Government debt is not the debt story. The sector that caused the crisis, that financed speculation rather than genuine investment, is most heavily in debt.
Very, very few examine Wall Street’s massive debt nor it’s relentless capture of American homeowners’ cash and lifetime earning power. Now that’s debt!
The finance sector exists to create debt, and the only way it can do that is by encouraging the rest of the economy to take it on.
If they were funding productive investments with this money, there wouldn’t be a crisis in the first place. —Steve Keen
Debt growth in America is Wall Street and their encumbered customers, us.
Wall Street’s frenzy of bond, equity and mortgage securities falls in a mess of derivatives and over-rated packaging.
Real estate hammered consumers. Government steps in while business retreats.
Blame Obama of all things. Scream about a stimulus and unemployment checks.
Debt is Republican. And bailouts too. They follow the financiers believing that a dollar borrowed is a dollar spent in the economy. But Wall Street has delivered only pennies on the dollar in GDP.
Imagined fears of deficits? Deficits? Real debt is seldom discussed. Do bankers fund these political charades?
Of course, government must now step in. Let’s hope correctly. It’s not had much practice after 30 years of laissez-faire and outright dismantling.