

Why America should pay attention to Greece - cwan
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/wealthofnations.php

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bd_at_rivenhill
Upvoted because the author has the balls to call Fannie and Freddie "off
balance sheet vehicles" and mentions underfunded pension and health care
liabilities as well. Not sure that _A gradual depreciation is one thing -- and
much to be desired_ for the dollar.

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hga
Agreed with the former although it was mostly in passing, but I suspect a lot
of the latter will be abrogated. How long with the public sector unions be
able to get people making e.g. 40K to keep sacrificing to keep people making
e.g. 80K fat and happy? SS and Medicare are bigger problems, but are in part
amenable to adjustments at the edges (e.g. raising the retirement age).

I give this higher marks for the emphasis on including state and local
governments when scoring the US deficits.

At a macro level this is important ... although as a resident of a state and
local governments that are in fairly good fiscal shape, have balanced tax
policies (i.e. not too much from the extremely variable incomes of "the rich"
or from any one tax source), etc., it's not clear how much e.g. California's
Greece like behavior will affect me.

