Come what may

I admit that I did not take the appropriate classes in college to actually know what the total current economic problem is. Yes, that adversely affects my ego. Don't worry, I'll just make fun of someone and be back on par shortly.

But here's what I have figured out without said education: if we're just slowing down the problem of a recession and still haven't hit rock-bottom, then why are we doing that? We've already been through two "stimulus projects;" the $150 billion return from last spring which netted my family a $1500 check ($600 + $600 + $300) which was spent on... something? I don't remember. I didn't earn* the money so I didn't track its expenditure. Then came the other bailout stimulus last fall that was over $700 billion. And that failed too.

As of today, I noted that the proposed new bailout stimulus is over $900 billion and counting. All for what? I mean, ACORN apparently gets a few billion out of that, and $250 million goes to Hollywood for movie productions. But, what is the point? We've already dumped billions and the economy is still sinking! It isn't saving any jobs, houses are still foreclosing at record levels, and Congresses approval rating isn't going any higher.

I'm looking at this with the band aid approach: take it off quickly. And that's how I see the economy at this point. Let it hit rock bottom faster, so we can start the rebuilding process quickly. If that means a Depression, sobeit. At least we'll hit the bottom and can start working our way up instead of our current method of moving slowly down to the bottom.

Now I don't mean that a Depression is a good thing. I remember my grandma talking about how hard it was back them, and then when given an orange, she mistook it for a ball, as she had never had an orange before. She was about 10. At the same time, it did produce "The Greatest Generation" and ended with the greatest war in history in terms of sheer violence and death. I'd like to avoid that aspect, obviously.

Here's my point: last year the US Government paid $416 billion in interest on the Federal Deficit. Supposedly we 'owe' this money to ourselves, and yet we pay interest on it, which doesn't make much sense to me unless someone is financing this pending domino debaucle. So if we're going to continue dumping money into a failing economy, then pay interest on that with the increased bailout amounts, there will come a point when we're paying over a trillion dollars in interest per year. Our GNP is around $13.8 trillion per year. Our Federal Deficit is climbing over 10 trillion right now. So we're paying close to 5% interest on our national debt. I hate to say it, but I think we need a depression to bring us back to reality on a national level. We've lived beyond our means for too long. We're going bankrupt as a nation, just like Iceland is going through right now.

There are other alternatives such as balancing the budget, but with Obama in office, it just isn't likely with a National Healthcare agenda. I know, Clinton had a budget surplus for his last year in office, but it wasn't put towards the national debt and it was spent. Republicans used to have the right mentality of cutting spending and big government, but they lost their foundation a while ago.

Let's look at this another way: if we don't do this now, guess what will happen when we truly are nationally bankrupt? That's when no one will finance us because our international credit rating is bunk. We'll possibly be 20 or 30 trillion in debt by then, and nothing will bail us out. Not only that, but our currency will be valued less than the paper it is printed on. It'll be like Germany after WWI. A barrel full of money for a loaf of bread. They got out of by gearing up for war.

So again, my economic expertise doesn't expand much further than my checkbook, but looking at our national situation, and the growing issue of debt, I think that we need to get things fixed sooner, rather than later because the fallout from the national debt will make The Great Depression look like speed bump comparatively speaking.

*Technically I did earn the money, as the government actually has no money itself; but rather, our taxed money. Still, I pay taxes because I support this country and this stimulus was just an additional tax return.