Saving the U.S. from it's decline,

Saving the U.S. from it's decline,

by: Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, Toronto Star,

Monday, August 8, 2011,

While few would disagree with Thomas as he admonishes his countrymen for mistakenly forgetting what made them successful, his government is fooling no one as they feign surprise when the credit rating agencies have the temerity to call a spade a spade when a so called 'bipartisan' agreement to raise the debt ceiling while curtailing unnecessary spending fell far short of what the market required as the American federal budget spins out of control when 40 cents of every dollar spent is borrowed.

But that’s what’s happens when you mask the problem and simply infuse gimmicks to pump liquidity into the economy, like a third round of quantitative easing, buying stocks and real estate for the Fed’s own account, dropping bank reserve requirements all the way down to zero and cattle-prodding the nation’s banks into making loans by charging them interest for their own reserves as  gold goes through the roof. This is not the time to run away but to get the economy rolling again but until politicians realize that by walking away from our 'pillars of growth, like our manufacturing sector, we will not create jobs in the numbers required. By government largesse, we have become dependent upon others for our daily needs.

So, how do we stop the spread of this malady in Ontario? Once the economic engine of Canada, Ontario now is saddled with a mind-boggling $16.7-billion budget deficit and became an official have-not province in 2009 collecting a government cheque for the first time in our history! Shameful! But with the province’s long-term debt rating at a AA downgrade; just like America resulting in a raising of Ontario’s cost of financing and reducing its credibility in global markets, has the 'proverbial horse already left the barn'?