[lbo-talk] what fiscal emergency?

[Carrol Cox]

On 5/20/2011 1:06 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
> Doug wrote:
>
>
>> I break into the bourgeois media!
>
>
> Congrats!  (By the way, I've been reading Capital and Its Discontents 
> and recommend it to everybody here.  It's transcripts of interviews on 
> KPFA, including one with Doug and Leo Panitch, by Sasha Lilley, who's 
> really good and who slams Pacifica management in no uncertain terms in 
> the acknowledgments.)
>
> I have a question about this excerpt from the cnn column.
>
>
>
>> But, barring catastrophe, the effects of the recession should fade. 
>> According to the Congressional Budget Office's baseline projections 
>> -- what will happen if there are no major policy changes from the 
>> present -- the deficit should fall dramatically over the next several 
>> years, from about 10% of GDP today to about 3% in 2014.
>>
>> In other words, if we do essentially nothing, the deficit will fall 
>> by two-thirds, back to its historic average. The ratio of federal 
>> debt to GDP will stabilize at around 75% -- high, but still well 
>> below the level that most mainstream economists consider critical 
>> (which would be close to 100%).
>
>
> If you talked about this with people at a tea bag rally how many do 
> you reckon would misunderstand the difference between federal debt and 
> federal deficit?

Why in the world would he or anyone want to? It's organizers who need 
such information, to pass on to those who are ready to resist but who 
are honestly concerned about resources. In other words, since one only 
bothers with those who already agree, what is needed is morale aid, not 
persuasion. Our immediate target would be those who honk their horn or 
wave as they drive by a picket at Chase. We want them _on_ the picket, 
not merely agreeing.

Carrol