More about fiscal responsability

I found this article posted on Greg Mankiw's blog.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obamas_risky_deficit_sp.html

Also, I thought this was pretty funny.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANPQV0BbgEzJt9ISFweAJpIk3rKEiSJmicQwhiH003x8L0608rgBwI5hqsKiAjl9trdtN0Wscmda-RLeekcKtxG8kjLdKSjX_YH_FvnN4rgPk1k6V44l3ag_Goy4ruL8N6u30vHTlHjs/s1600-h/deathstar-bailout.JPG

-Andrew

Congrats Gwen!

Just a few days ago Gwen finished everything she needed to for her Master's Degree at Harvard Divinity School in theological studies (woman in religion). If she had changed her name to conform to the patriarchy of our society she would have been the first Berger (in this generation) to get her Master's Degree, though now it looks like Mark will beat her to it, unless, of course, I can convince her to change her last name in the next 6 months or so.

But seriously, congratulations Gwen for finishing. You are truly an academic inspiration for me and my family.

-Andrew

Bipartisanism = Economic Populism

I've been thinking a lot about fiscal responsability lately, how could I not? The federal governemnt is projected to run huge deficits (and when I say huge I mean 10% of gdp huge) for the next 10 years under Obama's proposed budget. And why not? What's the big deal? We want everything and we don't want to pay for it so why not just borrow a bunch of money and have what we want?

Unfortunately, despite what we try to convince ourselves, deficit spending in excess of 3% or so is unsustainable. In other words, the United States does not have an infinite line of credit. It is interesting to note that of all the government debt about half of it is owned by the Fed (the federal reserve buys government bonds to inject money into the system and lower interest rates), but a surprisingly large amount is held by foreigners and foreign governments, about 28%. (Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt) Foreign holders of US debt are beginning to be a little wary of the stability of the dollar. In the G20 meeting held in London recently China's finance minister proposed replacing the dollar with an international currency as the main currency used in international trade--this is a clear sign that perhaps foreign governments are starting to lose faith in the US dollar. If that's the case, how are we going to finance our deficits? Perhaps the government should push the Fed to buy more bonds, decreasing the interest rate, and inflate away the debt. There is no geo-political risk associated with that (sarcasm). One thing is for sure, we can't cut spending or increase taxes. That is outrageous!!

Don't get me wrong I'm not only blaming the Democrats. I'm blaming both Democrats and Republicans. I am a member of the Republican party because I believed that the Republicans shared my view of lower flatter taxes, yes, but also fiscal responsibility. In fact, I always was under the assumption that fiscal responsibility trumped lower taxes in this party. Now, however, I'm not so sure that this is the case. George Bush, in his first year in office, turned soaring budget surpluses (we enjoyed thanks to the Clinton administration coupled with an economic boom), into an outrageous budget deficit by unprecedentedly cutting taxes, waging war and not vetoing one single spending bill (including a huge unfunded drug entitlement program) his entire tenure. Truly I feel bad for President Obama having walked into a budget nightmare.

If I can simplify the matter, Obama can do one of two things. 1) Commit political suicide and reform social security like it really needs to be reformed (cut benefits--especially on young retirees and increase taxes on everyone), or 2) pull a G.W. and cover your ears when economists begin to tell you that the budget is seriously out of control and uncover them just in time to hear Dick Cheney say "deficits don't matter". My worry is that he will chose the latter (as is apparent in his budget proposal).

My point is this: for years Republicans and Democrats have been fighting over size and scale of the government. Should we increase or decrease taxes? Increase or decrease spending? I'm just glad we have found a middle ground finally. We can now cut taxes and increase spending! Who cares?! Deficits don't matter! (thanks Cheney for that).

-Andrew

Starting a blog -- it's always about gender

A few days ago I told Gwen we should start a blog. Often whenever I suggest we do something Gwen interprets the "we" as "you" and makes it about gender--once again this was the case. "You mean 'I' should start a blog because 'I'm' a woman and it's the woman's job to keep family history," she responded in a ... well... feminist way. She continued to point out that out of all of our friends, only the women keep blogs going and that suggesting that we start a blog was somehow sexist. So Kate, Lisa, Elizabeth and the rest of the female bloggers, I join you! Maybe I'll even let Gwen post every so often.

I'll take this first-blog opportunity to introduce us a little bit. Gwen and I first met each other when we were toddlers in Pullman Washington where both of our parents went to graduate school at Washington State University. We really didn't know each other though, until high school where we became friends through a few common friends and we didn't start to date until our friendship was in shambles. The 2004 presidential election drove a huge rift into our friendship as I whole heatedly (at the time) supported the incumbent President Bush and Gwen supported John Kerry. It wasn't so much the debate of who should be our president for the next 4 years that caused the turbulance, but this did create the opportunity for heated debate about politics. At the time, I was a devout conservative talk show listener and Gwen was a hippie liberal college undergrad. Without getting into the juicy details, let's just say things got quite ugly. After the election, we were all but worst enemies. The only thing that could save our relationship was romance.

We dated for the next year until I went on a Mormon Mission to Bahia Brazil where I spent two years. While I was gone Gwen finished her degree in Middle Eastern Studies and developmental economics from the University of Utah, worked on a Kibbutz is Israel, and spent some time in South Africa. After the 2 years we met back up in Utah. She got accepted to Harvard Divinity School to do a Master's degree in theological studies - in particular women in religion. A year into her program we got married an I joined her in Boston where I am now finishing my Bachelors degree in Mathematical Sciences from Bentley University.

The past 4 years have really moderated us both politically. I am still a Republican and she is still a Democrat but we rarely fight about politics and find ourselves agreeing more often than not. The other day we were talking about how this was the case, when Gwen proposed that fundamentally I believe in individualism and the self made individual and she believes in community and the importance of people working together for the common good. While this fundamental difference causes me to self identify as a capitalistic free trading Republican (note: i no longer listen to conservative talk radio as I think they're a bunch of crazies) and her to self identify as a liberal Democrat we often find ourselves agreeing on contemporary issues. While I think it would be more exciting to say that I've gone so far to the right and she's gone so far to the left that we've somehow come together--perhaps at a crazed anarchist libertarian spot somewhere out in space--this isn't really the case.

We both like to watch TV. This somehow started only after we were married but we watch Bones, the Office, 30 Rock, Legend of the Seeker and Dollhouse basically every week. Gwen really likes to read, bake delicious treats, talk with her friends. I play the guitar and video games (in fact I'm trying to get a starcraft clan in place for when Starcraft 2 comes out---This is just thrilling!!!!...)

I'm really bad at wrapping things up, so I'll just end now.

-Andrew