Posted on 04/13/2019 11:02:47 PM PDT by Aquamarine
Economic growth won’t last as the U.S. labors under the burden of growing entitlement programs and weakness around the world, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC.
The long-time central bank chief repeated his warnings about the weight that Social Security, Medicare and other programs are having on what have been otherwise solid gains over the past few years.
“I think the real problem is over the long run, we’ve got this significant continued drain coming from entitlements, which are basically draining capital investment dollar for dollar,” he told CNBC’s Sara Eisen during a “Squawk on the Street ” interview.
“Without any major change in entitlements, entitlements are going to rise. Why? Because the population is aging. There’s no way to reverse that, and the politics of it are awful, as you well know,” Greenspan added.
While he said the economy looks “reasonably good” in the short run, he expects that over the longer term, growth “fades very dramatically.”.......
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Depressing, but good post.
We have people that formally think on a 2-4-6 year cycle, but realistically only think in 1-2 year cycles because of the way elections are now.
Members of the House are on election footing all the time...the President is on a one year footing, and the Senators are on a two year footing. Everything they do is compressed into that cycle.
Which means that we are unlikely to get people to look 5-10-20 years into the future.
We have a problem with the electorate.
Heh, I think we got the point!
I just did a complicated flow chart at work, and when I presented it, the only comment was a numbering system for redirecting the workflow that began at five. It was consistent and worked, but...started at five and there were people who saw fit to fixate on that instead of the content.
Ah well.
The GOP will probably take Greenspan’s concerns as a reason to make a 375 point entitlement reform plan...
***************
I’m not laughing at the sarcasm as the GOP loves big government every bit as much as the Dems do. Before every election they reassure us that they will fight to reduce the size of government but once back in office they keep spending and expanding the monster.
Their “solutions” always involve more and bigger government.
Our unfunded liabilities are “only” $123 trillion. Add to that our explosive national debt, currently at $22 trillion and rising fast.
It doesn’t take a genius to see economic storm clouds on the horizon.
Although I do not hold Greenspan in high regard, he is stating the obvious. The national debt fueled by runaway entitlements is our biggest problem economically and democracy and democrat demagogues are its ennabler as people will not give back their freebies.
1. Privatize most of SS
2. Reform immigration by selling the right to immigrate. Only intelligent, hard working people need apply. No more refugees, gang members, low skill workers, etc.
3. Stringent welfare reform.
The hardest of these is SS privatization due to the promises made to the older generation. There is a one-time way to keep these promises, which is to sell some national assets. The National Forests in the western states, if sold with irrevocable development rights, would both bring in a substantial amount, and unleash an economic boom.
If we can silence the environmentalists and sell offshore oil and gas rights we get a second boom, with the only expense being a slight diminution of the view from some very expensive coastal areas. This money can be used to replenish the SS trust fund, allowing new taxes to go into private accounts. The private accounts both increase demand for stocks and give the common man a stake in the economic success of America. Even more economic growth comes from this.
The Republicans need to steel themselves for what *must* eventually happen. That is, to close new enrollments for both Social Security and Medicare, for the vast majority of workers.
Right now, congress is saying that both are solvent, as long as they meet month to month expenses. This is the logic of a minimum wage worker who buys a Ferrari, with the idea that he can make monthly payments on it of half his income for the rest of his life.
However, congress is right in one regard. That for a limited time, if they *can* meet the monthly expenses, which they can, the system will continue to function. However the only way they can do this is if they stop using the FICA taxes to spend on other things.
And the only way to stop them from doing this is if the FICA money is put into individual *private* medical savings and retirement accounts, so the feds never get their grubby hands on it.
So closing enrollments in SS and Medicare will *eventually* end those systems, but without screwing over beneficiaries who are currently entitled to get money from them.
The federal government itself will take the biggest hit, no longer being able to squander money it shouldn’t have been spending in the first place. This means that instead of budgeting for what is effectively a *doubled* income tax, half legitimate and half illegitimate, they will have to tighten their belts and only spend the money brought in as legitimate taxes.
The end result is a much better private medical and retirement system, a much leaner government, and better fiscal management.
Mr. Greenspan’s Cappuccino - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB111749811222546623
May 31, 2005 ... Get out your dictionary and thesaurus: Alan Greenspan is at it again. ... But excessive pessimism is unwarranted: Fears of a housing bubble are ...
we're paying illegals and newer immigrants SSI and disability as well as all their children for the whimiest of excuses but a person having PAID in for 4 decades is a burden.....right...
“Social Security, Medicare...”
What about illegal alien entitlements? Hmmm?
Only conservatives seem to notice. The Left, and the MSM, pound on the message that any new resident, legal or otherwise, is a net benefit to the country, while some studies show that illegals are a net lifetime drain of some $70,000 each on the economy. Which is it?
Why do we allow them to treat us the taxpayer's like we are the problem, where is the self esteem of the American citizen who has become so passive?
The economy will tank because the deep state hates Trump. They will crash the market and ruin as much of the economy as tgey can to effect 2020
The 2008 financial chrisis was invented to insure we had to suffer Obama
[ He is talking down the economy. This is a direct attack on Trump’s re-election ]
That is correct.
Under Barack, Greenspan says “We can always print as much money as we want”.
Under President Trump, Greenspan says “the economy will fade very dramatically”.
Greenspan is a partisan shill.
Yes, about $144.5 trillion combined, give or take.
Yes, Mr. Andrea Mitchell is just doing her work by another means.
So the magician’s levitation act is just a trick?
William Blake
Sounds about right
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