But Wall Street people are in fact very smart; they're funny, they're not company men who work their way up the chain.
— Paul Krugman
Debt is one person's liability, but another person's asset.
The science fiction world has a lot of people doing seriously imaginative thinking.
The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.
The problem isn't that people don't understand how good things are. It's that they know, from personal experience, that things really aren't that good.
We know that advanced economies with stable governments that borrow in their own currency are capable of running up very high levels of debt without crisis.
As I've often said, you can shop online and find whatever you're looking for, but bookstores are where you find what you weren't looking for.
I have friends, political scientists, sociologists, who all share an interest at least in certain kinds of science fiction.
I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law.
The real danger with debt is what happens if lots of people decide, or are forced, to pay it off at the same time.
I don't think I've had any great success in predicting politics or social change, nor have I really tried.
I think so long as fossil fuels are cheap, people will use them and it will postpone a movement towards new technologies.
Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).
