TPS

No. We ran into a self-imposed political budget constraint.

Kicking the can in the short run, but as I said the long term unfunded liabilities--mainly Medicare--has to be addressed. The primary objective right now is to get back to full employment. If you think austerity will do that, then you miss the point on the UK. If the economy is taking hold now (given the revision yesterday) then no need for additional stimulus, and the deficit will come down. Anyone want to answer the question why bond markets don't seem to care about the current deficits? Ps. I love you too Darin.

As I said in the quick post, I have some things that are keeping me occupied, so I will post bits when I can. It's not something that can be answered with a quick post. I started with saying I'd answer the easy part of Rob's post--equating the US to Greece. But of course people have to jump on that and say I'm off topic. While the OP is on the UK, the topic concerns whether a country that issues its own currency can "run out of money." Rob's concern is that the US is going to end up like Greece. I say it can't. Rob's post also brings out two issues regarding deficits and debt--there is a long term problem regarding unfunded liabilities; and there is a short term problem of trillion dollar deficits. I agree that there is a long term issue that needs to be addressed, but in the short term expansionary deficits are necessary to maintain total demand in the economy, otherwise balancing the budget will cause a depression. While I believe that deficits are a necessary evil in the short run, they don't have to come about from increased spending, you can cut taxes and/or give various business investment credits. This is NOT to argue that government is good or bad, rather it's about the expansionary impact of deficits on the economy as a whole. The short term issue is to get the economy back to its average real growth rate of 3% and unemployment close to 5%, and most of the short term deficit will be resolved. So the belief is that the US is going to go bankrupt because the federal government has run deficits of $1 trillion over the past three years, and will continue to run deficits until the economy recovers. If you believe that the US can't pay, then one would expect interest rates to be extremely high reflecting that risk premium, but they remain at historic lows. Are bond traders just stupid (and they should be reading PPP)? Can any of the doomsayers explain why the bond markets don't reflect the belief that the US will go bankrupt? I'll get to the main argument--why deficits are necessary--next time.

I'll take the challenge, but I'll have to do bits at a time given my time constraints. The easiest part: you can't compare Greece and the US, because Greece doesn't issue its own currency. They are equivalent to a US state, bound by a political budget constraint. Also, there are two issues you raise about deficits and debt: one is short term related to high unemployment, and the other is the long term unfunded liabilities. I'll return...

Wait a minute, weren't most people here singing the praises of the UK's austerity plan a year or so ago? I seem to recall a nice thread about that... If Osborne thinks the UK is out of money, then he should be out of office. What a dolt.

Given Buddy's comments about D-line and CBs, someone like Dre Kirkpatrick could be in play as well. I initially thought Upshaw should be the pick, but given his comments from yesterday, they could go DL, LT, or CB. Whatever they do, there will still be some good edge rushers available in R2.

The OP mentions the "next financial crisis." Everyone was focusing on blaming the borrower and nothing else. I was trying to point out that there's more than one guilty party to blame for this, if or when the debt bubble bursts.

No where in my statement did I say anyone was at the top of a list. The point was that it's a combination of factors. She's an idiot for taking that much debt; banks are reckless, but they don't care because there's a government guarantee, and the government guarantee of a private loan by a bank is bad policy.

So if there's a crisis, it's obviously her fault. Let's ignore the fact that banks continued lending her money even though that level of debt has an unrealistic chance of payback; but, hey, it's guaranteed by the government, so who cares about risk...

The point I was trying to make is that if you see put him at LDE on 3rd downs (pass rushing situations in general) and insert Merriman (or whoever they would get in my R2 scenario), then you've upgraded.

Courtney Upshaw. Like many here, I've been going back and forth on who should be the pick, and I finally have concluded Upshaw SHOULD be it. Here's why... He's the most NFL ready, and will step in from day one as a starter. He is both a good pass rusher, and run defender. However, he lacks the "measurables" to be the pass rushing RDE... Here's what I would hope to see. Standard front 4 of Kelsey, Dareus, Williams, Upshaw. However, in passing situations, I'd flip Upshaw to LDE in place of Kelsey, then use Merriman as strictly a pass rushing RDE; so passing situations would be Upshaw, Dareus, Williams, Merriman. This brings me to R2. I'd select the best pure pass rusher available as insurance and backup to Merriman. This could be anyone from Perry, Brown, Branch, Curry, to Massaquoi. Finally, in R3, I'd select the best pass defense OLB available, someone like Nigel Bradham of FSU (6-2, 4.67). He would back up Barnett, but more importantly, take over the role that Bryan Scott plays in passing situations. Given the 2 TE attack of the Pats, the Bills need someone with size and speed to cover (one of) those guys. This focus on D again means the Bills must sign their important FAs on O--SJ, Bell, Chandler. For external FAs, they should target Strong-side LB, WR, and CB. It must be the offseason...

