Aaargh! Snow: Spending cuts to reduce deficit WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House aims to shrink the U.S. budget deficit through spending restraint and strong government revenues but will oppose letting tax breaks expire, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Tuesday. “You’ll see the administration press awfully hard to contain spending,” Snow told reporters at a […]
Barkley is not buying the Dark Matter argument: I do not buy this. We are the biggest net debtor in world history, however you count cap gains and all that. What is going on is the exercise of our global power. Our corporations are getting higher returns through outsourcing and transfer pricing. We take advantage […]
The best thing I can say about the latest from Sebastian Mallaby is that he does not give all of the credit for the return to full employment and rising compensation to the tax cuts: Well, how about the fact that no less a critic than Greg Mankiw, the administration’s very own chief economist until […]
Colors are now more boring neutral. I suppose I’m the only one around here with Longhorn Fever, with the possible exceptions of Movie Guy, th, and perhaps dchogs. Here’s one last shot for the fans, courtesy of the Burnt Orange Report: We now return to our regularly scheduled bad economic news. AB
Via Mark Thoma comes a very nice discussion of the current account and capital flows from Martin Feldstein. This jumped out at me: This unprecedented level is equal to 6.4 per cent of US gross domestic product. Experts estimate that the real trade-weighted value of the dollar must fall by at least 30 per cent […]
If you are reading this: So what explains the advantage gained from locating production overseas? The most powerful factor appears to be taxes. You might feel the need to rebut, but save your efforts as Menzie Chinn already has.
Luskin’s latest tirade nitpicks at the wording of something Paul Krugman said. OK, that’s nothing new but let’s take a look at his first substantive comment in the tirade: But Krugman continues to whine: “Revenue remains lower, and the federal budget deeper in deficit, than anyone expected a few years ago.” Anyone? That just can’t […]
Drs. Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes presented a new analysis of the cost of the Iraq war on Sunday at the American Economic Association meeting in Boston. Their analysis shows the total costs will probably exceeds $2 Trillion. The Boston Globe reports: The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion after factoring […]
I used to enjoy the civility of Congressman J. C. Watts even when he tried to give the GOP credit for the reduction in the Federal deficit during the 1990’s – and in the same breath advocated tax cuts and more defense spending: We balanced our budget in a time of peace, proven that we […]
Treas. Sec. Snow was fielding a few questions from what appeared to be a Bush friendly audience. Beyond his insistence that tax cuts are a prerequisite for continued growth and his claim that this Administration is fiscally responsible, take a look at his response to a very good question from Jeff Burrows (hat tip to […]