Question #1
Q. What is the current amount of the national debt?
A. While the national debt continues to rise, the current national debt is:
$15.2 Trillion
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
Question #2
Q. How much US household wealth was lost in the 2008 financial meltdown?
A. $14 Trillion
So, the gov't engaged in a massive bailout of the financial industry AFTER it tanked the economy, and consumers took it in the shorts.
Consequently, I contend that if you want to be angry with gov't. you're anger is misplaced if you're anger is directed at "deficit spending."
You should be angry at the gov't deregulation of the banks (allowing investment banks and commercial banks to merge) which was pushed by BOTH political parties, as well as the gov't allowing derivatives to be traded in an unregulated fashion. Again, that was supported by both political parties.
Q. What is the current amount of the national debt?
A. While the national debt continues to rise, the current national debt is:
$15.2 Trillion
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
Question #2
Q. How much US household wealth was lost in the 2008 financial meltdown?
A. $14 Trillion
There is a direct relationship between declines in wealth, and declines in consumption and business investment, which along with government spending represent the economic engine. Between June 2007 and November 2008, Americans lost an estimated average of more than a quarter of their collective net worth.[citation needed] By early November 2008, a broad U.S. stock index the S&P 500, was down 45% from its 2007 high. Housing prices had dropped 20% from their 2006 peak, with futures markets signaling a 30-35% potential drop. Total home equity in the United States, which was valued at $13 trillion at its peak in 2006, had dropped to $8.8 trillion by mid-2008 and was still falling in late 2008. Total retirement assets, Americans' second-largest household asset, dropped by 22%, from $10.3 trillion in 2006 to $8 trillion in mid-2008. During the same period, savings and investment assets (apart from retirement savings) lost $1.2 trillion and pension assets lost $1.3 trillion. Taken together, these losses total a staggering $8.3 trillion.[164] Since peaking in the second quarter of 2007, household wealth is down $14 trillion.[165]
Late-2000s financial crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So, the gov't engaged in a massive bailout of the financial industry AFTER it tanked the economy, and consumers took it in the shorts.
Consequently, I contend that if you want to be angry with gov't. you're anger is misplaced if you're anger is directed at "deficit spending."
You should be angry at the gov't deregulation of the banks (allowing investment banks and commercial banks to merge) which was pushed by BOTH political parties, as well as the gov't allowing derivatives to be traded in an unregulated fashion. Again, that was supported by both political parties.