Government Debt and Inflation: Reality Intrudes
“Sooner or later, absent substantially lowering government spending or raising taxes, interest payments will overwhelm the government’s budget. The situation might even be termed a sovereign debt crisis.” ~ Gerald P. Dwyer
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Government Greed
“Perhaps the biggest fail of them all is that many Americans whose real incomes are declining but whose nominal incomes have increased will be forced on 15 April to pay higher real taxes. Come to think of it, government isn’t greedy. It’s rapacious.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The State of the Union is…
“It would be far better that we insist on following Thomas Jefferson’s lead. While his predecessors, Washington and Adams, delivered their State of the Union addresses in person every year, Jefferson just sent letters to Congress.” ~ James R. Harrigan
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Fiscal Policy and Inflation
“When it comes to fiscal policy, we’re off the edge of the map. The typical stories told by unreconstructed Keynesians are clearly wrong. But that doesn’t mean we never need to worry about fiscal inflation.” ~ Alexander W. Salter
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$30 Trillion With Neither a Whimper or Bang
“On February 1st 2022 the US national debt surpassed $30 Trillion for the first time – just as the Fed is preparing a hiking campaign. Political decisions to trade the future for the present tempt further assaults upon the ever-declining soundness of the US dollar.” ~ Peter C. Earle
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The Year of the Strong Dollar
“The urgency to correct the country’s large public finances is likely to be heightened by a further widening in the trade deficit in 2022 as the consequence of a stronger dollar and the relative strength of the U.S. economy.” ~ Desmond Lachman
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Funding Obsolete Transportation
“Transit subsidies make no more sense than subsidies to manual typewriters, rotary telephones, or steam locomotives. Designing transportation systems based on how people actually travel can make those systems safe, environmentally sensitive, resilient, and efficient.” ~ Randal O’Toole
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Don’t Look Up: The Allegory We’ve Been Waiting For
“McKay’s dark satire about the inability to warn most people of impending danger before it’s too late should resonate with all who strive for sound money, fiscal sobriety, personal responsibility, and limited government.” ~ Peter C. Earle
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Stimulus & Wages, What Exactly Happened?
“Going forward, there should be less of a one-size-fits-all approach to such policy, as a more targeted bill would minimize waste of scarce resources, and curtail detrimental consequences, like inflation, to working-class Americans.” ~ Siddharth Gundapaneni
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Why Deficits Matter
“If we want to argue deficits matter more conventionally, we’ll have to do some more theoretical heavy lifting. The usual aggregate demand stories we tell don’t cut it.” ~ Alexander William Salter
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The New Status Quo for Public Finance
“After the 2008 financial crisis, the US never returned to pre-crisis growth levels. My expectation is that unless private investors find a means of avoiding this subsidization of federal borrowing, we never will.” ~ James L. Caton
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The Federal Government’s Debt Ceiling Needs More Teeth
“If Congress perceives the debt ceiling as a credibly binding constraint, then the ceiling must be set one level above Congress. The U.S. Constitution should be amended to restrict the ability of Congress to incur more debt.” ~ Michael Makovi
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