Santelli: "Stop Spending!"

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

Yes, I've heard economists debate that. Can you give us one example where stopping spending has worked?

Well, it's admittedly tough to measure "what would have happened if we did the opposite" - spending or not spending.

But you would think that macroeconomic theory would at least have a basis in lower scale economics. If you were heavily indebted to the point of going insolvent, would you keep spending, even assuming you could find someone to loan you the money?

At a minimum, the spending to get out of a recession is counterintuitive. It at least has to be examined closely. For example, if the amount to spend is only 3% of GDP, it's probably a low risk. But on our current course, the debt will consume 87% of our GDP by 2020. That is a recipe for disaster.