DIDN'T SCARE ME CARTER

Don't get me wrong you probably would have but I didn't have much time to think about your comments when there was Alan Greenspan proclaiming on CNBC that he's "so scared" that he is proposing to go back to the Clinton tax rates to stabilize this terrible deficit. Carter, I don't care what the Euros do. I don't care if the Euro disappears tomorrow. I don't care if Belgium invades Germany just for a change of pace. But if people start listening to Alan Greenspan, I CARE!

Somewhere there should be a law written that economists are banned from any job outside of academia in which financial decision-making is a requirement. This guy has been damn well consistantly wrong for about 20 years and he still has the chutzpa to express an opinion as to future actions? This guy hasn't figured out that because of his actions and the actions of his successor we are in a structural decline that will not be solved by simple fiscal or for that matter, monetary action? This guy is so thick that he doesn't realize that the only tax rate that counted during the Clinton administration was the capital gains rate and that went DOWN which, coupled with the dot com boom (and subsequent bust), produced almost ALL of the increased revenue gain to the government. Carter, that this guy is let out alone without a minder, is scary. Memo to Andrea Mitchell: figure out something to keep the old boy up at home. Use your imagination.

Anyway, Carter could very well be correct. If JCT's idea catches on, Finito la Musica as they say in the old country. But it will not so I'm not too worried but the alternative facing our Euro partners in regard to the financial condition of Greece et al, beautifully laid out by Carter are a touch unnerving but nothing you avid readers haven't seen before. The thing that scares me is the timing. If Carter is correct--and there's a better than average chance that he is--all of this over there is going to come down just when we are down to the short strokes on a debt deal over here. As an old pilot buddy of mine likes to put it, the convergence could cause a monumental "Oh, s&%#!" moment in the international financial markrts. But what, me worry? Nah. It's shaping up to be a beautiful weekend, I'm going to the wedding of a beautiful kid I taught some years ago and the early summer veg is showing up at the farmenr's market including the first strawberries of the year. August/ September is a long was away.