----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 1:31
PM
Subject: [Futurework] Debt
Hi!
From the Economist:
"However, embodied in current tax and expenditure
policies are a
lot of obligations for
which governments have not yet had to make
explicit provision. This implicit liability
arises mainly from
future
increases in spending on pensions and health care. Include
it, and total debt vaults to levels last seen (for explicit
debt)
in wartime. Governments often fall
into bad habits when their
debts are so high, usually by resorting to the printing
press and
using inflation to cut the real
value of their liabilities."
Here abstracted from a bar graph and therefore not
absolutely precise are the numbers that may give us cause for concern. There
are great uncertainties but governments tend to look 2-3 years ahead rather
than 10 or 20. They incur "credit card debts" passing laws now that must
be paid for later.
Davis, the erstwhile California Governor, spent the
last weeks of his administration signing into law costly legislation - even
though we are broke, This included compulsory employee health services for
smaller business - a disaster in the making. He can take credit for this now -
while being long gone when the impact strikes.
Then there is the law of unintended consequences,
something that comes up and bites the careless legislator. Long before Iraq, I
was concerned at the way Bush was flinging money around - "A billion here, a
billion there . . . " There is something that
gets into politicians that makes them extraordinarily generous with our
money.
US diplomacy is pretty good, so long as greasing a
few palms works better than argument. But, perhaps sooner rather than later
there will be no money with which to be lavish!
The URL for the article ("In the long run we are
all broke") is:
HYPERLINK http://tinyurl.com/whew http://tinyurl.com/whew
But if you are not a subscriber, you won't be able
to get it. I'll be happy to send the whole article if FWs want it.
These are the explicit AND implicit net government
debt 2002 as a % of GNP.
The lowest is the Brits - which surprised
me.
UK
102
Denmark 175
Germany
200
France
230
US
270
Nether.
295
Belgium 305
Spain
350
And at the top (or bottom of the list):
Canada
423
I guess, friends, you'll just have to get rid of
your Health Service.
(Only kidding ----- I think.)
Harry
********************************************
Henry George School of Social
Science
of Los
Angeles
Box
655 Tujunga CA 91042
Tel: 818 352-4141
-- Fax: 818 353-2242
HYPERLINK
http://haledward.home.comcast.net http://haledward.home.comcast.net
********************************************
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