June 1, 2025
A discussion with economic journalists on tariff policy uncertainty, the impact of proposed spending cuts, and growing U.S. debt.
April 6, 2025
Wendy Edelberg and Ben Harris on the likely consequences of rising debt, and its impact on people’s retirement, especially if there are cuts to Social Security.
February 9, 2025
Football and basketball teams at Division-I universities generate billions in revenue. But student-athletes themselves don’t receive salaries. Should they? Andrew Zimbalist discusses this and other issues.
January 12, 2025
Roger Lowenstein describes how Abraham Lincoln and Salmon Chase revolutionized the role of the federal government, and helped forge a national identity.
January 13, 2025
Higher education revenues stemming from the federal government are substantial. Colleges and universities face potential losses from stated policy initiatives.
March 29, 2022
The fiscal condition of state and local governments proved far less dire than forecast at the pandemic’s outset. How did predictions end up being so off target?
May 24, 2023
The debt limit debate has cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and TANF on the table. The scope for savings in government spending is bound by their share of the budget.
February 1, 2020
The CBO projects federal budget deficits to average more than 5 percent of GDP in the last three years of this decade, compared to Trump administration estimates below 2%. Why do they differ?
February 13, 2019
Over the next decade, the U.S. is on course for routine trillion-dollar annual deficits in the federal budget and the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in its history.
December 17, 2020
Medicaid can play a key role providing health coverage and economic stimulus during the pandemic. But states need to be able to fund their share of the program.
December 19, 2018
The extent of public pension underfunding varies across the U.S. Some proposed solutions, such as the use of pension obligation bonds, have considerable downsides.
July 25, 2017
Welfare programs are a small part of the federal budget. Disability Insurance might be a better target to reduce government spending and increase employment.
November 9, 2020
Michael Klein is joined by Bill Gale at the Brookings Institution, to discuss the government’s large budget deficit, tax policy, and issues of redistribution.
January 22, 2023
As the U.S. Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner, what lessons might policy-makers draw from the British budget crisis of September 2022?