Trump’s Perfect Storm that Could Sink the American Economy
Donald Trump has steered the American economy into a perfect storm. In the book, film, and now in real life, a rare combination of destructive forces comes together and magnifies the damage. This storm could break the U.S. economy. Trump’s tariffs are the most destructive force. Their first-order damages begin by arbitrarily driving up the prices of every product and… Continue reading
Taxes and the Art of the Possible
Barack Obama exhibited this week what Machiavelli called the essential quality of a successful statesman, “virtu,†or the capacity to advance a society’s vital interests while respecting the constraints of conditions beyond his control. The vital interest at stake here is a decent economic expansion that improves the circumstances of the vast majority of Americans, and the critical condition beyond…Continue reading
The Quiet Role of Class in the Coming Budget Battle
The political struggle over how the federal budget will shape American government is now in full swing and likely to dominate Washington for the next two years. This week, the President joined the battle by proposing a two-year freeze on federal pay, his symbolic version of Bill Clinton’s maxim that “the era of big government is over.†In doing so,…Continue reading
The FCC Gets It Right on Net Neutrality
Here are a few thoughts on the breaking news from the FCC on net neutrality, a matter I’ve written about repeatedly for several years. Today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spelled out his proposal for new rules for the regulation of broadband networks. They won’t satisfy everybody, and some outspoken advocates of so-called network neutrality are already throwing their stones, but…Continue reading
While the President Promotes U.S. Interests Abroad, His Opponents Deny…
Most of Washington is stuck "in what we call the reality-based community . . . people who believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That's not the way the world really works anymore. . . . When we act, we create our own reality.â€Â Karl Rove, 2004. Rove’s famous comments came to mind this week as…Continue reading
The Mid-Term Elections and the Failure, Yet Again, of Trickle-Down…
This week’s seismic shift in the Congress will not change the problems facing its members and the President. This is the third consecutive election to bring large losses for the party in power, all for the same reason. For a decade, neither party has been able to deliver the rising incomes and economic security that matter most for average Americans.…Continue reading
Lesson in Economics for the National Deficit Commission
The French statesman Georges Clemenceau famously called war “too serious a matter to entrust to military menâ€; and in the same spirit, national budgets in a democracy are too important to leave to economists. But no sensible government would wage war without listening to generals and admirals, and the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform — aka the National…Continue reading
Are We Better Off Now than We Were Two Years…
To borrow a construction from the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, there’s a dog that hasn’t barked in this election. In a campaign dominated by the economy, Republicans have never invoked some version of Ronald Reagan’s devastating query from 1980, “Are you better now than you were four years ago?†It turns out, there’s good reason for their reticence: By every basic…Continue reading
The Troubling View from the IMF Meetings
The International Monetary Fund held its annual Washington meeting last weekend, so I spent a balmy Sunday discussing the potential pitfalls for the U.S. and world economies. I attended as an American representative on the IMF’s advisory board for the Western Hemisphere; and in that group and beyond, almost no one could see a clear path to worldwide prosperity. Yet,…Continue reading