David Brooks: Our
tolerance for debt is becoming intolerable. And its completely unsustainable.
Today we are living in an era of indebtedness. Over the past several years, society has oscillated ever more wildly though three debt-fueled bubbles. First, there was the dot-com bubble. Then, in 2008, the mortgage-finance bubble. Now, we are living in the fiscal bubble.
In this country, the federal government has borrowed more than $6 trillion in the last four years alone, trying to counteract the effects of the last two bubbles. States struggle with pension promises that should never have been made. Europe is on the verge of collapse because governments there can’t figure out how to deal with their debts. Nations around the globe have debt-to-G.D.P. ratios at or approaching 90 percent — the point at which growth slows and prosperity stalls.
It all goes back to the increase in the tolerance for debt.
Immediately before looking at Spencerblog I read the post on DelcoTimes: http://delcotimes.com/articles/2012/06/05/business/doc4fce3ad9d95f9628275672.txt
ReplyDeleteWhich is not as unrelated to the "It's the Debt, Stupid" as some may say. If the majority of the electorate are in favor of privatizing the Commonwealth's liquor distribution, if Governor Corbett is in favor of privatization, how in the blazes was there ever such a contract offer presented for the United Food and Commercial Workers union to vote on? Please help me understand what I am missing in the old standard Follow The Dots.