Is the US heading for a Sovereign Debt Crisis?

Yes, after we spent a metric fuckton and put everyone to work for three years.

Oh, wait, that's Keynesian, and therefore must be ignored.

Actually spending the metric fukton wasn't what kept people employed.

Spending aside, this topic is about the debt and not the economy.

Well, it's not really the end of the world if we have a lot of debt. Compared to total GDP, the debt isn't that big of a deal, and we're not like Europe, where they're tied to a money they don't have a lot of control over. Push comes to shove, we can inflate our way out of debt rather than default, which is just about always the worst option.

Actually, the economy of a nation affects whether or not that country heads for a sovereign debt crisis.

But Secretist, you never answered my question. What would you do stave off this crisis? Is it just 100% of cuts?

Yes, I support the Tea Party plan.

Also, New Contract with America!

edited 21st Nov '11 12:50:28 PM by secretist

Why?

It (or they due to ninja) propose bold cuts we need.

In your opinion, what are the bold cuts that the United States of America need?

MILITARY RESEARCH.

@Secretist:

Cuts won't get you out of a deficit if you're already in it. You're still not generating enough revenue to get back in the black.

So really, people should be talking about tax hikes on the wealthy.

USAF, you were warned yesterday to knock of the hostility in the E-Parasite thread. Moving it to a different thread and continuing doesn't count as knocking it off.

Take a week off from the forums and decide if you can be civil or not. PM me next Monday with your decision.

Secretist = Major Tom.

And cut the NEA? Seriously? We need the arts. Without them, we become North Korea or Iran.

Oh, that's adult.

It's the economic bust that's the reason for much of the current deficit. Measures that would make said bust worse will do little if anything to fix said deficit.

Like it or not, the people proposing such measures care nothing about fixing said deficit. They have other goals in mind. (I.E. Lowering wages)

Actually, the goal is plainly to privatize government. Wages aren't part of this equation - they are controlled by market forces.

edited 21st Nov '11 2:27:40 PM by johnnyfog

Secretist, your arguments consist of nothing but ideological statements.

So first...

@ OP

There are the automatic budget cuts already in place, so no debt crisis.

@ Secretist

You can't justify spending cuts as the solution to an economic crisis without stating any sensible reasons. All you do is just go "progressives are wrong", "poor people should get zero help", "it's not the gov's job to do this". Those are positive statements, all of which require evidence to back them.

Wild crazy government socialist spending doesn't work? It'll put you in horrible debt? So okay, let's look at the Nordic countries. They always rank the best in quality of living, social justice indices and so on. They've high productivity and per capita income. They've the lowest poverty rates. They have high education rates and so on. Those countries each have less than a third the population of Canada, yet have international conglomerate businesses. They produce a vast array of technologies from cellular phones to medical procedures. And they've less than half the debt to GDP ratio compared to USA. Plus Norway, the only Nordic country with oil, didn't squander it and instead put it into a massive pension fund that is now over 100% the size of their GDP.

So from the looks of it, the answer to your debt crisis, is socialism.

Actually, your so-called socialist societies have more economic freedom than us. here◊ While tax burden drags it down, regulation burden tends to drag it down more.

That chart shows that the only part of Europe with as much/more economic freedom than the US is the UK.

You forgot about Switzerland!

Okay so what? Then socialism also gets you more economic freedom.

Switzerland also is not part of the EU, and thus has a rather separate economic situation from the majority of the continent. The UK is in the EU, but not the Eurozone, which is also highly significant to any economic debate.

Technically, not that socialism gets you more economic freedom, but rather that we have gotten less due to Democrat meddling.

Citation needed and this time some neutral sources please