Will politics or hard-core economic policies reduce deficit?
Sunday, February 7, 2010, 2:13 AM | Leave Comment
New York Times online has an article written by Paul Krugman on Thursday, February 4. The title of the article is “Fiscal Scare Tactics.” The crust of the article is there is a huge difference of opinion between what you see and hear on TV from economics commentators and the many hard-core economists of the “real” world. The TV “gurus” would present to you a very bleak picture of the deficit created by the last budget and the proposed budget for the current fiscal year.
I agree with Paul. We have seldom seen a budget surplus in any administration except the last couple of years of President Clinton’s days in the White House.
We have the same budget crisis [deficit] in the real world – the same resources, the same numbers, the same everything. Because we have a Democrat president in power, the left leaning TV financial gurus would not come up and criticize the current policies harshly. If you change the channel and switch to a channel that is owned by folks whose comments are at par with the Republicans, then you would hear them saying as if the end of the world as we see it is coming and sooner than you think.
Even the hard-core economists have the tendencies to lean to the left or the right and would advise the sitting president and other authorities of power accordingly.
So whom do we believe? Let me put it this way. Does it make any difference whom we believe? We are republicans or democrats. What’s the difference? We have a job or no job. To us and our families, that’s our concern. Will we be able to pay our bills on time every month without borrowing? In other words, do we care about the comments we see made on TV? In many instances, it’s just hot air anyway – one way or another.
The trouble, however, is that it’s apparently hard for many people to tell the difference between cynical posturing and serious economic argument. And that is having tragic consequences.
The author, Paul, compares it with the days of the “uprising” in the media just before the invasion of Iraq. Remember, the weapons of mass destruction hidden somewhere on Iraqi soil?
Moral of the story
The economists make big bucks. The TV commentators make big bucks. That’s how they make money by making comments whether they make sense or not. Most are millionaires. You think anybody cares about you and me? That will be the day somebody starts caring about the American people. Like Balki Bartokomous [of TV series “Perfect Strangers”] would say WOW!
What do you think?
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