The Deficit blog

                                                           The Deficit blog


                                      By Justin Winn



               In order to restore economic stability, policymakers must focus on restoring the institutional role of governing. Government can provide a stable environment for economic growth when it can be depended upon to maintain the stability of the currency, enforce and defend property rights, and provide oversight that assures private citizens that their transaction partners in the marketplace are held accountable.This will allow market participants to begin putting their resources back to work in the areas where they are most beneficial.After decades of lecturing developing countries on how to emerge from economic crisis and stimulate economic growth through sound government policies, U.S. policymakers and some economists are throwing out all their advice during the first major crisis test. This is particularly true when it comes to advice on accumulating more and more debt.Economic downturns, while painful, do afford an opportunity to root out waste and inefficient spending both in the public and private sectors. This is because the opportunity cost of making fundamental reforms is lower during downturns.the urgent need for fiscal discipline. But Congress's recent enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the President's proposed budget makes the goals of a sustainable budget and addressing the nation's longer-term fiscal priorities, such as entitlement liabilities, even more elusive. The Congressional Budget Office's recent "Budget and Economic Outlook" estimated the 2009 budget deficit to be $1.6 trillion 4 The Administration's recently released mid-session review from the Office of Management and Budget estimates that over the next 10 years the accumulated deficits will total $9 trillion. 5 This means that the debt held by the public will be a staggering 77 percent of GDP in 2019. If the debt level continues to grow faster than the economy, the U.S. will find that it owes more than it makes.

The first two points demonstrate a commitment to fiscal responsibility and give an opportunity to review the purposes of agencies in light of current needs and changing technology. This will help to increase the level of accountability in both the private and public sectors, as evaluations shine the light on how operations have been conducted. Demonstrating fiscal responsibility also signals a commitment to supporting the U.S. currency, 15 which will reassure America's trading partners.The third point will help restore credibility to U.S. financial institutions. It is well past time to modernize this country's financial regulatory system so that it can meet the challenges of today rather than reflect the structure of a market that no longer exists. The new system should be flexible and encourage the kind of innovation that has helped to provide low-cost financial services to millions of consumers, while also providing the credit that is so necessary for economic growth. It is important that the recent stabilization in the financial sector and other legislative agendas do not change the priority of this reform effort.The fourth, reform of the tax code, should focus on simplification, transparency of the tax burden, broadening the base, and lowering overall rates. Reducing the layers and complexity of the tax code frees up resources that citizens can put to more productive use. The Tax Foundation estimated that in 2005, individuals and non-profits spent six billion hours complying with the federal tax code. 16 This amounts to an additional 22 cents per dollar of tax collected--which means that American citizens paid $1.22 for every $1 that the government received in tax revenue.

Simplifying the tax code and streamlining the collection process would allow taxpayers to save this time and money, effectively giving them more disposable income. Increased disposable income can help people build wealth. Wealth is built by investing in assets. With house prices no longer rapidly appreciating, more productive asset investments might be in infrastructure, energy, health technology, and other assets of the future.Reducing marginal tax rates on income both at the corporate and individual levels increases the benefits that individuals and corporations receive from using their scarce resources to earn that income. This increased incentive to use resources productively creates greater economic growth. As the economy grows, more investments can be made, which in turn create more opportunities for growth, employment, and higher standards of living. Furthermore, economic growth generates higher tax revenues that support the governing institutions. This positive feedback effect is in fact a main motivation for many countries to undertake fundamental tax reforms.

“Since 2010,” says the Obama budget proposal, “federal deficits have shrunk at an historic pace—the most rapid sustained deficit reduction since the period just after World War II. The turn away from austerity in 2014 was ac­companied by another steep drop in the deficit, bringing it to 2.8 percent of GDP—the lowest level since 2007, about one-third the size of the deficit the president inherited, and below the 40-year average.”

Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, in the fourth month of fiscal 2009. On Feb. 17, 2009, he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), his economic stimulus bill.

