Our government doesn’t have enough spare cash to bail out a lemonade stand. Our standard of living must decline to reflect years of reckless consumption and the disintegration of our industrial base. Only by swallowing this tough medicine now will our sick economy ever recover.

—Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital

We got into this mess to a considerable extent by overborrowing. Now, we’re saying, ‘Well, O.K., let’s just borrow a bunch more, and that will help us get out of this mess.’ It’s like a drunk who says, ‘Give me a bottle of Scotch, and then I’ll be O.K. and I won’t have to drink anymore.’ Eventually, we have to get off this binge of borrowing. This is a dangerous situation. The risks of things actually getting worse and us going into a really severe recession are high. We need to get more money out there now.

—Martin Baily

Those who claim that sharp increases in federal borrowing and the national debt would be ill advised at the present time, when the economy is weakening while deflation threatens, have failed to study Japan’s history

—John H. Makin

Printing Money – and Its Price
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: December 28, 2008
The future seems a distant concern now. But Washington is spending as we once did.