Category Archives: Politics
The Meaning and Misuses of GDP
America's Gross Domestic Product -- GDP -- is a very powerful statistic. Markets and politicians zealously track the quarterly numbers…Continue reading
The President’s Budget and the Case for Moving Beyond Austerity
The President released his FY 2014 budget today, and right off, it makes more economic sense than most of what…Continue reading
How a Grand Bargain on the Deficit Could Erode Social…
Paul Ryan’s new budget blueprint released this week — details to follow, as usual — will only intensify the partisan…Continue reading
The New Nihilism in the Debate over the Debt Ceiling
For decades, fiscal conservatives have used congressional debates over raising the debt limit to vent their frustrations with big government.…Continue reading
Modest Progress on the Deficit Is Just What the U.S.…
One argument nearly entirely absent in the debate over the fiscal cliff issues is the effect on the economy. True,…Continue reading
The Truth about Job Creation under Obama and Bush
Everyone knows that unemployment is high today and unlikely to fall by much soon. Yet, a longer view of the official…Continue reading
The Economic Appeal of the Occupy Wall Street Movement to…
Seemingly out of nowhere, economic inequality is no longer the political issue that dares not speak its name. Since the…Continue reading
Grading Obama and the GOP Hopefuls on their Plans for…
Last week’s GOP debate at the Reagan Library, followed the next night by the President’s address to Congress, threw into…Continue reading
The Cost of Playing Games with the Full Faith and…
I spent last week in Rio attending a meeting of the IMF’s advisory board for the Western Hemisphere — and…Continue reading
Forget about Spending and Get Serious about the Economy
Washington today, especially the Congress, has a textbook case of cognitive dissonance. A confluence of black swan developments may well…Continue reading