Federal Reserve Operating Losses and the Federal Budget Deficit
“In 2023, the Fed will likely report tens of billions of dollars in operating losses as it raises interest rates to combat raging inflation. Will Fed losses increase the budget deficit as logic dictates they should, or will they be treated as an off-budget expenditure?” ~ Paul H. Kupiec & Alex J. Pollock
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What Happened to Reducing Inflation?
“The NBC News poll asked what impact voters believed the new law, whatever it is called, will have on them personally. Just 26 percent said it would make things better; 35 percent said it would make things worse.” ~ Michael Graham
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Raising Corporate Taxes Does Not Help Workers
“Members of Congress should not be in the business of punishing people when they make voluntary financial decisions that members emotionally don’t like.” ~ Norbert J. Michel
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A Way Out
“What’s remarkable is that a plan that makes retirees better off, makes the government better off, and shuts down Social Security without cutting benefits to existing retirees or raising payroll taxes on existing workers would be possible at all.” ~ Antony Davies
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The Fed’s Share of Public Debt: Worsening Withdrawal Symptoms?
“Can Congress quit the Fed’s easy money policy that has allowed them to push debt levels well above 100% of GDP, or will the addiction demand more QE to support Washington’s spending habit?” ~ Peter T. Calcagno & Edward J. Lopez
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Washington’s Budget Deficits: Size and Composition Matter
“Since entitlements are off the table under threats of touching ‘the third rail of politics,’ then proponents of fiscal discipline have been trying to reform and constrain an ever-smaller portion of the overall budget.” ~ Peter T. Calcagno & Edward J. Lopez
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Want to Understand the Inflation Problem? Look to Harvey Road, Not Pennsylvania Avenue
“A bipartisan generation of loose money and loose budgets has created major negative spillover effects, and today’s inflation problem is what we all have to show for it.” ~ Peter T. Calcagno & Edward J. Lopez
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Student-Loan Forgiveness Will Cover Non-Education Purchases, Say, Newer Cars
“The fungibility of student loans means that taxpayers will be saddled with paying for parents’ and students’ non-college purchases. Many professors will, understandably, root for student-loan forgiveness.” ~ Richard McKenzie
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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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