“When ARRA was being considered, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would increase budget deficits by $787 billion between fiscal years 2009 and 2019,” the CBO said in a report published last year. “CBO now estimates that the total impact over the 2009–2019 period will amount to about $830 billion. By CBO’s estimate, close to half of that impact occurred in fiscal year 2010, and more than 95 percent of ARRA’s budgetary impact was realized by the end of December 2013.”

On March 11, 2009, Obama signed the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, which the Washington Post described as “a $410 billion spending bill to fund most of the federal government for the remainder of the year.”

In fiscal 2008, the last full fiscal year when George W. Bush was president, the federal deficit was $458.6 billion, according to the historical tables published by the White House OMB. In fiscal 2009, presided over by both Bush and Obama, the deficit was $1.4127 trillion. In 2010, it was $1.2944. In 2011, it was $1.2996 trillion. In 2012, it was $1.0870 trillion. In 2013, it was $679.5 billion. In 2014, it was $484.6 billion. And, in 2015, the OMB is estimating it will be $582.5 billion.

The fiscal 2008 deficit of $458.6 billion was 3.1 percent of GDP, according to the OMB. The OMB estimates that the $582.5 billion deficit it is projecting for this year will be 3.2 percent of GDP.

Since Obama took office, the federal debt has climbed from $10,626,877,048,913.08 to $18,082,294,157,510.20--an increase of $7,455,417,108,597.12.

Thanks for reading my blog hope you have enjoyed reading it.

30th birthday blog

                                               My 30th birthday blog
               
                     By Justin Winn

    The time when my 30th birthday will come the economy will have changed a lot. Like what I mean by that is that the federal debt that we owe to the government. will soon go bankrupt and the trillion dollars that we owe not might be paid for and the government will probable be shut down and that is not a good thing at all. By the on time I'm 30 and I have a wife and a few kids and by the time I have grand kids they won't be able to have there college education to be paid for because they might not able to afford it. The government will always take strange paths to stay in business and to keep our government working and to prevent it from shutting down. But if the trillion we owe to the government is not paid for trouble might come our way. Every child that is born each year and grows to be a high school-er then later has to have there education paid for when they end up going to college, like I said it might not happen because of the costs of financial aide and the money transferred to the college student, is government money that is paid for the college students education. Time will go by and things will change for everyone money, gas, food, taxes, will change problem in about 30 years the same age I will be at in the 30 years that will be coming for me.

But some people will know When a country fails to pay its creditors on time, it is said to go into “default”, the national equivalent of going bankrupt. But sovereign defaults are quite different from business bankruptcies as it is far harder for creditors to repossess the assets of a sovereign entity than to repossess the assets of a company (an unarmed Argentinian naval vessel detained in Ghana for ten weeks in 2012 was an exception). In the first instance, to curry favor in international markets, defaulting countries tend to restructure their debt rather than simply refusing to pay anything at all. But these so-called “haircuts”, where the original value of a bond is reduced, can be much more painful for the holders of government bonds than a simple clip of the scissors. After its $81 billion default in 2001, Argentina offered to pay its creditors a third of what it owed—93% of the debt was eventually swapped for performing securities in 2005 and 2010. But the remainder, which is held by vulture funds and other investors, is still in dispute. These “holdouts” are waiting for $1.3 billion plus interest. And when Greece defaulted in 2012, bondholders were forced to take hits as high as 50%.


 In less severe cases, countries may choose to restructure their debt by requesting more time to pay. This has the effect of reducing the present value of the bond—so it isn't entirely pain-free for investors. Some suggest that this is the right course of action for Ukraine as it struggles to balance its immediate domestic priorities against its obligations to bondholders. Defaults can also be very painful for the offending country, particularly if they are unexpected and disorderly. Domestic savers and investors, anticipating a fall in the value of the local currency, will scramble to withdraw their money from bank accounts and move it out of the country. Critically, there is no international law or court for settling sovereign defaults, which helps explain why they are so varied in length and severity. More international regulation has been proposed—including powers to prevent minority holders from hijacking the process—but such conditions ultimately remain up to the issuing country. The first bond issuance's since the new proposals (by Kazakhstan and Vietnam) include these clauses. Other countries might follow suit, but this doesn't resolve the $900 billion of bonds outstanding that were issued under the old rules.

