MySLOCounty
The next president will have limited levers available for fixing the economy. Interest rates are already artificially low, despite the fact that we have consumer, business, and governmental debt of over $31,758,400,000,000 outstanding in our economy, a 75% increase over the course of the Bush administration. Our balance of payments with the rest of the world remains badly negative, over $700 billion in 2007 and running at close to that rate in 2008, despite the crash of the dollar against almost all other currencies. The collapse of the Ponzi schemes of subprime mortgage lending and wild consumer credit are removing a huge artificial stimulus from the economy. The government has tried shipping out cash to taxpayers with little effect, and the federal deficit of over $9.5 trillion (some $31,666 for every man, woman and child in America) makes it difficult to deficit spend. Meanwhile, between now and 2040 the retirement of the baby boom generation will put impossible strains on Social Security and Medicare (which are unfunded and therefore must be supported by a shrinking work force), and private pensions are unhealthy. We desperately need the economy to grow quickly, but the government has used up all of its traditional stimulus tools.