This is a good take on what has been happening with United States Fiscal policies impacting its economy. It does mention former President Trump’s 2017 tax break which targeted the upper 5% of taxpayers with substantial breaks. We should look further to the 2001 and 2003 Bush’s tax breaks which Obama extended for two years […]

by Linda Beale The Media’s Role in Driving the “Fiscal Cliff” Imagery The mainstream media has been fed a steady diet of releases from interested parties (like right-leaning propaganda tanks) about the need to adopt austerity measures, often cast as needing to save the country from out-of-control spending and unprecedented deficits and debt. At the […]

by Linda Beale More on the Threat to Social Security and Medicare from the so-called “Fiscal Cliff” In several posts recently I have discussed the harmful demands the right is engaging in related to the so-called “fiscal cliff” created by the original Bush tax cuts (set to sunset en masse), the artificial debt ceiling (used […]

by Linda Beale Is it a fiscal cliff or merely a bump in the road? Sixty percent of American voters in exit polls indicated that they supported higher taxes for the wealthy, see here.  Even some arch conservatives are acknowledging that some tax increases won’t do terrible harm.  Id. (noting that the Wall Street Journal’s […]

Peter Dorman at Econospeak brings us another reminder about policy decisions on the economy.  Reposted from Econospeak: The Main Point Macroeconomics is complicated and political economy is devilish, so it is easy to get lost in the details. From time to time, it’s good to come up for air—to remember what the fundamental issue is. […]

by Mike Kimel Scaling to New Depths* with Scott Sumner I’ve been having a bit of back and forth with Scott Sumner. Here is his latest post, helpfully entitled: “A suggestion for Mike Kimel.” His key suggestion: “Please take a close look at the data from the Great Depression, before doing more posts claiming I […]

Readers here will know more about the US federal government income statement than I. However, given the near ubiquitous deficit hysteria, I wanted to illustrate the truth about the budget deficit. The truth is, that deficit hysteria has been set in motion by A surge in government spending on items like unemployment compensation, food stamps, […]

Baseline Scenario links to Simon Johnson’s thoughts on current practice of politics. Well worth the time to read and comment. Delusions Of Fiscal Grandeur by Simon Johnson If you honestly believe that investors will happily buy up any amount of US government debt (at low interest rates) for the indefinite future, then relax.  The tax […]

by Linda BealeMore on the White House “deal” on tax cutscrossposted with Ataxingmatter Dan Shaviro, a colleague at NYU, ends up being hopeful about the Obama-GOP deal. See “The deal on extending the tax cuts“, Start Making Sense, Dec. 6, 2010 and “The tax cut deal: too soon to tell who really won?“, Dec. 7, […]

by Peter Dorman The Impoverished, and Impoverishing, Debate about Fiscal Deficitsoriginally posted at Econospeak It is like living in a dream—a very bad dream. Everything seems at once real and imaginary, serious and deliriously impossible. The language is familiar and incomprehensible. And it seems there is no waking up, ever. I’m talking about the “debate” […]