Has U.S. Industrial Production Been Flat For the Past 15 Years? . . . Does Massive Deficit Spending Result in More Stuff or Simply Higher Prices?

The Omaha Bugle's famed economic commentators, Adam and Jeff, discuss a recent article by David Stockman, former head of the Office of Management and Budget under the Reagan Administration, that industrial production has essentially been flat for the past 15 years.  Jeff points out that the Industrial Production Index, known by the snappy acronym "IPI," has not changed at all since the end of 2007.  This result suggests that the industrial sector of the economy has not grown at all during this time.  Unfortunately, the government's propensity to overspend continued unabated during this same time period, increasing the national debt from $10 trillion in 2007 to the lofty $32 trillion that it totals today.  Despite this massive fiscal and monetary stimulus, Americans have little in the way of material wealth to show for this massive spending spree.    Jeff suggests that we can get out of this predicament by following the advice of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and requiring every one of the nation's 22 million millionaires to "pay their fair share" of the national debt which would only cost about $1.5 million each.  However, neither Adam  nor Jeff are confident that wiping out the national debt would deter our freewheeling government spendthrifts from simply firing up the printing presses once again and continuing on as they have before.