Economic Argument for Austerity Based on Excel Error?

[derspiess]

Forget it, Red Seedy is rolling...

I get that, but I'm seriously curious whether he thinks the things he posts have actual meaning or whether he's posting screed for the purpose of posting screed.

When it comes to economics, I'd put my money on the screed thing. 

[Barrister]

Forget it, Red Seedy is rolling...

I get that, but I'm seriously curious whether he thinks the things he posts have actual meaning or whether he's posting screed for the purpose of posting screed.

When it comes to economics, I'd put my money on the screed thing.

Yup.

[The Minsky Moment]

Forget it, Red Seedy is rolling...

He makes a good case for the S&P 500, which is the superior index.

[Ed Anger]

Forget it, Red Seedy is rolling...

I get that, but I'm seriously curious whether he thinks the things he posts have actual meaning or whether he's posting screed for the purpose of posting screed.

I think he is just tired of his situation. Wears a man down.

[Iormlund]

the PIIGS, and some other countries I am sure (khm, Hungary) has been, or at least were, spending much more than their income was.

If by PIIGS you mean Greece, that is an accurate assessment. Ireland and Spain suffered gigantic real estate bubbles. Italy was just not competitive enough under the Euro yet still had primary supluses. Portugal had a little bit of everything.

[Admiral Yi]

Italy was just not competitive enough under the Euro yet still had primary supluses.

And a large existing stock of sovereign debt.

[Iormlund]

Which had not gone up for 20 years. Spending is certainly not the cause of the Italian crisis. A stagnating, uncompetitive economy is.

[derspiess]

I think he is just tired of his situation. Wears a man down.

He's been like that for a while.  Having said that, if he lands a cushy management position you can bet he'll forget all about his proletarian struggle.

[Ed Anger]

I think he is just tired of his situation. Wears a man down.

He's been like that for a while.  Having said that, if he lands a cushy management position you can bet he'll forget all about his proletarian struggle.

He needs a hug.

[Ideologue]

The answer to our problem of spending way too much money is surely to spend a lot more.

What if our problem never was the government spending too much?

[Neil]

I think he is just tired of his situation. Wears a man down.

He's been like that for a while.  Having said that, if he lands a cushy management position you can bet he'll forget all about his proletarian struggle.

Of course he would, but he's not going to land that job.  He's going to end up like that black guy in Falling Down, getting hauled off by the cops for protesting a bank that said that he's 'not economically viable'.  Except it'll be the NYSE, and Seedy will be talking about shareholder value.  He's been unemployed long enough that in this Brave New World, he's unemployable.

[Neil]

The answer to our problem of spending way too much money is surely to spend a lot more.

What if our problem never was spending too much?

But it was.  We made a society where everyone was rich, but we weren't able to pay for it.

[fhdz]

What if our problem never was spending too much?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

[Admiral Yi]

Which had not gone up for 20 years. Spending is certainly not the cause of the Italian crisis. A stagnating, uncompetitive economy is.

I think you might be overstating the case.  Italy has struggled to get it's deficit down to the target of 3% if I'm not mistaken.  And with flat growth that means debt/GDP is still growing.

And the bigger point, the one that's relevant for the US, is that when your debt/GDP gets to a certain size you start to run out of wiggle room.

[Ideologue]

The answer to our problem of spending way too much money is surely to spend a lot more.

What if our problem never was spending too much?

But it was.  We made a society where everyone was rich, but we weren't able to pay for it.

Yet we obviously did, since all those McMansions didn't come from nowhere.

What if our problem was instead private sector retrenchment due to the collapse of an asset bubble caused in part by deregulation, on top of thirty years of growing wealth inequality and the middle class not sharing in productivity gains, leading to lack of aggregate demand?  Maybe then spending a lot more to increase aggregate demand and jumpstart the economy would help.  Then when that's done, raise taxes on rich people so that our borderline-regressive tax code ameliorates our class divisions and a new middle class can bloom.

Or we can do nothing, permit at least one generation to become completely lost, if not all subsequent generations as businesses readjust to a new normal of perpetually slack demand for goods and services.  Sounds like a good plan, Berkut!