Steven Rattner remains convinced that handing future generations trillions of dollars of government bonds imposes a burden on them and is very unhappy that I don’t see things that way. Let’s try this one more time.

The true statement here, that Rattner either does not understand or is trying to obscure is that the debt itself is not an inter-generational burden. Since ownership of the debt will ultimately be passed on to future generations (ignoring the portion that is held by foreigners — which a function of the trade deficit), the debt itself is not a generational burden.

Fifty-one years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued his final, prescient warning about the rising power of the military industrial complex. More than half a century later, we find ourselves in a political system which has ignored Eisenhower’s sound advice as the influence of the war industry on our society reaches a crescendo. Nowhere is this “disastrous rise of misplaced power” more apparent than in the debate about the Pentagon budget taking place in Washington, D.C.

Dylan Ratigan is well positioned to author a book, designed to be an enjoyable and informative read by normal humans, on the ongoing financial crisis. He is the wunderkind who became Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance of Bloomberg, the premier news service that specializes in finance, at an exceptionally young age. He was at CNBC while that network was hyping the housing bubble as a non-bubble offering fantastic investment opportunities.

Paul Krugman today patiently explains that short-term accumulations of federal debt simply do not create the disastrous effects claimed by those who want to prevent any progressive economic policymaking. The cries of the crumbling of the Republic due to overhangs of debt simply are not true.

In the wake of the Congressional Supercommittee’s collapse, we finally have consensus on both sides of the aisle: the lawmakers orchestrating the partisan drama are, behind the scenes, happy to collaborate on destroying economic security for all but the wealthiest Americans.

Lost Decades looks at why the explosion of debt happened through the traditional lens of supply-and-demand. It examines the motivations and situations of people on both side of this debt. Why did demand for debt increase in the United States? The first reason Chinn and Frieden identify is the huge deficits run during the George W. Bush years. These are the trillions spent on the Bush tax cuts, the expansion of Medicare part D and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that weren’t paid for.

Mayor Bloomberg fearmongers about unemployment instead of the so-called “debt crisis.” He also seems to suggest that maybe “shared sacrifice” really should be, y’know, shared.

The stark realities of the American economy show the political and economic elites sending the country in the wrong direction, destroying the strongest economy and world history. The American people know better and could rule better than the elites. It is time for Americans to organize and mobilize to take power, http://october2011.org.

Dean Baker reminds the media and former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Greenspan that the Fed actual has readily accessible data that contradicts Greenspan’s recent statements on the economy. The data was clearly signaling a dangerous housing bubble.