Seems to me all this report is predicting is that we'll be back to the long run ratio of taxes to GDP in 2 years. Maybe their headline should have read, "Taxes to shoot back up to historical average in 2 years"?????

Or lenders just fudged the data to meet any minimums, as they did with income data.

Stability=I want SJ back

The two significant tax cut experiments by Reagan and Bush2 resulted in significant increases in deficits. Bush2 added over $2 trillion in debt and he started with surpluses left over from Clinton.

Having just come back from the west coast, I'm reminded of how high property taxes are in WNY. True. I think the wheels are slowly grinding in a positive way to finally rein things in, but it will take some time. Almost tried Mike A's b-o-w sushi last time there, but I'm really a traditionalist when it comes to sushi--tuna and octopus. Btw, he is the one opening up the steakhouse in the Lafayette.

Hey, if the report said income declined, many people here would have been all over it with the "Buffalo sucks" comments and how bad NYS is. It's almost as if some ex-pats enjoy (need?) negative news about WNY. There are a lot of good things happening in the city. A great site to keep up is www.buffalorising.com One spectacular change is the Lafayette Hotel. I'm really looking forward to it's opening in May. The old Tap Room will re-open, a brew pub is going in, and a steakhouse. Also, the rejuvenated Statler had 4,000 people for New Year's Eve. Now if we could only have a winning sports team...

And in the midst of all the negative, Buffalo ranks 4th in the world for income growth over the past two years... My link

I'm not so sure you blame the WRs or Fitz. I've seen several quotes about Gailey's passing scheme, short n quick, which requires the QB and WRs to be NSync. That's why Fitz had them at his place during the lock out. Once you start throwing in new guys, it takes time and practice for them to get comfortable. I think this is the main reason for the O's decline--all of the injuries to WRs and Chandler, AND FJ. I think it also takes time and experience for Fitz to gain confidence in any new WR. So, I'd disagree, it's not bad coaching, it's the injuries and not being in sync.

Good questions. I went back to see what I predicted to answer this one. I predicted the Bills as a possible turnaround team based on a better offense, increasing average ppg, and same on defense, lowering ppg. I thought there would be a swing of 7-10 points. The O increased by 5.6 ppg, but the D was worse by 0.5 ppg. So... On O, I predicted the interior of the line would be stout and help the running game, and I think that was correct. I also said I thought Chandler would be a pleasant surprise--also correct. The Offense met my expectations for the most part. I think the O would've been significantly better if they didn't lose all but 2 WRs, and Freddie/Chandler near the end. Almost all of my Disappointments were on D: 1. My expected improvement in D was based upon Merriman staying healthy, and he didn't. That was my biggest disappointment. 2. Then KW went down, and the D was toast. 3. I said Carrington would be a starter by the bye week, and maybe he was, but his play wasn't all that. He was mediocre. 4. I expexted more from MOats. 5. I said there would be more turnovers because of a better pass rush, but with #s 1 and 2, that went out the window early. 6. Finally, I said the first Jets game would be the Litmus Test, and it certainly was--only I thought it would work out for the Bills. Overall, if the O stays somewhat healthy next year, the average ppg will be > this year's 23.3 PPG (I'm guessing 25-27). Next year, once again, hinges on the D. I am hopeful that Wanny will make improvements, and they will draft a pass rusher (or two). I would be shocked if they don't get the D's ppg down to 21-22. Combine these two outcomes with their weakest schedule in years, and guess what? The makings for a play off team baby in 2012!!! Go Bills!

Sorry, I think that's an idiotic mistake. Chan has proven he can score points. The Bills need to reduce what they give up on D. The Bills' O averaged 23.3 ppg this year vs. 17.7 last year. The D averaged 27.1 this year vs. 26.6 last year. If the D improves similarly to the O (giving up 5.6 less ppg or 21 ppg), this would've been a playoff team. FIX THE DEFENSE.

I assume the topic was your golf game??? Sorry I missed it!

Ok, WGR link says Miami and Carolina tied in SOS so a coin flip decides. Win this one Fins!

Is Miami drafting 8th or 9th? I know the SOS was close between Miami and Carolina, and given that Carolina played NO, did that give Miami the weakest SOS? I'm hoping they draft 8th, so the Bills jump ahead of them in rounds 2 and 3.

Since it was an iTPS post (inebriated), I'll pay for my inebriation by letting the first 5 takers in...burp! Thanks for the tip! Will do. 1. papazoid