" and reduced workforce participation rate. A lower workforce participation rate means lower economic growth (both fewer productive workers and also more constrained consumption as well).
The implications are pretty clear cut: we've gone "too far" and need to re-balance. It's not to say we do away with it at all. The problem is that the "safety" net is no longer limited only to safety! It has become a "comfort and convenience" net too. and that is the problem. Imagine if you could wake up in the morning, mutter "i don't feel like going to work today" and then just roll over and go back to sleep again, and you suffered no adverse consequences. In the short run that might sound luxurious; but in the long run it is unhealthy for you, you have less self-esteem because you haven't really accomplished anything of meaning with your life. Meanwhile all the other people who do have the self-discipline to get up are now resenting you for freeloading on them.
it's not an "either / or" problem it's a "matter of degree" problem. and with the Panderer-in-Chief that we have now, coupled with Dumb and Dumber in the House, it's very likely neither party will address this civic cancer in any meaningful way.
Entitlements are becoming the new 3rd rail of American Politics. After Mitt's thumping last November, partially due to the 47% remark, nobody in a close seat is going to cost themselves votes by going after government handouts. Sad, but a fact of political life these days.
