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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Oct. 21, 2009
/ 3 Mar-Cheshvan 5770
Blank-Check Economics
By
Paul Greenberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
How simple it all was to Gabriel Bordenave, 29, one of the many good citizens who turned out to welcome Barack Obama, kind of, to New Orleans last week.
Mr. Bordenave had a simple solution to all the Crescent City's still formidable problems and he couldn't understand why the president of the United States couldn't see it.
Here his city was still struggling to recover from Katrina and the country's financial meltdown in general, but Washington just wasn't coming through, at least not to Gabriel Bordenave's satisfaction. As he told the president, "I expected as much from the Bush administration, but why are we still being nickel-and-dimed in our recovery?"
The president could only reply, "We are working as hard as we can as quickly as we can. I wish I could write a blank check."
To which Mr. Bordenave shouted back, "Why not?"
Yes, Mr. President, why not? If the politicians in Washington can double the national debt in only eight years from $5.7 trillion at the beginning of this decade in 2001 to $11.9 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009 why can't this president just sign a blank check and fix everything Katrina wiped out?
And if Medicare and Social Security's unfunded liabilities can top $70 trillion (that's the estimate from Richard Fisher, chairman of the Dallas Federal Reserve) why not just write a blank check for New Orleans, too?
Hasn't the Congressional Budget Office just reported that the annual federal deficit has reached a record $1.4 trillion that's trillion with a T for fiscal 2009? That's 9.9 percent of the nation's GDP, or almost a tenth of the total value of all the goods and services this country produces a year.
So how come the president can't just sign a blank check and fix everything in post-Katrina, post-Rita, still recession-struck New Orleans? Or as Gabriel Bordenave asked the president, "Why not?"
The president's response, if any, was not reported. If he did want to answer/educate Mr. Bordenave, where would he start? Or finish? How teach a course in Economics 101 right there and then?
Welcome, Mr. President, to the economic expectations of entirely too many Americans, who think your job is as simple as signing a blank check. How do you suppose so many of us could have got that idea? Surely it wasn't the tone of your own Spread-the-Wealth campaign promises that encouraged such delusions.
Even this president, who's no stranger to spending money here, there and everywhere, and is about to spend still more on the nation's health care, or at least on its health insurance with far from certain results, knows there is a limit to what even America can spend without inviting the direst consequences. For the inflation that is the surest result of blank-check economics can be the cruelest tax, driving up prices and weighing heaviest on those least able to pay.
Governors know they have to balance revenue and expenditures, at least in states like Arkansas that require balanced budgets, and now the president, too, is beginning to learn there's no blank check he can sign and solve all the nation's fiscal problems. Any more than there's a free lunch, as much as the Gabriel Bordenaves of the world think there is. And there are an awful lot of them. They seem happily innocent of what happens when a president keeps signing blank checks, and a government keeps printing paper money to pay its rapidly accumulating debt rather than balance its budget.
What happens is that the nation's currency is devaluated. See the short, unhappy history of Weimar Germany, a case history of inflation gone wild. See what's happening to the value of the U.S. dollar even now, and the worried sounds coming from those who hold huge amounts of them in bonded debt, like Communist China's leaders, who can be the savviest of capitalists when they hold American securities.
But the president of the United States is a busy man. He can scarcely be expected to explain all this in a 30-second street-corner lecture on the dangers of inflation even if he were fully aware of them. Maybe he should have just handed his heckler in New Orleans a copy of Henry Hazlitt's classic little guide, "Economics in One Lesson." And suggested his questioner start with Chapter XXII, "The Mirage of Inflation."
Paul Greenberg Archives
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