There is a lot of concern related to the National Debt and its impact on the future of this country. Clearly, we have had significant real growth in the last administration and the current administration is faced with a difficult quandary, whether to reduce expenditures to reduce the deficit and the growth in the National Debt, or to continue stimulating the economy via Government spending, effectively increasing the National Debt even more?
Faced with the recession, stimulus has been the direction of choice so far. Whether the stimulus will increase economic activity enough to start job creation and increased tax revenues remains to be seen. So far it hasn't achieve very much that can be determined from the economic numbers but much of it remains to be spent. One might question whether the politicians have properly targeted the stimulus money, but as I just said, it remains to be seen.
One area that could significantly impact jobs and domestic commodities would be an increase in the production of ethanol from corn and other sources. Also, bio diesel is another domestic enterprise that shows promise. Some argue that use of crops for energy is not efficient and increases food costs. This may be true for corn and soybeans, although it may not be, but there is significant opportunity to use less desirable land to grow alternate plants for either ethanol or bio diesel production.
Either of these alternatives would provide a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil rather quickly. It may be more environmentally sound to go to electric cars in the future, but the infrastructure to support that environment has a long ways to go. Increasing the content of ethanol in our gasoline, or substituting bio diesel for diesel can be done almost immediately using our current distribution systems.
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