"Is the U.S. Really on the Brink of Budget Collapse?"‏

Robert Pollin (AlterNet):

"Overall then, the U.S. government is not in fact on the brink of financial ruin. In fact, the fiscal deficits for 2009 and 2010 were necessary emergency measures for countering the disaster that Wall Street speculators had already created. The low interest rates at which the government has been able to borrow makes these emergency deficits manageable. Over the next decade, we can return the deficit to its historic levels—i.e. to levels well below those that prevailed under Ronald Reagan—by getting serious about controlling the health care industry, the military and Wall Street speculation itself."

Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.