Financial Crises Require Governments.

If You Don't Try To Generate More Revenues Through Tax Reform, If You Don't Ask, You Know, The Most Fortunate Americans To Bear A Slightly Larger Burden Of The Privilege Of Being An American, Then You Have To - The Only Way To Achieve Fiscal Sustainability Is Through Unacceptably Deep Cuts In Benefits For Middle Class Seniors, Or Unacceptably Deep Cuts In National Security.

The Plausible Outcomes Range From The Gradual And Benign To The More Precipitous And Damaging.

The World Is Likely To View Any Temporary Extension Of The Income Tax Cuts For The Top Two Percent As A Prelude To A Long-term Or Permanent Extension, And That Would Hurt Economic Recovery As Well By Undermining Confidence That We're Prepared To Make A Commitment Today To Bring Down Our Future Deficits.

Never Before In Modern Times Has So Much Of The World Been Simultaneously Hit By A Confluence Of Economic And Financial Turmoil Such As We Are Now Living Through.

There Is A Basic Lesson On Financial Crises That Governments Tend To Wait Too Long, Underestimate The Risks, Want To Do Too Little. And It Ultimately Gets Away From Them, And They End Up Spending More Money, Causing Much More Damage To The Economy.