Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

(04-17-2017, 06:58 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > John X likes denying concrete facts so as a final factoid just to
> refute him again, the US achieved a budget surplus in the late
> 1990s and had a budget surplus in 2000-2001 until Bush decided to
> fight the war on terror after 9/11 without actual spending
> increases like the war bonds of WW2.

It always amazes that you've been in this forum for over ten
years, but you still have no clue what the difference is
between a crisis war and a non-crisis war.

However, I'd like to focus on the above comment. On its face it's
ridiculous, because spending on the Iraq war didn't begin until 2003,
but the deficit began worsening in 2000, which was the last year of
the Clinton administration.

Here's a graph that I posted two years ago:



https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/gr..._id=205626

• Look at the blue line. That's government expenditures. Notice
  that it doesn't go up in 2003. So you're wrong about the Iraq war
  increasing the deficit. Expenditures went up at a steady rate from
  1980 to 2012, and only leveled off with Sequestration.
  
  
• Look at the red line. That's government income. It crashes in
  2000, because of the Nasdaq crash in the last year of the Clinton
  administration, and again in 2008, because of the financial crisis.
  
  
• Now look at the green line. It's the numeric difference between
  the blue line and the red line. The deficit surges in 2000 and
  2008 because of the Nasdaq crash and the financial crisis,
  respectively. The Iraq war is irrelevant.

** 2-Feb-15 World View -- Washington joins the world in explosive spending splurge
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/x...tm#e150202

So it's not the evil Boomers who ignore the facts; it's certain idiot
Gen-Xers, who live in a world of total fantasy, and who need to be
educated about the factoids.