Posts
- All
- Debt & Deficits
- Income & Wealth Inequality
- Minimum Wage
- Taxes & Spending
The Policy Debate: What Policies Will Reduce the Debt Burden & Promote Economic Growth
Left-leaning: Grow economy and improve fiscal sustainability with mix of private sector incentives, and government investments, selected tax increases Right-leaning: Grow economy and improve fiscal sustainability through tax cuts, investment incentives, and slowing government spending Comprehensive Plans to Address the National Debt (pgpf.org) Collection of studies from 7 think tanks across spectrum: American Action Forum,…
The Risks of Continuing To Borrow & Spend
Debt & Deficit Primer (part 2). Measuring the risks of prolonged debt- financed government spending. The important concept here is “fiscal sustainability”, which basically says that if the interest rate on the debt is less than nominal GDP growth, the relative debt burden is improving. From Professors Cecchetti & Shoenholtz: “Ultimately, debt sustainability requires that…
Debt & Deficit Basics
Debt & Deficit Primer (part 1). Recent visuals of US government debt and deficits over time, with explanation. Debt & Deficit Charts, COVID Relief Spending, Breakdown of Federal Spending & Tax Revenues (Visual Capitalist) Debt Clock & Reasons for US Federal Debt Growth (Peter G Peterson Inst) Lesson in Measuring Federal Debt (Federal Reserve) Interest…
Income & Wealth Inequality
I will address as subtopic income & wealth separately. Recent paper arguing to include social security. Add Yardeni’s analysis of relatively new Fed database of household accounts, how the data changes distribution of equity market ownership. Also Piketty’s widespread analysis of inequality, etc.
Taxing & Spending
I will create in section 1 a primer of breakdown of fed spending with focus on what the federal govt does, breakdown sources of revenue, how big to GDP over time, etc. Consensus of think tanks and experts that running large budget deficits and increasing debt levels is “unsustainable” in the long run, meaning some…
Minimum Wage
The min wage public debate focuses on the trade-off between higher earnings for workers and lower overall employment from job cuts and reduced hours. Min wage is one of the most studied topics in economics. Therefore, I have included links to studies-of-studies and their conclusions. To make the wage-employment trade-off more tangible, I have included…