Yesterday I was reading a Wiki tutorial, and it reminded me that...
...chunking of information is part of what makes TiddlyWiki so powerful. Human minds are not built to take in long passages of information very well; we're a lot better at taking information in small chunks.
It occurred to me that several recent articles here were quite lengthy (for a blog). So, how about three small chunks of self-explanatory information, to make this blog just a little more powerful? Here you go:
Brain-teaser:
Which set of points is (a) the most important for our grandchildren’s future well-being, but (b) almost universally ignored by politicians, talking heads, journalists, and so-called opinion leaders?
(Hint 1: It’s square. Hint 2: It’s green.)
None of your charts.
Chart 3 of 3 is misleading only showing cash interest payments and not interest on the $3.3T (FY 2005) of federal debt not getting cash interest, but accruing a huge IOU.
The set of points ignored by all are the ones about the accumulated interest in the intragovernmental accounts where delayed infrastructure investment and future cash for SS are not counted in the under reported "interest payments".
Anyone know if interest is paid/credited on the $790B (not counted in the $3.3T)in T bills held in the Federal Reserve?
Posted by: ilsm | 06 December 2006 at 05:42
Steve,
Other than transportation energy I am eagerly awaiting some "smart" goals and specific actions from you on how to grow the economy faster than 2-2.5%.
Posted by: Bob | 06 December 2006 at 09:40
The main way to increase the growth rate of our economy is tax reform.
Switching over to national sales tax with rebate (under the fairtax.org policy) would remove a lot of inefficient waste in conducting business in order to take advantage of tax breaks as well as hiring expensive accountants. The IRS would also likely be reduced. It would encourage savings as well as not discouraging work.
You would also get a flood of foreign companies to relocate their headquarters in the U.S., as well as drastically reducing the costs of capital, leading to much more capital investment due to elimination of corporate taxes. The increased capital investment would lead to greater productivity and employment.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fairtax for a good discussion.
I also think education reform is important for the long term growth rate of our economy. Going to vouchers, for example, is one possible idea. What is certain is that the current system is not working, and throwing more money at the problem has not produced results.
Posted by: Stephen Reed | 07 December 2006 at 00:11