Since Bob Bartley died, I’ve been looking for a columnist who can make sense of economics for me. Irwin Stelzer, who writes for the ’Weekly Standard,’ does a good job of bringing common sense to the dismal science.
In this article, Stelzer raises the question
’Do Deficits Matter? His answer is that the current deficit of some $400 billion probably doesn’t matter that much since it is only 3% of GDP. He worries about the trade deficit.
I still miss my daily dose of Bob Bartley.
Thank God for some old-school logic to bring it back to earth. But I still struggle with the deficit number...especially when we were told as taxpayers we would only see the Iraq war costing 1.8 billion--a managable number--only to find out that the cost will now likely break 200 billion. Accounting mistake? Enough ranting... It will be better than nice to see when we can get over the discrepancy in the trade economy and get completely back on our financial feet here in America.