Default America: Influence & Impasse

Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff plans to run for president as a third-party candidate. I had the pleasure of doing an in depth interview with him about a year ago. This story is one of many he appears in.Visit Kotlikoff-2012.org

Representative Nancy Pelosi
Maybe sobeit for him, but not so be it for the people who are losing their jobs

We have the democrats and republicans who are
Laurence Kotlikoff Professor Economics Boston University
fighting with each other and that's really a side show for expropriating the young

US Congressman Paul Ryan
We need to make responsible choices today so our children don't have to make really painful choices tomorrow

Joe Salerno - Prof Econ - Lugwig Von Mises Institute
The point is that neither republicans or democrats really want to cut the deficit. They want to continue to spend

like drunken sailors because by spending you increase your constituency, you make it more likely you are going to

get voted back in to office

It's not really the left verses the right because when the left gets in they pursue the same policies as the right

pursue. President Bush was about as profligate as any president in the nations history.

The incentive is for government to increase spending. However, taxes are extremely unpopular, at least increases in

taxes. So, they need a way to find revenue to fill that gap be tween the increase spending and taxes which are very

difficult to raise. And the way they do that is to run a deficit financed by printed money or by borrowing from the

Chinese, the Japanese and so on, and both of those lead us to problems.

We're not seeing the truth because to see the truth you have to actually crank the numbers the right way and then

you have to have the government actually talk about this openly, but the government is trying to get itself

reelected all the time, their not interested in the truth.

They want to promise something for nothing because that's how you get elected. If they had real economists that

would tell them the truth, that doesn't play well on the campaign when you have to tell your constituent, there's

nothing the government can do. There is no miracle cure, the government can't create jobs, the government can't

create prosperity. But what it can do is create poverty, it can destroy jobs. That it does very well unfortunately.

Even free market thinkers argue that there is a role for government. But their role is limited in such that they

should enforce legal binding contracts and enforce property rights.

It's too politically toxic. They don't want to talk about cutting government departments or naming what spending

they are going to reduce. Every politician is afraid to mention one thing they would like to cut because they are

afraid they are going to be demonized.

Here's the good news. That doesn't have to be our future. That doesn't have to be the country we leave our children.

I am committed to making sure that we have real reductions in spending, and real changes to the budget process so

this problem will never occur again.

As long as the politicians can kick the can down the road that's exactly what they are going to do. Because they are

always going to try to get through the next election cycle without a major collapse. Now at some point they might

finally realize that it's going to collapse anyway and they might finally do what's right. But as I've said because

we would have waited so much longer, doing the right this going to involve a lot more pain for a lot more Americans.

The retirees are going to be taken care of. There's no ifs ands or buts about that.

But let me be absolutely clear. I will preserve these healthcare programs, as a promise we make to each other in this society.

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts IV - Track 33
God bless you speaker

You know, if the government doesn't want to do the right thing because it's too politically unpopular for the people

who have to have to share the bad news with everybody. If instead the government pretends that it can keep all of

its promises, that nobody has to lose any money, that the banks don't have to fail, that real estate prices don't

have to fall, that everybody's going to get paid all the money they loaned the government, that government employees

are going to get all their pensions, that everyone's going to get all their social security benefits, everybody's

going to get all their medicare benefits. If the government's going to keep all of these promises, then nobody will

lose any money, but everybody's money will lose its value, and maybe ALL of it's value. That's when you get HYPERINFLATION

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[yanikv]

what a bullshit video. People are loosing jobs and this video chirps about contracts and property rights. STFU you corporate shills.

[ziocody]

@yanikv Your comment is interesting but I hope you are joking & the punch line is the corporate shills bit. The chirp is educated, not coached, & is directed at the need for limited government. Right now there is a lot of government interference in the free market which has distorted it. Many people are in the wrong jobs because of that distortion and as this crash plays out, jobs will continue to be lost. If you are serious then Im guessing you have or had one of those jobs that shouldn't exist

[Medic37dan]

What editing software are you using?

[ziocody]

@Medic37dan Edius by Grass Valley. They have a 30 day trial version available on their website. If you are just getting in to editing I like Avid. It was the easiest to learn of the ones I am familiar with. Edius is great for mixed media and can handle a great number of different files and formats.

[jmelkis]

Hey, I really like this, and I really like the people you have interviewed. I'm quite familiar with Peter Schiff, as I subscribe to his videos, but it's interesting to hear the economics professors and what they have to say. Are you going to make this into a documentary?

[ziocody]

@jmelkis again, thanks for supporting me on this. I have several more stories like this one that are taking shape but they are extremely difficult to edit. I don't know how far I'll get before the crash but I have more economists I'd like to interview. This is my 9th piece on the economy and combining them with future works in a documentary would be pretty awesome. Schiff was great to work with and is the backbone of my work going forward. Thanks for viewing and sharing

[MrGnarlava]

great video. RON PAUL.

[CheckyCPSO07]

@yanikv -- 'loosing'?

[CheckyCPSO07]

@yanikv They aren't here to protect US. That is the job of the Federal Government. The same Federal Government that demonizes all corporate entities, but allowed them to take huge pay bonuses while shelling out huge amounts of bailout money. Oh, and yankoff, why the personal attacks? Why are you calling people morons? Keep following this Communist President to the end. I prefer to get off the train.

[yanikv]

Last time I checked, the heads of Goldman-Sachs, GE, Viacom, Disney, or any of the other large corporations werent exactly doing anything to better the social condition of the country. They are little more than parasites, doing their very best to glean value away from the truly productive (value creators.)

[yanikv]

Educated Americans can see through your bullshit vid. We are not going back to an aristocracy, plutocracy or kingdom. In other words, the people of this country are not going to simply reject the very notion of a public tyranny (too much government) for a number of private tyrannies. Its the concentration of power that hurts the general public...whether public or private you moron. Rockefeller, Carnegie, and the Vanderbilts of yesteryear werent any more benevolent than the Soviet Union.

[101xfmrogers]

14 trillion $ debt that's nuts! that's like 14 000 times 1 billion!