US debt commission leaders paint gloomy picture
Yahoo! News
07/11/10
The heads of President Barack Obama’s national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control. Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage. The nation’s total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident...
http://tinyurl.com/2adrgzc
The worst of times, the best of times
CounterPunch
by Alexander Cockburn
07/11/10
It’s the worst of times. America is plunging back into Depression. Only one out of every two Americans of working age has a job. Forty years ago that would have been okay. Dad went to the factory. Mom stayed at home to mind the kids. These days, just to keep the show on the road, mom and pop both work and the kids get daycare. … And yet … if not the best of times, you can hardly say that America is broke. It’s not. As Carl Ginsburg remarked on this site last week, ‘America is awash in cash. This is a very, very rich country with piles and piles of cash. Private US accounts today contain approximately $10 trillion in cash and liquid assets.’ … The problem is that the banks don’t want to put money out, because they think ordinary Americans are too broke to pay it back. Ordinary Americans agree. They’ve carried America forward through the past decade on the backs of their credit cards and they can’t totter another step. They’re out of juice...
http://counterpunch.org/cockburn07092010.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=dept
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Alexander+Cockburn
07/11/10
The heads of President Barack Obama’s national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control. Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage. The nation’s total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident...
http://tinyurl.com/2adrgzc
The worst of times, the best of times
CounterPunch
by Alexander Cockburn
07/11/10
It’s the worst of times. America is plunging back into Depression. Only one out of every two Americans of working age has a job. Forty years ago that would have been okay. Dad went to the factory. Mom stayed at home to mind the kids. These days, just to keep the show on the road, mom and pop both work and the kids get daycare. … And yet … if not the best of times, you can hardly say that America is broke. It’s not. As Carl Ginsburg remarked on this site last week, ‘America is awash in cash. This is a very, very rich country with piles and piles of cash. Private US accounts today contain approximately $10 trillion in cash and liquid assets.’ … The problem is that the banks don’t want to put money out, because they think ordinary Americans are too broke to pay it back. Ordinary Americans agree. They’ve carried America forward through the past decade on the backs of their credit cards and they can’t totter another step. They’re out of juice...
http://counterpunch.org/cockburn07092010.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=dept
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Alexander+Cockburn
rudkla - 12. Jul, 08:17
