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Savings- Afghanistan War
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Savings- Afghanistan War
The Afghanistan War greatly affected the U.S. economy. All the money that goes into caring for veterans, supporting the Afghan security forces, reconstruction, etc. seemed to make little progress, along with increasing the national debt. The total cost of the war for us was about $5 trillion when the Government thought that the war would only cost about $5 million.
Monetary Policy
http://www.afghanistanstudygroup.org/2013/01/28/afghanistan-war-takes-a-toll-on-the-u-s-economy/ -
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Leadership- Downfall of the Housing Market
As usual, banks started selling mortgages to people on their homes in 2005. The banks put all of those mortgages into bonds and started selling them to investors in the stock market. This seemed like a good idea: the money in the bonds would be there because people would pay their mortgages. But, not everyone could afford the houses that they were buying and were paying their mortgages so the bonds had nothing that they were based on. -
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Leadership- Downfall of the Housing Market (cont.)
Eventually, the housing market and banks crashed because there was no money in the bonds or mortgages: the prices of houses had gone down and the banks didn’t need any more mortgages, so the bonds had no substance. This caused financial ruin of banks all across America.
Monetary Policy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgqG3ITMv1Q -
Leadership- Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi Scheme
Bernie was the Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. In early December of 2008 he confessed to defrauding investors of over $50 billion. It is the largest Ponzi scheme on record in the last two decades, for which he received a 150 year sentence in maximum security prison.
Monetary Policy
https://www.thebalance.com/bernard-madoff-and-his-ponzi-scheme-393095 -
Trade- U.S. Owes $295.5 billion to China
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Trade- U.S. Owes $295.5 billion to China
In September of 2008, the U.S. owed $600 billion to China in the areas of trade deficit and treasuries. It had just passed Japan as the largest holder of U.S. debt in the world. In February of 2012, the trade deficit in China reached a relative all-time high at $295.5 billion. After this, the EU tried to put more trade restrictions on China, which did not go over well with the country.
Fiscal Policy
http://www.cfr.org/china/us-relations-china-1949---present/p17698 -
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Budget- Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act is a plan that was started by Obama and set into place in 2010 that gives more health coverage to more Americans. This is funded by taxpayer dollars in order to give people a standard coverage for health issues, if they arise. Originally, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that it would cost about $1 trillion; now, it is projected to cost about $4 trillion. The debt per family has risen by about $50,000 since 2000 and is projected to triple by 2020. -
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Budget- Obamacare (cont.)
Obamacare only adds to that problem because not everything can be paid for by tax dollars or taking expenses from Medicare or Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act, if what it cost was given out to all new users to pay for in order to get it paid off, would be about $100,000- all money that the citizens don’t have.
Fiscal Policy
http://ijr.com/2014/04/131910-much-obamacare-costs-taxpayers-10-years-newly-insured-american-will-blow-mind/
http://iwvoices.com/obamacaredebt.pdf -
Budget- Oil Patch Ripple Effect
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Budget- Oil Patch Ripple Effect
Legislators in oil-rich states were having trouble balancing their budget, which is required by law to do by the end of the year. There have been huge declines in revenue because of low decreasing oil prices.
Fiscal Policy
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/27/us-states-face-an-economic-budget-crisis-due-to-falling-oil-prices.html -
Budget- Obamacare (cont.)
