Economic blessings for which to be thankful
As yet another week begins, a spate of depressing news seem to be unfolding. In the European Union, many analysts seem to be coming to the conclusion that the “landmark” agreement to save the Euro-zone from potential monetary collapse may be unworkable. Not to be outdone, here in the U.S. the Congressional “super-committee” that was charged with finding a minimum of $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction has thrown in the towel and admitted failure. Given the debt-ceiling expansion agreement from earlier this summer, that means $1.2 trillion will be automatically cut on an across-the-board basis among impacted programs, encompassing virtually all federal spending categories outside of the entitlements such as Social Security, Medicaid and (most of) Medicare.