Reconciliation: How the Democrats Can Run the Table
Congressional Democrats will take office in January with the broadest mandate since the post-Watergate midterms in 1974—twice the popular-vote margin the Contract-with-America Republicans won in 1994. The work begins with dismantling most of what Donald Trump and his corrupt, incompetent administration have done over the past two years. Much of what Trump wrought came through his One Big Beautiful (sic)… Continue reading
Why Corporate Tax Reform Is So Desirable–and So Hard to…
In a political environment most notable today for its partisan trench warfare, serious conversations across party lines are nonetheless taking place over a major reform of corporate taxes. This unusual instance of comity comes from a genuine consensus that lowering the corporate tax rate — the favored goal would move it from 35 percent to 28 percent — would be…Continue reading
Will Tea Party Insanity Cost America $3 trillion and 2.75…
The budget and debt end games are still playing themselves out on Capitol Hill; and judging by its current behavior, Congress has developed the political equivalent of a brain tumor. A toxic byproduct of an ongoing power struggle inside the Republican Party, the cancer has caused incapacitating seizures that have virtually crippled the national government’s capacity to take care of…Continue reading
Are Republican Leaders Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?
With a good part of the federal government closed for business, the pathologies driving it are too obvious to ignore. The diagnosis begins with the fact that there is no partisan argument this time about overall federal spending. The White House and congressional Democrats have simply accepted the arbitrary cuts of the sequester process, despite evidence that they’re slowing the…Continue reading
The Biggest Risks to the U.S. Economy Now Come from…
As summer ends, and investors and policymakers look ahead, the American economy faces a range of downside risks. Most of these risks are what economists call "exogenous," which is a fancy way of saying that they come from sources outside the economy itself. Left to itself, the economy appears set to maintain its current path of moderate growth. GDP grew…Continue reading
Washington — or Its Accountants — Finally Accept the Idea-Based…
Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will put in place a set of critical changes in how it measures America's gross domestic product (GDP). The most important change reclassifies what businesses spend on research and development, which now will be counted as an economic investment rather than an ordinary business expense. By so doing, the country’s official national accounts…Continue reading
Why Job Gains Are Still So Modest — and It…
The economic recovery is now four years old -- the anniversary comes this month -- yet job growth remains a big problem. Since the recession technically ended in June 2009, American businesses have expanded their workforces at an average annual rate of 1.4 percent, creating some 6.1 million new jobs. The good news is that we’re creating new jobs at…Continue reading
The Politics and Economics of Obama’s New Climate Program
The Supreme Court's blockbuster decisions on voting rights and same-sex marriage attracted most of the attention, but President Obama also moved decisively last week, on climate change. The facts that drove the President are scientifically undisputed. Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions in the earth’s atmosphere continue to raise global temperatures; and without serious action, the long-term effects on sea…Continue reading
As the Economy Improves, Give Some Credit to Globalization
The economic news and data have turned distinctly upbeat. With unemployment down, consumer confidence up, and personal debt back to normal levels, it was no surprise when last week's revised report on first quarter GDP showed consumer spending rising at twice the rate of the preceding three quarters. Housing investment is now increasing at a 14 percent rate, following a…Continue reading