Liberal economists have a ready response to conservatives who fret that U.S. debt might spiral out of control, a la Southern Europe: “America is not Greece.”?
It’s true. Greece has much more public debt than does the United States, relative to economic output. Unlike Greece’s euro-denominated obligations, U.S. debt is in U.S. dollars. The U.S. economy is far more competitive than Greece’s tourism-and-tomatoes operation.
Certain parts of the United States, however, are like Greece. Just read emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s134-page report on Detroit, which has $20?billion in unpayable debt.
Couched in the workmanlike prose of a bankruptcy lawyer — which is what Orr is — the document nevertheless tells a harrowing story of institutional rot and social collapse, brought on by decades of government of, by and for special-interest groups.
It is the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute. The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none"James Madison
People talk about the effect of offshoring on places like Detroit, but lots of Detroit jobs also went to places in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama as well.
To me, it has a lot to do with the waning influence of labor unions in the U.S. and a high state and local tax burden relative to other states.
The whole "Detroit is Dead" narrative has been bouncing around for many years. If you go to Detroit, however, you might not know that the city is supposed to be dead, especially if you go in rush hour.
My favorite depressing Detroit story was when the Pontiac Silverdome sold for $583,000 in 2009, even though it originally cost $55 million to build in 1975 ($225 million in today's dollars).
Q: “Do you have funny shaped balloons?”
A: “Not unless round is funny.”
