Wednesday, August 19, 2009
August 19th, 2009
I would like to refer to an incredile article posted in the NY Times today written by Warren Buffett himself http://www.cnbc.com/id/32473352 . This article deals with the problems of the US increasing their debt to GDP ratio. The truth is that we needed to do so in order to fight off another depression, but the consequence is that when we get back on our feet, the government will be faced with a hard reality of trying to tame this debt.
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Im not sure why buffet excludes the WWII period when comparing our economic situation to historical debt to GDP ratios. We are currently in wars that have contributed more than one trillion dollars to the national debt, it seems illogical to compare this period of time to a "non-war period" when our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have significantly impacted our nation's current debt.
ReplyDeleteI rather not spend the effort restating fact, but to my point earlier the spending during WWII far exceeded any other war in terms of its percentage as of GDP. I have attached another NY Times article that goes into some depth, but clearly as I mentioned before, Buffett's reasoning for excluding this period of time was for justified reasons beyond trying to prove his point. http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/world/slot3_20080204.html
ReplyDeleteQuinten is right. WWII had a significant impact on our GDP, today you will visit some areas of the US that don't even know we are at war! The fundamental illustration of this is how normal life seems to be on a daily basis. We are no running into bomb shelters, we have not gone into a draft, we are not forcing our automobile makers to begin making tanks. All is normal on the home front. We even recevied tax credits during the Bush Administration. The biggest impact to our daily life has been taking off our shoes before boarding a plane... yes its wrong, but C'est la vie!
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