First, I am not an economist. I am a home builder in Northwest Indiana, and I intend to stay one. But, I couldn't help but get a little excited to see this post by Steve Conover of the Skeptical Optimist. I will quote him a couple times, but you really have to go to the link to see his terrific graph, I've privately asked for the right to copy and paste it here and will revise if he allows.
"Although this chart is just a report of what the Monthly Treasury Statement is telling us, that of course doesn't stop anyone so inclined from jumping directly to knee-jerk political conclusions. Let's face it, some people already have their minds made up, and have a habit of trying to spin everything they see into evidence that the other side is a bunch of idiots, or sneaky bad guys. ("Are those evil Republicans sandbagging the deficit forecast?" "Why are the sneaky Democrats covering up the tax revenue growth that's been happening without any tax hikes?") The propensity to "spin first" is an attribute of many on both the left and right, although I personally have noticed a higher frequency of knee-jerk hysteria from the left."
So what you ask? Well it seems to me that our interest rates are very tightly related to budget, and growth, and inflation, and unemployment type statistics. If our budget were balanced, would that yield long term low interest rates? Or, to go a little political, if our budget gets balanced does that mean that the tax cuts worked? If so, should we cut some more?
I'd sure like to see the "death tax" dropped completely, for the sake of real estate values especially.
Last quote: "Others are starting to write about the trends I've been mentioning. Take a look at Brian Wesbury's article titled "No Need for Tax Hikes, Surplus on Tap for 2009"."
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