Subject: Share the View -- On Walt Whitman's Financial Wizardry and Deficits, Deficits, Deficits
From: "Bloomberg View -- Tobin Harshaw" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 05:17:04 -0500

Share the View
   Bloomberg View

A Quick Look at Bloomberg News's Opinion Section for March 5,  2012

   Ah, the first titans of American capitalism: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan
   and ... Walt Whitman? Op-Ed contributor Robert Shiller -- the latter half of
   the Case-Shiller team -- explains: "We tend to think of philosophers,
   artists or poets as the polar opposite of chief executive officers, bankers
   or businesspeople. But the idea that those involved in business have
   personalities fundamentally different from those in other walks of life is
   belied by the fact that many often combine or switch careers. Consider a few
   examples.  Walt Whitman is one of our most revered poets, and his poetry is
   among the most transcendent. But he could not ignore more material concerns;
   he had to make a living. To do so, he turned to fiction -- more marketable
   than poetry -- and made his name with a commercial novel called “Franklin
   Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times.” The book was an embarrassment
   to him, but it made money." And, of course, those greenbacks turned
   into blades of grass.[2] Link.
     Links:
       2. http://bloom.bg/AFvcnZ

   Well, money may nurture the arts, but it seems to be stifling political
   growth, writes View columnist Albert Hunt: "Supporters claimed that allowing
   unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions would
   create a more educated and enthused electorate, and enable the insurgent
   party to more effectively make its case. Instead, the Republican primary
   contest has produced the most negative, mean campaign since the Watergate
   scandal brought about campaign-finance reform four decades ago. Turnout is
   mediocre and the appeal of the Republican brand has plummeted." [3]Link.
     Links:
       3. http://bloom.bg/z7aFdC

   There couldn't be a worse time for such plummeting, adds columnist Simon
   Johnson: "Under what the CBO calls its 'alternative fiscal scenario,' which
   is Washington-speak for what it thinks is likely to happen, 'Debt as a share
   of GDP would exceed its historical peak of 109 percent by 2023 and would
   approach 190 percent in 2035.' The annual deficit in 2075 is projected to be
   20.7 percent of gross domestic product. CBO projects this year’s deficit to
   be 7 percent of GDP, by comparison. Responsible economic opinion is crying
   out: We are on an unsustainable path. CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf’s
   recent presentation to Harvard University economic students should be read
   as an emotional plea for the return of political sanity. You should share it
   with your children. Yet even leading Republican politicians who claim to be
   fiscally responsible are proposing budget plans that would significantly
   increase the deficit and national debt." [4]Link.
     Links:
       4. http://bloom.bg/xsUNJQ

   And, speaking of tense times, theres the big Obama-Netanyahu meeting in
   Washington tomorrow. "By many accounts, U.S. President Barack Obama and
   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu don’t much like or trust each
   other," write the View editors. "It’s important that they use their meeting
   on Monday to end at least the mistrust. For many months now U.S. diplomacy
   has been directed as much at stopping an Israeli pre-emptive military strike
   against Iranian nuclear facilities, as at Iran itself. It’s partly thanks to
   the tension created by Israel’s threats to act that the Obama administration
   was finally able to persuade European allies to apply harsh economic
   sanctions aimed at throttling Iran’s oil revenue. Now, however, that
   creative tension between the U.S. and Israel threatens to turn destructive."
   [5]Link.
     Links:
       5. http://bloom.bg/x3VChL

   Also, the editors want to modernize divorce; columnist William D. Cohan is
   ready to give up on the SEC; and columnist Noah Feldman looks at Shell Oil
   and the Supreme Court.

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