The Luskin-Kudlow-Moore free-lunch supply-side crowd over at NRO have been trying to convince us that Bush’s fiscal train wreck will actually promote long-term growth. Their new ally is William Kucewicz who must have figured out that candidate Reagan was right in 1980 when he advocated growth through more savings and investment. Alas, the policies of […]

The White House budget notes how the Deparment of Agriculture is providing assistance to almost 25 million Americans in need: Food stamps alleviate hunger and malnutrition among low-income individuals. In 2005, the Food Stamp program will provide approximately $26.3 billion in benefits to 24.9 million people. The Federal Government will provide an additional $4.1 billion […]

The Club for Growth uses this spin to suggest there is. If one skips to the bottom of page 2 for the last graph, all of the action is there. But wait – tax revenues have been falling even if personal dividend income rose from $392.8 billion in 2003 to $441.4 billion in 2004. But […]

Our press catches on eventually as witnessed by this story: There’s little dispute that U.S. job growth has been well below normal since the last recession ended in November 2001. But rather than strengthening anytime soon, the labor market may not pick up much, or at all, at least for the foreseeable future, a growing […]

Speaking of missile defense (as I was last week), the saga continues: WASHINGTON – A test of the national missile defense system failed Monday when an interceptor missile did not launch from its island base in the Pacific Ocean, the military said. It was the second failure in months for the experimental program. Certainly all […]

Nouriel Roubini and Brad Setser have a new paper out that speculates about the timing and probable causes of the end of the “Bretton Woods II” exchange rate system that is supporting the current pattern of international financial flows. The paper is rather pessimistic about the system’s sustainability (for good reason), and definitely worth a […]

Imagine a miracle occurs and this Congress cuts government purchases by $110 billion and does not further erode net taxes. This would shave 17.8% off the General Fund deficit ($618 billion for the fiscal year ending 10/31/2004). Would it also reduce the $618 billion trade deficit by $100 billion? Not according to the simulation of […]

As an objection to the phrase “guaranteed benefits”, Cato’s February 11th Daily Debunker cites the 1960 Supreme Court decision in Flemming v. Nestor. They fail to note two things: (a) what the Social Security Administration wrote about this case; and (b) the facts in this case. From SSA: The fact that workers contribute to the […]

It seems there is bipartisan frustration with the new estimate of how expensive this Rx bill will be, so our pseudo-conservative President may veto any proposed changes.

The Economist writes about the increasing share of national income that is being earned in the form of corporate profits: Last year, America’s after-tax profits rose to their highest as a proportion of GDP for 75 years; the shares of profit in the euro area and Japan are also close to their highest for at […]