QUOTE
From:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/25/news/economy/greenspan/Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress Wednesday to move quickly to fix the nation's swollen budget deficit -- including measures that could cut some future Social Security payments -- to avoid even bigger problems for the nation's economy down the road.
QUOTE
From:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/n...sus-main27.htmlThe federal government delivered a triple dose of negative economic news on poverty, income and health insurance on Thursday and showed that once again the average Arizona family had less money for things such as food, clothing and shelter.
QUOTE
From:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20040813_591.htmlWholesale prices edged up just 0.1 percent in July as a big drop in food costs offset the biggest increase in energy prices in six months while the nation's trade deficit soared to an all-time high in June.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that the trade deficit surged to a $55.82 billion in June, a sharp 19.1 percent increase from a May imbalance of $46.88 billion.
Given these news reports (most from this week), the topics for debate are:
1. Is this temporary, or a slide that will continue, and if the latter, what can we do to stop it?
2. Is a country with a large trade deficit similar to a family that lives above their means, buying more than they can afford to pay for with the money they earn and borrowing on credit, or is it different, and if it's different, how is it different?
3. Should we take Greenspan's advice and make seniors work longer to get full benefits, or should we take another route out of the situation, if there is one, and if so, what should we do?
4. We judge inflation by taking out food and energy prices. I've read it's because these things flucuate. But since everyone needs to buy food and the cost of energy affects everyone, is this a good way to measure inflation?