Known for his grasp of budgetary minutiae, first as a Michigan congressman and then as Reagan’s budget director, Stockman still dazzles with his command of numbers. Ask him about jobs, and he’ll spit out government estimates for non-farm payrolls down to the tenth of a decimal point. Prod him again and, as from a grim pinata, more figures spill out: personal consumption expenditures, credit market debt and the clunky sounding but all-important non-residential fixed investment.
Stockman may seem as exciting as an insurance actuary, but he knows how to tell a good story. And the punch line to this one is gripping. He says the numbers for the U.S. don’t add up to anything but a painful, slow-growing future.
h/t Harry
The smoke and mirror show that is Obama’s econonic policy is just that – built on delusion and the illusion of recovery. cheers
When 46 million people are on food stamps and almost all manufacturing has moved to distant shores, the chances of turning the economy around anytime soon is rather remote. Obamas policies are only heaping fuel on the flames of destruction. More green policies, welfare freebees, left wing ideoligy and a growing bureaucracy will not replace a decimated middle class tax base. History will show Stockman was right and Obama was a experiment with disastrous results.
It seems to me that Stockman is painfully optimistic. Much more likely is that either the US will recover and go on to thrive, or that the decline is terminal.
Given the evidence to date, the latter is more probable.
Stockman is right about the possible consequences. Spain early in the 17th C had an economy much like the US today. It’s internal economy had been hollowed out fighting foreign wars. It was hugely indebted, with the only significant government revenues being gold and silver shipments from South America. Typically these were already mortgaged two to four years in advance. All of Spain’s banking was done in Genoa. In 1604 there was a spectacular failure of Spanish bonds which could not be sold at any price during that auction.
Spain, the world’s greatest power at the time, went bankrupt literally overnight. It was an immediate end to Spain’s importance as a European power, and it has never recovered from that disaster. The fleets, mightiest in Europe, rotted in harbours with no crews. The army, largely unpaid, largely deserted. Public works fell in ruins. Road systems collapsed.
I will give this much to the Ron Paul supporters here. Spain’s history shows that Paul may be right about the need for the US to disengage. And to downsize its government. Now.
“Slow growth”? Boy, is HE ever the optimist!
It is a myth that “almost all manufacturing has moved to distant shores”. As of 2008, the United States was still the largest manufacturing economy in the world. The largest exporter of manufactured goods continues to be Germany, not China as many believe. Yes, the recession hurt US manufacturing, but continued high unemployment and the QE money printing (leading to devaluation) will drive down US labour costs and we are already seeing a move of some manufacturing BACK to the United States. That said, their population is growing faster than the economy is creating jobs, so long term economic performance will continue to be poor.
@ Taliesyn at March 8, 2012 10:35 AM
A myth ?
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/content.html
http://jobs.lovetoknow.com/Facts_and_Figures_on_Outsourcing
Do you have any idea what this has done to the tax base ? About the only thing not outsourced relates to the military and even there they have found some sub-contractors have been cheating.