Thank you for reading this blog I hope you have enjoyed reading this I hope it was worth reading. because I put work into making this blog so thank you.  

Minimum wage blog

                        Minimum wage how much you earn In
                     a daily living

                      By Justin Winn

    Minimum wage everyone will ask me some days how we get paid a certain amount and how much we earn each, week as we work. when I first knew about minimum wage was when I was working a Job on my grandparents, farm, getting paid $10 and hour but what I did not know what and where minimum wage comes from and how most country's will not be paid, a certain amount of money sometimes.  For an example of how Minimum wage works If an employee who Is a liquor server, is paid $10.00 an hour and works only two hours , he or she Is entitled to three hours at the Minimum wage. If you do the math 2* 20 = $20.00 you have earned for working for those long hours at the bar other, places will do the math for you when, you tell them you have been working for 4 or more hours In a day.  this will earn you $40.00 from working for just 4 hours, I thinking learning about this process of how to earn money Is very important because It can help you with certain life skills later on In life and money In budgeting Is important to know before you go out Into the real world.

Speaking of minimum wage that I have been talking about according to the federal minimum wage, provisions they are said to contain the fair labor Standards Act . which means the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour which on July 24, 2009 many states have Minimum wage laws stating that this will be the required amount of wage they will, earn In there savings and daily living, but wages are not the same In every state we will not get paid $7.25 an hour, like I said the wage, might change a year later will probable wont know when it will change or not. now that we talked about the minimum wage and how it can effect the government and most states, I will now talk about how the federal government is involved with the minimum wage here is what I have to say about that.

The goods news about the federal government being involved with the the minimum wage is that there, is an increase in the federal minimum wage looks like a real possibility, and how the good news is however depends, on which of the two competing proposals wins out. the differences between the two proposals are not insignificant,
especially when considering the billions of dollars in tax cuts in which the GOP leadership couched its minimum, wage proposal. a comparison of the size and phase in periods, of  the competing minimum wage proposals in relation to the proposed $123 billion GOP tax cut package that, it finds. thank you reading this article I hope you have enjoyed reading I had a lot of fun doing it hope you like to read it again because was it totally worth reading.
    

Opportunity cost blog

                                  Opportunity Cost Blog

                      by Justin Winn

The story I have written about is about, what opportunity cost is and how we use It In a way, when we want something we really bad that we want to buy It, but have to think of the money costs of a opportunity. So everyone asks most of the time about opportunity cost and what the benefits are from using the costs to obtain something In need for like a household Item or a movie ticket but know later on that you would need the money for the Item. What opportunity cost Is really about, Is when the loss or potential gain from alternatives when one alternative is chosen. This meaning to It makes a lot of sense to people it's like when people want whats best for their friends and family, they will do pretty much anything to get them a gift or card, or take them somewhere to eat, this is what an example of an opportunity cost Is. I think that using an opportunity cost Is good, In a way when we want to get something we need and, need to make sacrifices sometimes to obtain this Item of need.  It's like when you have the opportunity cost of going to college Is the money you have earned to have this education, and instead of going to work first but you later on go to work because you have to live with money to succeed In life. I think what I have explained already about this topic Is the same thing you use to get from the store or anywhere you go, there's always going to be an opportunity cost. Now that we have talked about the main basic setting of opportunity cost, where going to move on to the topic on the value of the opportunity cost.

