Word: debts
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...year, higher than the White House had projected in January. While that might under normal circumstances make any stimulus more popular, voters have been spooked by the enormous deficits Washington is running up as it tries to right the economy. In 2009 alone, the U.S. government will take on debt equal to about 13% of its economic output, and by 2016 the U.S. debt is projected to top 70% of GDP, twice the 2000 level. Poll after poll has shown a steady erosion of confidence in the stimulus measure; one survey found that 45% of voters believe it should...
...could be reduced if U.S. consumer demand for Japanese products began to strengthen, or if the government introduced additional stimulus spending. Due to budget constraints, says Shirakawa, the latter is unlikely. Japan currently spends 4% of GDP, an unusually high ratio for a developed country, to service its burgeoning debt. But a pickup in consumption is possible, he says. The savings rate in the U.S. has increased in the past few months, and consumers may be feeling more confident that they can now spend a little more. That could provide some relief to Japan's battered export sector; Japanese exports...
This is an extremely fashionable topic at the moment. Some cultural observers even think Americans are due for a prolonged shift away from the consumption obsession of the post--World War II era. That strikes me as an iffy bet, but it is clear that the debt-fueled consumer spending binge of the past couple of decades is over. The household debt-to-income percentage more than doubled, from 65% in 1982 to 135% in 2007. That turned out to be way too much for us to handle, and now the leveraging process has gone into reverse. The latest household...
...long boom in stock prices from 1982 to 2000 and the shorter one in housing prices from about 1997 to 2006 were fueled by rising debt. Ever easier mortgage terms and falling interest rates provided a brisk tailwind for home prices. In the stock market, higher profits pushed along by bigger consumer and corporate debt loads brought higher stock prices. Start ratcheting the indebtedness down and throw in slower growth, and both of these processes go backward. For the long-term health of the economy, that's good--as we've learned, debt-fueled growth is not indefinitely sustainable...
Whatever Works also owes a debt to The Wizard of Oz. Melody is Dorothy, Boris is the fulminating old wizard, and Oz--well, that has to be Manhattan: Gotham as the Emerald City, full of endearing creatures who make dreams come true. The town has a magical effect on its visitors. Melody picks up some of Boris' dour rhetoric, except that for cretins she says "croutons." Her parents, having followed her trail north, get the feeling too. Her staid father (Ed Begley Jr.) unbuttons his sexual inhibitions, and her Blanche DuBois--like mom (a stingingly funny Patricia Clarkson) becomes...