A growing number of students nationwide want to learn personal finance-and the federal government thinks it can help “students graduate from high school with a better understanding of basic economics, basic finance and the benefits and risks associated with debt.” It’s a textbook case of fatal-conceit complex.
The Congressional Budget Office reports that the 2009 and 2010 deficits rank as the worst since World War II-close to 10 percent of GDP and reaching up to $1.4 trillion. “Under current law, the federal fiscal outlook beyond this year is daunting,” says the CBO, adding, “At the end of 2009, debt held by the public was $7.5 trillion, or 53 percent of GDP; by the end of 2020, debt is projected to climb to $15 trillion, or 67 percent of GDP.” As CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf put it, “U.S. fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path.”
What better time for students to visit Econ Stories. This new online resource features a video parody of 20th century economists John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek coming back to life and getting into a “rap” battle about the current economic crisis:
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free…
High school students interested in being financially responsible will have to decide for themselves who’s right. After all, soon enough they’ll be stuck paying the tab left by the ones getting it wrong today.