When Does It Stop?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contained two articles yesterday that were side-by-side on an inside page of the front section.   The juxtaposition could not be better, although I am sure it was not an intentional decision by the AJC’s liberal editors. 

The first article reports that the National Debt Clock located in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.   It seems that the digital dollar sign on the National Debt Clock cannot record a figure in excess of $10 trillion.    According to the article, the federal government’s current debt is about $10.2 trillion, but this figure does not include the government’s obligations in the recent bailout—or if you prefer rescue—package approved by Congress and signed by President Bush.  The article points out that Seymour Durst, a late real estate developer from New York, installed the National Debt Clock in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion national debt. 

The second article reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proposing a new $150 billion economic stimulus plan because of the faltering economy.   The first economic stimulus package involved sending out checks to individuals whose income was below an arbitrary level specified by Congress.   The taxpayers who pay the largest share of the total income tax burden, of course, did not receive a check.   The money to pay for the first stimulus package was borrowed by the federal government and increased the federal debt recorded on the National Debt Clock.    It is clear beyond doubt that the first stimulus plan did not solve the current economic crisis.   Speaker Pelosi must think a failed plan is worth trying again.   

If I had been an editor of the AJC, I would have added two more articles to the same page.   The first would have discussed John McCain’s proposal for the federal government to purchase and own $300 billion of bad home-loan mortgages.   The second would have pointed out that our national debt is going up dramatically at the same time that the nation’s wealth is plunging.   According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. stocks have lost $8.4 trillion in value in the last year.  A company that takes on more debt when its business is declining usually ends up in bankruptcy. 

Even without the two additional articles I would have added to the same page, the two side-by-side articles in yesterday’s AJC describe the current financial crisis better than anything the experts on television are saying.   Is it any wonder that the stock market continues to plunge?   When is it going to stop?