My introductory economics, Harold Demsetz, a stalwart conservative, introduced the class back in 1957 to his equation about government debt, perhaps anticipating the age of texting a half century: IOU = UOME
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Lear Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 7:14 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Pen-l] Vulnerable logic in Dean Baker's argument? Dean Baker writes the following, in his "The Bankrupt Debate Over Bankrupting Our Children" (2009-5-11 from Truthout): At some point, everyone alive today will be dead. At that point the government bonds that constitute the debt will be owned by our children or grandchildren. In other words, our children and grandchildren will be paying the interest burden to themselves. If future generations both receive and pay the interest on the debt then how can it be on net a burden to them? Isn't it true that "our children and grandchildren" will be paying the interest burden mostly to wealthy bondholders (the "Wall Street crew" that Baker decries) since bond ownership is presumably quite unequally distributed? Bill _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
