Comments on: Federal Deficit Video http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/09/10/261/ Making the "Invisible Hand" Visible Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:18:58 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: levd http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/09/10/261/comment-page-1/#comment-25396 levd Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:11:54 +0000 http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/09/10/261/#comment-25396 great videos thank you. great videos thank you.

]]> By: Barry http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/09/10/261/comment-page-1/#comment-25088 Barry Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:13:18 +0000 http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/09/10/261/#comment-25088 Two points: The stripping out the social security surplus is crucial - this is a national pension and disability program that needs to be sequestering funds for the future. If private companies co-mingled their funds and failed to safely set aside their pension funds held for their future retirees the executives would be jailed. The growth of the actual real budget deficit and the mounting national debt has to be placed in the context of (a) the "real" number after stripping out inflation. and (b) looking at the growth of the national debt in context of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of our country. The portion of the debt which is engendered to buy new infrastructure for our country is essentially a swap of assets - example: converting cash (one asset) into a new airport or bridge. The new asset may have future income producing characteristics that outweigh the value of the cash and give us more future revenue than the extra debt service costs. Two points:

The stripping out the social security surplus is crucial – this is a national pension and disability program that needs to be sequestering funds for the future. If private companies co-mingled their funds and failed to safely set aside their pension funds held for their future retirees the executives would be jailed.

The growth of the actual real budget deficit and the mounting national debt has to be placed in the context of (a) the “real” number after stripping out inflation. and (b) looking at the growth of the national debt in context of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of our country.

The portion of the debt which is engendered to buy new infrastructure for our country is essentially a swap of assets – example: converting cash (one asset) into a new airport or bridge. The new asset may have future income producing characteristics that outweigh the value of the cash and give us more future revenue than the extra debt service costs.

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