The economy is based on borrowing

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

MARK TRAHANT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

The news about the economy sounded pretty good last week.The government reported the economy is on a roll again. The Commerce Department says there's a sharp pickup in the creation of jobs and we are earning more for our work.

This is good news to some people because it's proof that the Bush tax cuts are working. But there are lots of ways to interpret these facts. The numbers I've been reading scare me.

Start with Thursday's good-news report from the Commerce Department. Yes, there are more jobs and income is up. Other data on Friday show that job creation is slower than expected. But working or not, Americans continue to spend more than we earn. Our income levels rose 0.3 percent while consumer spending climbed 0.5 percent.

This teeny two-tenths difference is yet another reminder that America -- our government, our companies and our people -- is fueling the economy with debt.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/218451_trahant03.html

[whistle]

1. If that's the case it is a false economy....

[BillZBubb]

2. This economic "growth" is baloney.

It is based on the trashing of the dollar, holding interest rates well below their normal post-WWII levels, and red ink at every level.

Meanwhile real personal income continues to decline for most Americans.

BTW, those tax cuts never worked. Had the Repugs cut government spending to pay for the tax cuts, the net economic effect would have been zero. So, what they really did was go on a red ink binge. It's the deficit spending that adds to the apparent growth. Tax cuts, especially for the rich, are a very poor way to stimulate growth.

[Wright Patman]

3. More than half of the growth rate

over the past several years since the recession was declared over before it had really even started is due to the massive increase in federal spending caused by the "war on terror."

All that deficit spending is still owed to someone either here or overseas. I suppose the Keynesianism will continue until our creditors pull the feeding tube.