January 09, 2004
LA Times comments on US deficits.
In a new editorial,
Rising Deficit, Rising Fears, the LA Times adds to the growing concern raised by the out-of-control American deficits. [Registration req'd.]
The encroaching tax season may not spoil the holiday cheer of the well-to-do as much as in past years, since Congress has generously speeded up tax cuts on earned income and capital gains for 2003. But can the country afford them when the total national debt has just breached $7 trillion and is on course to increase $5 trillion more in the next 10 years? Increasingly, the answer around the world is "No."
The Congressional Budget Office and nonpartisan groups like the Concord Coalition have long warned of the consequences, to interest rates and investment, of the soaring deficit. The new Cassandra is the International Monetary Fund, warning that the growing trillions of U.S. debt jeopardize global financial stability.
Rest assured that savvy, well-to-do baby boomers aren't going to take the hit. They're already moving their funds out of the country, buying up property here and there, and planning on comfortable retirements while the country that gave them everything goes down the tubes.
