Thursday, April 28, 2016

Republican Billionaire Says GOP Pathological about Deficit, country needs Stimulus.

I thought I would let a conservative billionaire tell the trolls the truth. CNBC:
Icahn: Republicans don’t understand economics and it’s killing the country: Republican lawmakers are suffering from a near "pathological" misunderstanding of the national economy, and they may be hurting markets and Americans alike, billionaire investor and Donald Trump supporter Carl Icahn told CNBC on Thursday.

Icahn, who Trump had previously suggested could serve as his Treasury secretary, warned that markets will have a " day of reckoning " without fiscal stimulus, and argued that the U.S. government "certainly could do more spending."

"The Republican Party that I used to be more sympathetic with — I'm right in the middle now but what I would say is Congress is in this massive gridlock," he said, explaining that the Republican-controlled body is "obsessed with this deficit to a point that I think it's almost pathological."

The result of this gridlock and a lack of fiscal stimulus has been that the Federal Reserve has been forced to keep interest rates low, and that has created "tremendous bubbles" and "the wealth gap."

Additionally, worrying about a deficit when there is no significant inflation and the dollar remains the global reserve currency is not a smart way to govern, Icahn said, adding that "a country is not a company."

While a company would go bankrupt if it owed too much money, the same could not be said of the United States anytime soon, Icahn explained, reiterating that he can't "understand this obsession" that many Republican politicians have with the deficit.

"They keep saying we owe all this money to China , but we're really not going to pay it back ever in a normal way," Icahn said. "So China decides 'I want my money back.' OK, well how do you want it back? You want dollar bills, you want Treasurys, what do you want?"

Icahn said, "And I never thought I'd agree completely with guys like (economist Paul) Krugman, but in this sense he's sort of right: I mean, you absolutely need fiscal stimulus in this economy."

1 comment:

  1. 3.5 trillion in QE, 10 trillion in debt, and 0% interest rates for 7 years wasn't enough "stimulus" for you?

    If you still believe the dollar remains the world reserve currency and there is no significant inflation, you haven't been paying attention to food, rent, energy or healthcare costs nor how China and Russia (among other nations) trade in their own currencies now.

    Krugman is an idiot. China wants Gold and there is none left. Not Treasuries or dollar bills.

    Let me know if you require more economic "truth."

    ReplyDelete