The cost of something Is already the value of the highest- valued alternative use. But as contract lawyers and airplane pilots know, redundancy can be virtue. In this case, Its virtue is to remind us that the cost of using a resource arises from the value of what It could be used for Instead. This simple concept has powerful implications. It implies, for example, that even when the government subsidize college education, most students still pay more than half of a college cost that would be nearly 4,000 In tuition at a state college. assume that the government subsidy to the college amounts to the same price of what I have explained already like the amounts of 8,000 to 12,000 a year that Is why most students now choose to go to two year now which saves them money and time, most importantly It's cheaper than going to a 4 year college I am thinking about going to a two year college because of education reasons and I really don't have the money to go to a two year college so writing about this story has told me what I can do to use this opportunity cost to go To PCC. anyway I hope you have enjoyed reading this story and I hope It was worth reading.

Superbowl blog ad

                            The Super Bowl Blog Ad response

                                        By Justin Winn


          The super bowl this year was sort of good and okay, the
game itself was not very good because the seattle Seahawks, Vs the New england patriots, was a game, that should have been won by the Seahawks not the patriots. but I guess, the Fans of the patriots have won after all. while doing research on how the super bowl was going, to go this year I thought to myself, how did the Seahawks use logic to defeat the other team the patriots but the logic failed and the patriots won the super bowl award this year. maybe it was how the team, was set up and the coach they had, besides the patriots coach giving out good instructions on how the game should go I think the Seahawks coach, gave out poor instructions on how the team should defeat the the patriots in a way they defeated the broncos last year but that plan for them failed pretty much.

The super bowl this year was full of funny ads, I liked the snickers ad because it should a lot of humor, when the Brady Bunch character ate the snickers bar, and was not hungry anymore I think in real life I would be still hungry if I had only one snickers bar. and another funny commercial was, the puppy one but where going to skip that topic, for the censorship of others. then the last one I liked was the mountain dew Ad very funny Ad I was laughing quite a bit when seeing the ad. I really did enjoy the super bowl 2015 ads this year now where going to talk about the Bloomberg video.

I have not seen it yet but by the reaction I give it. I think it would seem like it was Involved, with the super bowl this year I did not know the video even existed. I think, writing this blog was very fun to do talking about the super bowl this year I hope the next super bowl will be good this, year because this years one was an okay one But anyway I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog.

The 4th amendment schools and mobile phones

                                                        The 4th amendment
                                                   schools and mobile phones


                                                 

                                                             By Justin Winn


We all think these days that we have the right to our own privacy of our phones and not let any other people look at what we are Tex-ting or our calls we make to people, friends or family do we have these rights? of course we do but not everyone follows these rules not even the 4th amendment. well I'm saying that most of us follow the 4th amendment but the government sometimes does or does not due to law enforcement or law is changed by a recent bill that was passed by the president. In my opinion I believe that the 4th amendment should help the law with doing searches at peoples homes but I think at the same time they can break these rules by going to far on search procedures. I think they should pass a bill that they can search us and how we can tell them to search us if they want but make sure that they are following the 4th amendment law and not break it by going to far on looking at our private property after a while. we all know that this will not happen change of the 4th amendment may not come in till a few years later. I think that it is a good idea to search a students phone or hand bag if they disobey school rules by doing inappropriate things to a friend or another person in a cruel or harmful way. remember words can hurt so true not to say anything to someone who you don't like out loud think before you speak.

State of nature by hobbes and locke

                    The state of nature paper 
                            by Justin Winn

          For Hobbes the necessity of an absolute authority, in the form of a Sovereigh followed from the brutality of the state of nature. the state of nature was completely intolerable, and so rational men would be willing, to submit themselves even to absolute authority in order to escape it. according to Locke the state of nature, the natural condition of mankind is a state of perfect and complete to conduct one's life as one best see's fit free from the interference of others. the laws of nature which is on Locke's view the basis of all morality and given to us by God commands that we not harm others with their regards to their "life,health,liberty,or possessions" (par. because we all belong equally to God and because we cannot take away that which is rightfully his,we are prohibited from harming one another. property plays an essential role, in Locke's argument for civil government and the contract that establishes it. so, for example when one tills a piece of land in nature and makes it into a piece of farmland. which produces food then one has claim to own that piece of land and the food produced upon It. because Locke did did not envision the state of nature as, grimly as did Hobbes, he can imagine conditions under which,one would be better off rejecting a particular civil government and returning to the state of nature. It is therefore, both the view of human nature, and the nature of morality itself, which account for the difference between Hobbes and Locke's views of the social contract.

