A recession is a period in which you tighten your belt. In a depression, you have no belt to tighten. In a panic you have no pants left to hold up.
Everyone across America is tightening their belts. The only place it hasn't happened is D.C.
I would certainly rather the industry not go broke, but if that's what it takes for everyone to acquire some values and lose that sense of entitlement, maybe a little belt-tightening wouldn't be so tragic.
This is the paradox of thrift: belt-tightening causes people to lose their jobs, because other people are not buying what they produce, so their debt burden rises rather than falls.
So-called austerity, the stoic injunction, is the path towards universal destruction. It is the old, the fatal, competitive path. Pull in your belt is a slogan closely related to gird up your loins, or the guns-butter metaphor.
As families and small businesses alike are tightening their belts to account for the worsening economy, they have every right to ask: 'Why isn't my government doing the same?'
Austerity causes constipation; excess, diarrhea.
When they talk about belt-tightening in Washington, they are talking about tightening our belts.
Again, the American people expect us to do what they are doing. It's tightening the belt, it's learning how to do more with less. That's a reality today, and we've got to do that in order to get the private sector growing.
People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt.
Families and businesses are tightening their belts to make ends meet - and Washington should too.
You got to choose between tightening your belt or losing your pants.
We are witnessing the death of abundance and the borning of austerity, for what may be a long, long time.
A recession is when your neighbour has to tighten his belt. A depression is when you have to tighten your own belt. And a panic is when you have no belt to tighten and your pants fall down.
When millions of Americans are tightening their belts, folks have the right to expect their elected officials to do the same.
