Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Opinion

Obama, Like Bush, Keeps Steady the Push Toward Hyperinflation

April 10, 2009 04:28 PM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

Hyperinflation, here we come:

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - The United States posted a record $956.8 billion budget deficit for the first half of fiscal 2009, more than triple the year-ago shortfall, as spending on financial and economic rescue programs ramped up, the Treasury Department said on Friday.

For March, the government recorded a deficit of $192.27 billion, a record for the month and nearly four times the year-ago gap of $48.21 billion.

I've been warning about the prospect of hyperinflation ever since the Bush administration spent wantonly on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and pushed tax cuts through Congress simultaneously. The Obama administration is now dwarfing Bush's ridiculous amount of federal spending, and we will soon have to pay more not just in taxes, but for all manner of consumer goods and real estate as a result.

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Tags: economy

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Reader Comments

wow

I think the easiest thing to do... is stick your head in the sand, and wait for your prom...

come on, really people?... has everyone lost their minds? think about this question for a few minutes... Name one (1) person involved in politics, that is "flaw-less"?

the moral fiber of mankind has been rotting away for longer than any one alive, it has been since the beginning of recorded history.

this world will always be in some kind of turmoil until a time, when each one of us, myself included, can and does honestly live, helping others when able (instead of looking the other way and think that someone else will take care of that person, place or thing). everyone has to get up off their fat asses and do something! anything that helps! that is how things get done.

we have become a bunch of candy-asses.. thinking that we should have everything handed to us and spoon fed...

I can say this will some fact (personal) the poor are not the one who are going to suffer the most. they already do without. really, how can you lose something you don't have...

so all you money whores... go ahead save those dollars... hide 'em away (safer if not in a bank)... its not gonna matter... those little pieces of paper and little coins... are going to be worthless. Better learn how to grow some food now.

ty

ty @ PhoenicianLady

@ Collin, if you're going to advise people to go out and read books, perhaps you ought to actually learn to read yourself instead of watching Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity all day. Just an idea.

Big right wing propaganda, zero facts, knowledge of economics

@ Collin, you show that you have no knowledge of the subprime financial crisis and you believe that your right wing propaganda actually helps you to understand the crisis. It's only made you more ignorant and foolish enough to believe that you actually know something.

You refer to "a law" (which you cannot even name) that supposedly requires banks to lend to low income home buyers. The law is called the Community Reinvestment Act. Only commercial banks have to follow the CRA, investment banks and non-bank lenders do not. Those investment banks and non-bank lenders underwrote most of the subprime loans, so your rightwing talking point was based on a complete lie and you foolishly guzzled the Koolaid without doing any research.

Let's poke some more holes in your talking point. The CRA has been around since 1977, if it's to blame, then why only after 30 years did it cause a collapse? Here's another. UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Australia have no CRA or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yet they also had a housing boom and participated in ours. Iceland's banks over-leveraged by 3 times the country's GDP and its banks had to be nationalized? What's your explanation for that? I'll give you an hour to call into your mentor college drop out Rush Limbaugh to get some more Koolaid.

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About Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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