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1995 Despite the very large Kobe quake, which at a $100 billion was the costliest quake in history, Japan’s economy bounced back relatively quickly without any serious long-term effects. The quake killed 6,000 people in one fell swoop.
2011 Japan has the largest public debt ratio for a country of its advanced makeup – double its $5 trillion GDP – and its economy was already struggling before the quake even happened. Plus, the nuclear trouble adds another dimension. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

$3.73
trillion the size of Obama’s latest budget plan, just released today
$1.1
trillion the amount Obama plans to cut from the deficit over the next decade

2/3 the share of deficit cuts that would come from cutbacks in various federal programs
$7.2T the amount that would be added to the public debt – not the deficit – over the next decade
$4T the amount Obama’s own deficit commission wanted to cut over the next decade source

» Only one silo gets the cuts: Obama wants to effectively limit all non-security discretionary spending for the next five years, an area which only accounts for 12 percent of federal spending, at the cost of doing something about defense spending or programs like Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security – which, as popular as they are, account for huge chunks of the pie. The cuts are also much lower than what Republicans want, although they’re also hoping to avoid defense spending cuts, even though that’s a huge chunk.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2011 11:16