Who Stole the Fiat?

Commentary by Roger Erickson

Messrs. Simpson & Bowles are clearly both in need of and addicted to R&R, and they obviously no longer know the meaning of their own words.

Their latest is A Bipartisan Path Forward to Securing America's Future.

Basically, these IDIOTS are still insisting on "saving up more fiat."

They could just take a nap??

Would they be satisfied if our entire country just laid down, immobile, in the road for 6 months? The Will Rogers cure?* Didn't someone tell 'em that was just a joke?

They've become a sad parody of themselves, and clearly know not what they do. Yet part of one of their lines does ring strangely true, though they themselves haven't the wit to recognize it.

"[Our] new proposal contains $2.5 trillion of additional [reduction in fiat] over ten years, enough to put [the USA] on a clear downward path and falling below 70 percent of GDP by 2023."

How reduced fiat will permanently stay below GDP is a mysterious puzzle to these geniuses. Maybe that state will kick in at the moment of national death? When GDP, theoretically, becomes negative? Orthodox macroeconomists - if there are any left - could then have a field day, reveling in a "balanced fiat" netherworld where all that's dark actually matters.

Reading the S&B literature is like reading a Lewis Carrol fantasy for children. I keep expecting quotes from a Mock Turtle to pop up in one of their press releases.

Fantastic images and dream wonderlands are appropriate for meditation, hallucinations, dementia and even social diversion. Yet it's not comforting to see them become a staple of national policy. Dear or dear, what SHALL we do! Just wake up and outgrow their nonsense?

I fear a bad end for the tired old chaps, when they take their fantasy to it's logical conclusion. They'll wake up outraged one day and demand to know WHO STOLE THE FIAT?

*There's also a curious connection between S&B and Will Rogers, though they don't see it the same way. "Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." Will Rogers