Thursday, April 7, 2011

Public Asleep on the Budget Controversy

Nate Silver of Five Thirty Eight at the New York Times tells us in Budget Politics in the Doldrums that right now the public is asleep on the budget controversy. He thinks this will likely change in the event of a government shutdown.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Notice that the US economy isn't a topic that people are following closely in the news either.

Image

3 comments:

googleheim said...

look at the whole cow

if news took an aim to connect these events together with real examples, then they might take the economy more seriously

what about reserve levels ?

can Tom Matt and or Mike report on the swelling of the reserves at the Fed to see if they are gearing for an elastic response to economic crisis ?

if they do not, and the government shuts down, then a crash would not be softened and there could be a run on the banks in various forms again.

OR are we looking at April fool's opposite effects - taking this as a turn for economic strength ???

there seems no logic here at all.

Euro debt keeps the Euro stronger albeit via US Federal Reserve open swap lines to ECB so that GE, Pepsi, McDonald's, Levi, Ford and others can bring home big numbers but hold them offshore tax free too.

We are subsidizing a strong euro, and 10 week vacations in France, Germany, and elsewhere.

The dollar spiked in 2008 and Bernanke saves foreign institutions and swells reserves with elasticity as method of operation.

Now, following Republican austerity austrian logic - if there is a government shut down and there is a nickel saved - then the USD should get stronger right ?

Even the posturing should send currency markets to strength the Dollar right ?

But no.

US has less debt than listed Eurozone, Japan, and others but we still have a weaker currency.

This is the 90's repeat ?
Iraq War I followed by a government shut down followed by an impeachment.

Iraq war II followed by a government shut down followed by an another impeachment ?

If there is a run on the banks, and the FDIC is closed due to government shut down - then what happens ?

welfarewarfare state said...

Matt or Tom,

I have had exchanges with both of you on commodity money's viability in the past so I thought of you guys when I recently came across a video on YouTube.

Gold and silver are being used in India right now by millions of Muslims. Go to YouTube and search for "Gold Dinar, Silver Dirham."

Tom Hickey said...

The problem with gold and silver coins is that unless there is a fixed rate, the actual value of the coin fluctuate with the price of the commodity regardless of the face value. Anyone who does not realize that and take it into account is going to be on the short end of the bargain. The only way to do this kind of thing is to price things directly in weights of gold and silver. Then this creates the assay problem.