Global Investors Are Telling Donald Trump His Deficits and National…
Washington is unnerved these days about budget deficits and the national debt. Deficit angst comes along periodically, often as a pretext for cutting social spending. This time, however, there’s genuine cause for alarm. Outsized deficits are par for the course when the economy is in recession or reeling from a shock like the pandemic or the financial collapse; most of… Continue reading
Why This is No Traditional Recession
The leaders of the Republican Party (and plenty of their followers) continue on their strange path of denying the most basic economic logic in the midst of economic crisis and opposing whatever the President says or does. Happily, the Obama administration knows economics, and they seem to generally know themselves. Yet, they may still overestimate the extent of their powers,…Continue reading
The Denial and Anger Inside GOP Economic Policy
The leaders of the Republican Party, reeling from their painful string of defeats, seem stuck in two of the classic stages of grief, denial and anger. This week, Rush Limbaugh replaced Bobby Jindal as the leading and most colorful example. Limbaugh may seem like too easy a target, since talk radio always tends towards hyperbole. Nonetheless, the essence of the…Continue reading
The Economic Logic in the President’s Speech to Congress
President Obama superb address Tuesday night had an underlying, unifying logic which some may have missed, but which hopefully readers of this will recognize. First, on the financial and economic crisis, he embraced the three basic steps we have urged since last September: On top of a stimulus aimed at long-term investments and helping the states — that’s now done…Continue reading
Where the Administration’s Plan for the Housing Crisis Could Fall…
The President today announced a plan to cut foreclosures and reboot new mortgage financings, at least when the economy shows signs of new life. The fact of offering a plan is an advance, given that Bush and his people did nothing and proposed nothing, even as the crisis reached critical mass. As we have written here since the crisis first…Continue reading
The Impact of the Great Recession on Trade
The new trade data out today show, unhappily, that the surest way to drive down our trade deficit is a deep recession that cuts into the money Americans have to buy imports. In December, the trade imbalance fell to less than $40 billion, a 35 percent drop from its $62 billion level last July. (It’s all seasonally-adjusted.) The last time…Continue reading
Shedding Light on the Stimulus Package
While the chorus of complaints about President Obama’s spending and tax package was dispiritingly predictable, the post-partisan surprise is that its basic structure is evolving to just about where it should be. The legislative process is adding its normal quotient of special interest subsidies on both the spending and tax sides — think of it as a “congressional tax,†because…Continue reading
President Obama Begins to Take on Climate Change
Within one week of taking office, President Obama has dispelled any doubts on whether he’s serious about tackling climate change. His stimulus plan will direct more tax and spending subsidies to climate-friendly technologies and fuels over the next 18 months than the Bush administration did over the last eight years, and the federal government will offer itself as a model…Continue reading
A Serious Thought or Two on the Inauguration, from Halfway…
I'd rather be spending this week in Washington celebrating with friends and my country the politically and spiritually invigorating elevation of Barack Obama to our presidency. These feelings lie very close to the heart of patriotism, and they are an exquisite pleasure to feel again without reserve. Instead, I find myself in one of the coldest places on earth, Mongolia’s…Continue reading