Saturday 18 March 2017

Excess debt is self destructive

When money is free, discipline evaporates and decisions are disastrous

Whatever is free is squandered. Money that can be borrowed for very low interest and in unlimited quantities is essentially "free". Nothing enduringly productive can be built without discipline and a steady focus on the bottom line. What USA has accomplished by borrowing and blowing $9 trillion in additional national debt over the past eight years other than funding medicare and medicaid costs that are largely skims, scams, and fraud? With interest rates near-zero and the credit line of the nation unlimited, Fed has created $3.5 trillion of additional paper money only to buy federal bonds to avoid difficult choices that is, discipline. Politicians are only too willing to borrow trillions from future generations to assure their re-election, and let future taxpayers figure out what to do about the crushing burden of debt we're leaving them? With "free" money, there's no need for justification of the expenditure. With the need for discipline eliminated, there's no motivation not to gamble wildly, fund every special interest group's demand, and grease the palms of every insider, every crony and every oligarch. This is how a great nation will self-destruct itself. The only possible output of a system lacking any discipline is self-destruction.

The same is very true for India and its states as well resulted in many white elephants, massive corruption, crony capitalists, fragile banks, loss making infra companies etc, resulting in wider rich-poor divide and depriving basic amenities to poorer classes. India's rating is near junk with fragile banks and excessive debt.

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