US senator warns of ‘financial meltdown’ risk· March 24, 2010

      The Financial Times reported that “the US is heading for a debt-driven ‘financial meltdown’ within five to seven years, according to Judd Gregg, the outgoing Republican senator for New Hampshire… Mr Gregg also complimented China for showing rising alarm about the US’s mounting levels of public debt. ‘We have had China say that they are looking for other places to put their reserves and that is probably a smart decision on their part,’ said Mr Gregg, who will not seek re-election in November. ‘So the warning signs are pretty clear and the path is unsustainable and, at this point, unless we take different actions, unavoidable.’ “But the senator… said he doubted that the two parties would get together to tackle it.”

      “Mr Gregg also disputed non-partisan economic studies that showed last year’s $787bn (€585bn, £520bn) stimulus cushioned the impact of the recession. ‘The facts are wrong,’ he said. ‘I can understand how a Keynesian [or globalist economist] would make that argument. I find them absurd on their face.’

      “Mr Gregg also disputed studies that showed the large tax cuts pushed through by George W. Bush, then president, in 2001 and 2003 had added to the US fiscal deficit. ‘They were actually paying for themselves,’ he said. ‘If you look at the numbers, they did.’”

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