Politics

What If The Government Gave an Estate Sale?

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Over at Big Goverment, Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy suggests the government host a garage sale to pay down its debt:

Here is an idea: Greece is getting ready to sell some of its assets to pay for its gigantic debt (Corfu and the Parthenon are not on the auction block yet), and the US should do the same. According to the Financial Statement of the United States, there is about $2.6 trillion of stuff we could sell (See  Page 49 of the report, it's page 69 of the whole document). A few items on my list:

Loans receivable and mortgage backed securities:  $540  billion
TARP direct loans and equity investments: $240 billion
Property, plant, and equipment: $784 billion
Freddie and Fannie preferred stocks: $65 billion

Whole thing here.

In Hasta La Vista, Arnold: What California's Budget Mess Means for America, Reason.tv suggested the Golden State do the same thing.