No billions or trillions needed -- here's the simplest num ber to describe the dismal state of the US economy:
One.
With the departure of chief economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, that's the number of members from the original Obama economic team still working for the administration, not quite three years into the first term.
Rats, say goodbye to the ship of state: Gone are Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag. Headed out is Goolsbee, who abruptly announced his resignation Monday to return to teaching at the University of Chicago.
With the water lapping over the gunwales, the lone holdout is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the former tax cheat, who sails grimly on.
The government racked up $5.3 trillion in new fiscal obligations last year alone -- bringing the
current unfunded tab for future expenses on things like Medicare, Social Security and military medical and retirement programs to a whopping $61.6
trillion, or $534,000 per American household.
Then there's today's bills: We're borrowing $125 billion a month that we have no hope of ever paying back on our current course.
The growth in GDP declined to a measly 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011 as consumers hung desperately onto their wallets. Job growth has completely collapsed. Fully 60 percent of the electorate thinks the country is on the wrong track. No wonder the daily economic briefing, once on a par with the intelligence briefing, has vanished from President Obama's schedule.
Heckuva job, guys.
1 comment:
With Timmy staying on, he has chosen to have his name live in infamy.
The term Geithnered will describe a head in the sand economic train wreck for future generations.
He will be in economic text books describing how not to do it and will have his name tied to the greatest collapse of a once great nation.
Who wouldn't want to stay on if your legacy would live on like this?
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