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Elliott Parker: Where we went wrong after Sept. 11
A decade ago we stood at a crossroads, and we made a choice.
Our economic output had been growing fast for the prior decade — faster than it had grown in any decade since the 1960s. Gross Private Investment reached 18 percent of GDP, its highest level since 1984. Total government expenditures — federal, state and local — stood at less than 30 percent of GDP, its lowest share since 1979. The federal budget was in surplus, and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, was cautioning Congress that we should not pay off too much of federal debt, since the financial system needed U.S. Bonds.
What a difference a decade makes.