Fiscal Policy
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Burning Issues of Government Spending
“Government spending starts with taking money from taxpayers and setting 20 percent of it on fire. Even if the remaining funds were spent on very efficient projects, they have very little chance of creating net benefits for the economy.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan
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New York’s Fiscal Suicide
“If the tax increases are enacted, expect to see a significant drop in taxable income as upper-income taxpayers either leave the state or figure out other ways of protecting their income. I don’t know if the state will be on the downward-sloping portion of the Laffer Curve, but it’s safe to assume that revenues over…
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Janet Yellen Is Serious, and That’s Really Sad
“Yellen plainly feels individual U.S. tax rates aren’t high enough, so she seeks global tax harmonization on the corporate level in order to get another swipe at individuals. On their own, Yellen’s desires rate ridicule. As evidenced by the trillions Treasury collects every year from taxpayers in order to fund a government with powers ‘few…
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A Trillion Here, a Trillion There
“In the end, the total of what comes out of the economy is limited by the total of what is produced, no matter that you can borrow or print up unlimited amounts of money. Borrowing and printing up trillions and trillions of dollars isn’t real. It’s a special form of deceit we economists call inflation.”…
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Where New Zealand Goes, the World Goes
“In the 1990s New Zealand pioneered inflation targeting, an approach that every major country followed for the next three decades. In a few years we might look back at this fleeting Kiwi attempt at incorporating asset markets into monetary policy with the same admiring eyes that we now see their move to inflation targeting. Where…
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MMT’s Inflation Battle Will End In A Draw
“Maybe this time is different, and perhaps this is the turning point – for MMT or for inflation. More likely, the fears and the ebullient promises will converge in a middle-of-the-way third option similar to what we saw after 2008: Politicians, pundits, economists, and central bankers talk, yet nothing much happens.” ~ Joakim Book
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This Is a Pandemic of Fiscal Profligacy
“Very few seem to care that we’re closing in on $30 trillion in debt, the symptom of our insane spending. In fact, it has become fashionable to claim that we can borrow without fear of a debt crisis or of any consequences. Admittedly, one reason for this belief is that people like me have been…
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Debts, Deficits, and the Entitlement Crisis
“The US government’s debt is soaring like never before and promises to only bring economic stagnation if not outright disaster. Looking past Covid-19, we should strive to implement bold reforms to our costly but important entitlement programs to truly deliver on fiscal stability. These reforms may not be popular or easy but there is no…
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Contra Nicholas Kristof, Presidential Ink Will Never ‘Scrub’ Away Poverty
“It cannot be stressed enough that if poverty were about money, then it would have been wholly erased long ago given the trillions spent on its mitigation. Admirable as Kristof’s idealism is, it’s just that. Nothing more. The perfect world he envisions cannot and will not be created by the stroke of a pen.” ~…
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Forgiving Student Loans: Not The Great Idea You Think It Is
“Like Bryan Caplan, I love learning so much I decided never to leave school. I live for the lightbulb moments students have when they realize what economists mean by ‘at the margin’ or when they start using and applying the concepts we cover in class. Economically speaking, those are private benefits, however, and the case…
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•
Burning Issues of Government Spending
“Government spending starts with taking money from taxpayers and setting 20 percent of it on fire. Even if the remaining funds were spent on very efficient projects, they have very little chance of creating net benefits for the economy.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan
-
•
New York’s Fiscal Suicide
“If the tax increases are enacted, expect to see a significant drop in taxable income as upper-income taxpayers either leave the state or figure out other ways of protecting their income. I don’t know if the state will be on the downward-sloping portion of the Laffer Curve, but it’s safe to assume that revenues over…
-
•
Janet Yellen Is Serious, and That’s Really Sad
“Yellen plainly feels individual U.S. tax rates aren’t high enough, so she seeks global tax harmonization on the corporate level in order to get another swipe at individuals. On their own, Yellen’s desires rate ridicule. As evidenced by the trillions Treasury collects every year from taxpayers in order to fund a government with powers ‘few…
-
•
A Trillion Here, a Trillion There
“In the end, the total of what comes out of the economy is limited by the total of what is produced, no matter that you can borrow or print up unlimited amounts of money. Borrowing and printing up trillions and trillions of dollars isn’t real. It’s a special form of deceit we economists call inflation.”…
-
•
Where New Zealand Goes, the World Goes
“In the 1990s New Zealand pioneered inflation targeting, an approach that every major country followed for the next three decades. In a few years we might look back at this fleeting Kiwi attempt at incorporating asset markets into monetary policy with the same admiring eyes that we now see their move to inflation targeting. Where…
-
•
MMT’s Inflation Battle Will End In A Draw
“Maybe this time is different, and perhaps this is the turning point – for MMT or for inflation. More likely, the fears and the ebullient promises will converge in a middle-of-the-way third option similar to what we saw after 2008: Politicians, pundits, economists, and central bankers talk, yet nothing much happens.” ~ Joakim Book
-
•
This Is a Pandemic of Fiscal Profligacy
“Very few seem to care that we’re closing in on $30 trillion in debt, the symptom of our insane spending. In fact, it has become fashionable to claim that we can borrow without fear of a debt crisis or of any consequences. Admittedly, one reason for this belief is that people like me have been…
-
•
Debts, Deficits, and the Entitlement Crisis
“The US government’s debt is soaring like never before and promises to only bring economic stagnation if not outright disaster. Looking past Covid-19, we should strive to implement bold reforms to our costly but important entitlement programs to truly deliver on fiscal stability. These reforms may not be popular or easy but there is no…
-
•
Contra Nicholas Kristof, Presidential Ink Will Never ‘Scrub’ Away Poverty
“It cannot be stressed enough that if poverty were about money, then it would have been wholly erased long ago given the trillions spent on its mitigation. Admirable as Kristof’s idealism is, it’s just that. Nothing more. The perfect world he envisions cannot and will not be created by the stroke of a pen.” ~…
-
•
Forgiving Student Loans: Not The Great Idea You Think It Is
“Like Bryan Caplan, I love learning so much I decided never to leave school. I live for the lightbulb moments students have when they realize what economists mean by ‘at the margin’ or when they start using and applying the concepts we cover in class. Economically speaking, those are private benefits, however, and the case…