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(an email exchange)

Not even close!

>   
>   On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 11:54 PM, Russell wrote:
>   
>   I found Fischer’s speech.
>   
>   ”No combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, though, will change the total
>   burden borne by current and future generations. For the existing unfunded
>   liabilities to be covered in the end, someone must pay $99.2 trillion more or
>   receive $99.2 trillion less than they have been currently promised.
>   

Why/how? Show me the debits and credits and how that changes real outcomes!

>   This is a cold, hard fact.

Yes, he believes it.

>   The decision we must make is whether to shoulder a substantial portion of that
>   burden today or compel future generations to bear its full weight.”

Yes, produce goods and services and send them back in time to pay off the debt.

>   ”We know from centuries of evidence in countless economies, from ancient
>   Rome to today’s Zimbabwe, that running the printing press to pay off today’s
>   bills leads to much worse problems later on. The inflation that results from the
>   flood of money into the economy turns out to be far worse than the fiscal pain
>   those countries hoped to avoid. ”
>   

What is ‘the printing press’ as above? Deficit spending? So why was the Fed pushing the latest fiscal package? Is this an attack on Bernanke?

>   ”Right now, we—you and I—are launching fiscal bombs against ourselves. ”

Then why is the Fed forecasting lower inflation over the next two years and beyond?

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