International finance has changed noticeably over the past two decades as governments reduced barriers to cross-border capital flows and opened their domestic markets to foreign financial institutions. These changes produced an enhanced integrated world of international finance. A number of policymakers, who point to recent financial woes in Asia, Latin America, and Russia, believe that this integration requires increased international regulation of financial institutions. As a 1999 International Monetary Fund study lamented, these crises “leave open the question of whether the official safety nets and monitoring systems have adapted sufficiently to this new financial environment and whether they are still ensuring that incentive structures encourage an appropriate amount of market discipline.”
In a recent article presented by the Wall Street Journal, “While polls indicate that many Americans continue to believe that foreign aid is a large part of government spending, it actually constitutes less than 1 percent of the budget And, no, the deficit can’t be eliminated by just cracking down on “waste, fraud and abuse.” Moreover, an increasingly large portion of the debt is money that the government owes to itself because of borrowing from large entitlement programs such as Social Security and the Medicare. That’s because the money spent on discretionary programs has generally declined, as a share of the economy, while spending on mandatory programs has soared — and will only consume a larger share of the economy as the Baby Boom generation heads into retirement. “
Possible solutions to global debt include the following possibilities…
Taxes- Perhaps taxes can be higher. It’s too late for spending cuts alone. Yes, we can trim entitlement spending over time, but we can we need a spending surplus. We must consider the fact that the baby boomers are preparing to retire. Real Spending Cuts - It’s best to forget failed traditions, stale talking points and economic pseudoscience; apply some out of the box thinking and creativity; and we find that opportunities become available. Accountability - Politicians talk about cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” yet it is possible they keep voting for more. If we want our politicians to focus on the general welfare, we need to set a system which rewards or at least doesn’t punish good behavior like ours does now.
Efficiency- Performing some government functions better. As nation, promote democracy, fight terrorism, protect the environment, and uplift the poor far more efficiently. There will be plenty of ideas to keep both liberals and conservatives reasonably happy even as we get the government down to a size we can afford.