Generational Balance, Not Budget Balance: Laurence Kotlikoff - Bloomberg: "Economists in Taxdonia think both are nuts. “What’s wrong? We’ve got budget balance. No debt, no deficit, relax. And stop calling our country Taxdonia. This is Lovelandia! And if you must disagree, disagree agreeably.”He also points out that Medicare and Social Security liabilities are growing at perhaps $4T per year. Enron would be proud.
The Oldsters and Youngsters agree, disagreeably, on one thing: They both want to string up economists. They realize that their country, with the complicity of these fiscal experts, has incurred a huge, off-the-books liability to the oldsters -- a terrible debt, foisted on the young in a country where debt is verboten.
The Youngsters have hired some young economists to use generational accounting to examine the lifetime net tax treatment of different cohorts. Their report isn’t pretty. It shows that past cohorts received, on a lifetime basis, far more than they put in and that the current young are being asked to participate in a Ponzi scheme."
Did I forget to mention that Enron was a global warming scammer?
Posts
