nding we'll turn into Greece any day now. After all, haven't economists proved that economic growth collapses once public debt exceeds 90 percent of G.D.P.? Well, the famous red line on debt, it turns out, was an artifact of dubious statistics, reinforced by bad arithmetic. And America isn't and can't

In contrast, the gross domestic product grew at a rate of 2.7 percent over this period, with tax revenues increasing at about the same rate as the G.D.P. Spending on infrastructure and government services, excluding defense, has kept pace with gross domestic product growth. (Spending on infrastructur

because taxes are too low. US corporate taxes is the lowest in the industrialized world — corporate taxes are expected to raise just 1.3 percent of G.D.P. this year, about a third of what it was in the 1950s. American taxes (all levels) are 26.9% of the country's GDP in comparison to Canada 32.2%, Ger

.75 percent in 2050, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. By comparison, spending in this category has exceeded 8 percent of G.D.P. in every year since World War II. Spending for defense alone has not been lower than 3 percent of G.D.P. in any year during that period. Applying t

ll-scale market run on the much larger economies of Spain and Italy. At this point countries in crisis account for about a third of the euro area's G.D.P., so the common European currency itself is under existential threat. And all indications are that European leaders are unwilling even to acknowled

A_R1_00441191 EFTA01964443 answered, "At least $200 a barrel." But it's half that — for a reason: "We now use 60 percent less energy per unit of G.D.P. than we did in 1973," explained the energy economist Philip Verleger. "If the trend continues, we will use half the energy per unit of G.D.P. in 20

, collapse. But Ireland, which has done everything the austerity crowd wanted, is in terrible shape too, with unemployment near 15 percent and real G.D.P. down by double digits. Portugal and Spain are in similarly dire straits. And austerity in a slump doesn't just inflict vast suffering. There is gr

precipitate drop in government spending would equal an economic contraction of more than five hundred billion dollars, more than three per cent of G.D.P. The impact could send a fragile economy back into a recession. "It's two to three times bigger in negative terms than even the biggest year of the