[quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=bearishgurl]Great post, EconProf! I DO AGREE that too much got spent in government employees’ raises and pensions and this is coming from a retired government employee (who “retired” under an older, much less “lucrative” system). I also think that the bulk of these employees’ educational and skill levels do not warrant their current pay scales, benefit levels and pension programs.
I hope you are correct in your analysis.[/quote]
I concur, EconProf: Excellent post. Nothing lends more credence to your post, or is more telling in terms of how business leaders mistrust this president and his administration, than the statistic that tells us that between $800Bn and $1Trn is sitting on businesses’ balance sheets and is not being used at present.
Unleashing this untapped cash in terms of investments, inventory and job creation will be massive. We’re seeing a near total repudiation of the “Big Government is Good” lie throughout the world. Look at the rise of center-right governments in Scandinavia, the massive changes taking place in Britain, and also France, and the realization amongst American voters that we’ve been sold a bill of goods.
Krugman’s hysterical column in the NYT, combined with Obama’s assertion that voters are “scared” and thus unable to vote properly, marks the swan song of an intellectually bankrupt regime.[/quote]
What if they are hoarding cash because they believe the worst is yet to come, and they think deflation is in the works? That’s what I would be doing if I were in charge of a large sum of money right now. It would have nothing to do with “business bashing” or “Obamacare,” and everything to do with where I think the economy is headed (down).
OTOH, I think we’d be much further down that road without all the stimulus of the past few years. I don’t agree with the bank bailouts or money printing at all, but have to agree that it’s the reason housing prices pretty much stopped dropping like a rock, and think unemployment would be much worse right now without it. I also think we have only pushed back the bad times, and made them worse with all the additional debt, but that just means we have some serious deflating to do before we’re able to even think about rebuilding a sustainable economy, IMHO.
