July 16, 2020
Michael Klein interviews Maurice Obstfeld, Professor at UC Berkeley, and the former Chief Economist at the IMF, on fiscal policy and the state of the economy.
June 25, 2020
State tax revenues are falling while spending needs due to the coronavirus are spiking. Balanced budget amendments may lead states to raise taxes or cut spending.
May 11, 2020
Ballooning government debt raises legitimate concerns. But there are also risks associated with pulling back expansionary fiscal efforts too early.
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?
November 18, 2019
Michael Klein (EconoFact) and Dan Sichel (Wellesley) highlight that public investments are often worthwhile. Knowing how they are to be paid for is also important.
July 22, 2019
In what has become a predictable cycle, policymakers meet under pressure to raise the “debt ceiling,” the legal limit on the amount of debt the federal government can accumulate.
June 20, 2019
Decisions on government spending and taxation have a direct impact on the economy. Yet fiscal policy is inherently political.
June 7, 2019
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has attracted attention, especially among many who see in it a support for greater government spending.
April 28, 2019
William G. Gale (Brookings Institution) and Michael Klein (EconoFact) discuss the distributional effects of fiscal policy and the progressivity of the US tax system.