A perfect metaphor for the economy and the so-called "fiscal cliff"

[markpkessinger]

In today's New York Times, in the reader comments appended to Paul Krugman's excellent column titled, "Fighting Fiscal Phantoms," there appears this comment, posted by an airline pilot, which was such a perfect metaphor I had to share it here:

thinkingisgood
Rural Washington State

I'm a pilot. I fly sailplanes and powered aircraft.

When an aircraft "stalls" (loses the capacity to support its weight by lift) it flies like a brick. The counter intuitive and instantaneous response drilled into pilots-in-training is to point the nose toward the ground and regain airspeed. Airspeed creates lift. When you regain lift with speed, you pull back on the stick and, having sacrificed altitude for speed, resume normal flight.

The deficit scolds are total ignoramuses; an economy is an aircraft in flight. We need minimal spending (airspeed) to create lift. An economy the size of the United States' has plenty of altitude (debt capacity) to sacrifice to regain lift and enable us resume normal flight.

The "deficit" is not the problem...lack of domestic spending is the problem.

Put money in the hands of workers by paying them to create tangible and intangible infrastructure (spurring consumption) and we will regain airspeed.

We didn't pay off our WWII debt; we gained enough lift through consumption to grow our way out of it being a burden. Ten is 10% of a 100 economy. Ten is 0.01% of 1,000 economy. Grow the economy! That isn't done through tax breaks for the wealthy; no matter how much the GOP tries to suppress the evidence.

Over the long term the economy can grow enough that the "deficit" won't be a burden.

Revising Senate Rules and forcing the deficit scolds in the House to own up to their transparent bullying is only appropriate.

Or would you prefer a crash?

Nov. 26, 2012 at 3:06 a.m.

[Fridays Child]

1. k/r

[trouble.smith]

2. I think the flat spin is a more appropriate metaphor.

Jobs are the only thing that would pull us out of such a spin but there are compelling reasons to believe that those jobs are not going to materialize, most notably (IMO), the endlessly deteriorating housing market. If we are unable to create jobs, our "airplane" will not pull out of its flat spin and it will crash and burn. The debt we take on in the meantime will only make the explosion that much more impressive.

[tclambert]

4. "endlessly deteriorating housing market"? For the last year,

I've seen renewed construction in this area, and occasional reports of a "housing recovery." See for instance:

http://investing.covestor.com/2012/11/four-reasons-the-u-s-housing-recovery-is-the-real-deal

and:

http://news.yahoo.com/existing-home-sales-climb-housing-recovery-gains-traction-150312802--business.html

[trouble.smith]

7. Improvements in the housing market are not enjoyed by all

and nationally, home prices are still right about where they were 10-12 years ago. I own three houses. They have all taken massive hits and have not really recovered in the slightest contrary to what the internet might suggest. There's no way I could sell one of those houses without losing my shirt. I recently watched a house sell for about $28,000. The initial asking price was around $60,000. Furthermore, a large portion of the houses that are being bought are bank repos being bought very cheaply by well financed investors who then rent them out. It seems disingenuous to conclude that any of this truly represents an improvement in the housing situation and, therefore, in the overall employment/economic situation-certainly nothing real enough to get excited about. The housing situation is an anchor on the economy and it what it is because average Joe wannabe homeowner can't afford to buy a house because he's either unemployed, underemployed, or his credit is shot or, more than likely, some kind of combination of the three. It's also what it is because there is a glut of cheap rental properties on the market right now and it makes more sense to rent when you compare the two markets. The only thing that legitimately restores the housing market to where it was a few years ago is a rapid and massive restoration of the employment situation and that hasn't really happened (not in this area at least) and there's nothing to suggest that it's going to happen any time soon. I think there are a lot of smoke and mirrors hiding the fact that the rich are still getting richer and the poor are still getting poorer.

[annabanana]

3. A very useful metaphor!

It would be a good one to get into the public conversation

[Berlum]

5. Righteous metaphor

Kudos to the captain

[Larry Ogg]

6. Psychopaths enjoy being the cause of death and destruction...

Almost as much as being rewarded for the malevolent act of putting the blame on someone else!

They do this because they have no conscience, and if not having conscience isn't bad enough, they do it because they are anti-conscience.

So the best solution for humanity as a whole would be to take the top six hundred and sixty six most wealthiest psychopaths in the World, along with their legions of venal cronies, and sycophant politicians, and throw them off the fiscal cliff.