Quotes of the day

In terms of total reported and unfunded liabilities, the USA is pushing its debt toward a $57 TRILLION hole ($13.1T in debt that trades + $44T in unfunded liabilities like pension, social security, etc.).--Keith McCullough

It is a common view that governments should run a deficit in bad times, and a surplus or balanced budget -- if at all possible -- in good times. I have news for the people: according to the German view of the world, these are the good times. Thus they want to run a surplus. I don't see that perspective being rebutted.--Tyler Cowen

We do not need men like Proust and Joyce; men like this are a luxury, an added fillip that an abundant culture can produce only after the more basic literary need has been filled,’ Updike wrote to his parents in 1951, when he was 19. ‘This age needs rather men like Shakespeare, or Milton, or Pope; men who are filled with the strength of their cultures and do not transcend the limits of their age, but, working within the times, bring what is peculiar to the moment to glory.--John Updike

... it’s not like [Manny Ramirez] cared whether they ever won and it’s not like he left town with any dignity. He’s not Dustin Pedroia. I’m sorry. You wouldn’t be trading Clay Buchholz for him. The fact that there were only two teams willing to take him with the Red Sox willing to pay his salary in 2008 and neither team would give up a prospect really tells you something about his stature in the game.--Peter Gammons