When Bill Clinton came into office, he started to balance the budget. The result was years of economic boom.
In the background behind the recent bank failures and lending crises, is the fact that the US is 9.3 million million (= $9.3 trillion) dollars in debt. That's more than $30,000 for every man woman and child in the US. Lenders are nervous because they know that in the end, the United States itself is in a precarious situation, and could actually default on its debt.
When are we going back to fundamentals and paying off our debt instead of borrowing more and more?
Comments (1)
It's a good question, but the assumption is backward. Clinton was able to balance the budget and start paying down the debt because of the Double Bubble (the build out of the Internet and the coming of age of the PC). Unless we have a similar miracle (nanotech and biotech are the two big candidates), we will have to fix the economy the old fashioned way.
That means, of course, earning the money to pay off the debt by such things as:
Fixing global trade (see http://www.askthespeaker.org/akira/dtd/1956-885),
Coming up with a competitive healthcare system (see http://www.askthespeaker.org/akira/dtd/1968-885),
Limiting the military-industrial complex (see http://www.askthespeaker.org/akira/dtd/1958-885), and
Dealing with the declining dollar (see http://www.askthespeaker.org/akira/dtd/1957-885).
Democrats have a responsibility to fix these problems. $30,000 is more than a year of steady work at minimum wage. Would you sell your children into slavery for a year?