January 3, 2011 Leave a comment
Jobs are Priority (For Now), Not Spending and Debt Reduction
January 2, 2011 Leave a comment
There is a lot of recent evidence among countries and regions that the best policy in a grave economic crisis and recession, the central issue is to create jobs as fast as you can, even if this means running a large deficit over the short-term. More growth will cause tax revenues to increase over the medium-term.
The broad pattern is clear: the more that governments have worried about enabling future moral hazard by excessive bailouts and sought to stem the rise in public debt, the worse their countries’ economies have performed. The more that they have focused on policies to put people back to work in the short run, the better their economies have done.
via A Time to Spend by J. Bradford DeLong – Project Syndicate.
Tax Implications of the Obama Negotiation
December 8, 2010 Leave a comment
For those who think that the tax cuts will doing something great, you can read this. Or this is for those of you think that Obama’s negotiation was ok (admittedly there are few Obama supporters in Coral Gables).
…Killing the tax cuts would alone reduce the national debt by roughly as much as the deficit commission’s entire proposal. And killing the tax cuts was the path of least resistance. Obama could have done it by doing nothing. Or he could have done it by taking a strong negotiating position and being willing to walk away from the table.
Evidence of US Demise?
December 7, 2010 1 Comment
It is instructive to note that China spent almost a $100 billiion in one year on high speed rail service vs. the pathetic US multi-year budget of $8 billion. Yet our politicians will denounce the $8 billion as extravagant while the Chinese and French companies are entertaining the Governor of California. The US multi-war economy, mismanaged financial system, and low public infrastructure spending are causing us to put off making the US economy more competitive.
The nation’s $90 billion in spending on the network last year far exceeds the $8 billion that President Barack Obama allocated in stimulus for U.S. fast trains earlier this year.
The difference “is a confirmation of China’s rise and an indication of U.S. demise,” said Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “We in the U.S. are doing little to nothing and will pay a price in slower growth now and in the future.”
Coral Gables Watch 