Disclose the impact of deficit spending

Fiscal and monetary policies to date have stymied any real progress in an economic recovery. In a sea of economic problems are three principal areas of concern:

l The uppermost priority is quelling stratospheric fiscal deficits leading to certain disaster.

l Runaway costs of insurance-driven health care.

l Favoritism, protection and reward instead of imposing responsibility for rogue bank conglomerates.

The gross domestic product is an assemblage of categories best defining output of goods and services in the United States. The federal budget and debt statistics indicate that the annual deficit as a percentage of GDP was 10 percent in 2009, 8.9 percent in 2010, and 10.9 percent in 2011.

The GDP quarterly and annual reports express data in terms of expenditures, investment and international trade encumbered by growing dependence on deficit spending. The emphasis is on end results and not the equally important means. Imports are a subtraction item in the calculation of GDP, presumably as a means of disclosing balance of international trade, which impacts financing. It is equally so that there is the need for disclosing the role of deficit spending as it impacts financing in a separate subtraction item in the calculation of GDP.

A return to economic health dictates that the exacerbating practice of deficit spending be disclosed in the GDP report in the interests of transparency, which could lead to return of prudent fiscal policies.

George Black

Iowa City