richardhowe.com

I found out about the Anti-Defamation League’s decision to oppose the proposed construction of a mosque and community center two blocks from Ground Zero on Paul Krugman’s blog yesterday. He was incensed, attacking the ADL for hypocrisy. After reading the front page New York Times article this morning, I was furious as well and wrote a very angry blog post about the subject. But then I realized one shouldn’t write when angry and scrapped the post. Perhaps better to leave it alone.

But as I was perusing the blogosphere this evening, I found a very evenhanded analysis of the situation from Nate Silver, which I why I’m writing this post. His post is mostly about how pathetic a job the media has done reporting on this subject (big surprise). He also gives what seems to be the only comprehensive explanation of the facility and, in passing, points out that other faiths already have houses of worship in the area. Please do read his post.

I would only add two points. The first is that we should not hold moderate America Muslims accountable for September 11th; they had about as much to do with it as the rest of us did. They are not guilty because they share their faith with over 1.2 billion other human beings. But my second point is more important. Is there anyone who reads this blog who does not think that moderate Muslims should be speaking out against extremism? Is there anyone on this blog who does not think moderate Muslims should be reaching out to build ties with people of other cultures and faiths? Yet, when they try to do so, we vilify them. If we want to work with American Muslims and moderate Muslims worldwide to combat terrorism, we need to grow up.

This morning I noticed that Greg Mankiw had posted a link on his blog to an issue summary from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that was published four days ago. It can be found here.

The report is entitled “Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis.” If you are at all interested in the economic forecast for our country, you should read this document. It’s clearly written, easy to understand, and only 8 pages long.

My interpretation of this report is that we have yet to experience the worst side effects of the recession. Eventually, government spending has to be reformed. Under current policies, we would have to either reduce spending by 1% or increase revenue by 1% immediately to keep the federal debt under control. Under the “alternative fiscal scenario,” which includes hypotheticals such as the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the repeal of healthcare reform, it would be 5%, which is equivalent to 20% of the government’s non-interest spending.

The report also looks as three recent fiscal crises: Argentina, Ireland, and Greece. These provide interesting insights into the future path our country might take. The biggest question seems to be at what point do investors lose confidence in the US government’s ability to pay off its debts.

Although the report doesn’t come out and say it, it seems that the absolute worst thing that could happen in the next few decades is another recession. And while the recent financial reform was a good start, it’s pretty clear that no one thinks it will prevent another collapse of our economy. We would do well to understand how the US avoided any major recessions, relative to our current one and prior ones, for most of the 20th century.