@oregonpapa
Thanks for the link. I have seen that article/treatise many years ago and its important for you to know that the version you linked has been edited...and its one man’s opinion: Alan Greenspan’s, and it was from the perspective he had then almost 20 years ago.
This was prior to the dot.com bubble-burst and more importantly, prior to the great recession that his version of monetary policy contributed to to a large degree. If the answers were easy, then proper monetary policy would be easy and everyone would adopt the same policies worldwide...unless they were trying to solve different problems ie:tipping the scales their way.
I offer this opinion with the deepest respect I can extend to you that everyone’s opinion deserves the same objective examination. At its very root, once people have savings/resources, they want to protect them, especially if they are aging. I get that. Many want no taxes while expecting government programs to take care of their needs in their old age (health, safety, transportation, social security, etc). They don’t want to deploy resources to help others in need, be they domestic or foreign, and yet many fail to recognize that failing to help others comes with immense costs domestically (law enforcement, prisons, crime, insurance, healthcare, the lack of an educated populace) and its immeasurable if we fail in foreign generosity (war, famine, trade, health crises, religious extremism) not to even mention the morality of failing to do the right thing for your neighbors.
I hear many speak of Social Security as their right...the I paid in mentality. Maybe everyone should just get a check for the total amount they paid in compounded at the average rate of inflation over that period? Its then that people will sober up and realize they don’t pay anywhere near as much in as they get out in terms of real dollars. the same goes for other services: healthcare, education, etc, etc. Many on this site pay enormous amounts of income taxes, 6 or 7 figures per year. They are rarely griping about storing their wealth and "protecting their savings" from the "welfare statists" as the article mentions. The paranoid who read "investment" services like these need to understand clearly they are playing on fear because they only offer one service for sale: selling gold to extremely scared people. A balanced portfolio (not in a mattress) of equities, bonds and real estate will always outperform gold over time.
A proper society can’t tax cut its way out of its challenges any more than it can tax its way out. The circuitous route in this post is to say that there are many levers in an integrated economy, just like in audio. Change a cable, a component, etc and everything else is affected. Greenspan is brilliant but Bernacke saved the US economy from ruin. Neither are absolutely right and neither absolutely wrong. Now what?