So In this paragraph and story that I told. Hobbes and Locke's have views of how nature and society works the main system what John Locke and Thomas Hobbes have talked about so far is that the government runs Into a state of deciding a state of decision, and that all comes from the government Its self. some people never knew about the government some thought It had been kept under by the Liberty rebels called the son's of liberty. I think In my mind that two men named John Locke and Thomas Hobbes had a key idea for what the government, might look like and they used logic and perception to figure out what people needed for a based government. It took years to figure out what time and money It took to do certain types of projects for running there own independent country or be under the control of Britain. that Is something us American's did not want to deal with so we went out of our ways to tell Britain that,we wanted our freedom and independence and let us want what we want for what we choose to do. but as you look Into what Hobbe's had to say about these current events that happened so, quick that many others thought they were machines or just plain evil but we all know that is not true we were not thinking In a way we do In everyday society.

The state of nature plays key roles In a everyday Citizen's life. like when we want to start working on certain types of projects and work that the u.s government make's us do. I think that It is a good thing that we think about going to work or the work force, it can put us out of debt I know that It might not involve what John Locke had In his theory, but Maybe Thomas had the idea of a better government but no one knows for sure what Locke had In for an idea of a perfect government everyone knows what Hobbe's had for the state of nature and Thomas as well. In some versions of social contract theory, there are no rights in the state of nature, only freedoms, and it is the contract that creates rights and obligations. In other versions the opposite occurs: the contract imposes restrictions upon individuals that curtail their natural rights. the social contract was political contract is a theory or model, originating during the Age of Enlightenment, that typically addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority,of the state over the individual. The idea of the social contract is one of the foundations of the American  political system. This is the belief that the state only exists to serve,the will of the people, and they are the source of all political power enjoyed by the state. They can choose to give or withhold this power.
The origin of the term social contract can,be found in the writings of Plato. However, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes expanded on the idea when he wrote in response to the English Civil War. In this book he wrote that in the earliest days there was, no government. Instead, those who were the strongest could take control and use their power at any time over others. Hobbes' theory was that the people mutually agreed to create a state, only giving it enough power to provide, protection of their well-being. However, in Hobbes' theory, once the power was given to the state, the people then relinquished any, right to that power. In effect, that would be the price of the protection they sought.Thus the will of the people as a whole gives power, and direction to the state. John Locke also based his political writings on the idea of the social contract. He stressed the role of the individual. He also believed that revolution was not, just a right but an obligation if the state abused their given power. Obviously these ideas had a huge impact, on the Founding Fathers especially Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

He need for the Constitution grew out of problems with the Articles of Confederation, which established a "firm league of friendship" between the states, and vested most power in a Congress of the Confederation. This power was, however, extremely limited — the central government conducted diplomacy and made war, set weights and measures, and was the final arbiter of disputes between the states. Crucially, it could not raise any funds itself, and was entirely dependent on the states themselves for the money necessary to operate. Each state sent a delegation of between two and seven members to the Congress, and they voted as a bloc with each state getting one vote. But any decision of consequence required a unanimous vote, which led to a government that was paralyzed and ineffectual. this I have given you an idea what the government Is like I hope you have enjoyed reading this paper about,what John Locke and Thomas Hobbe's thought about a daily based country how they could from It into a powerful, government. this I might read again but It depends If this will be good to read again, anyway enjoy the paper.