Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Tag: debt

  • Depression Lessons: How Much Fiscal Stimulus?

    There's lots of talk these days on upcoming fiscal stimulus–how much it should be and how it should be delivered. The NYT Economix blog offers recommendations from several economists, assuming a $500-billion package. Here's one that Greg Mankiw likes. When it comes to the size of the stimulus–and as Krugman argues quite cogently, in this…

  • John McCain Pledges to Eradicate Government

    John McCain has promised to balance the federal budget by 2013. He's also pledged to enact a tax plan that will deliver a budget deficit of $650 billion dollars in 2013. Just to give these numbers a little perspective: Agency 2013 Projected Outlays Agriculture $120 billion Commerce $9 billion Education $86 billion Energy $30 billion…

  • Tax-Cutting Republicans? Get Real

    Put aside for the moment the current Republican presidential candidate’s tax plan, which imposes higher taxes on 250 million Americans than the Democratic candidate’s plan. The simple fact is–as innumerable sages (at least since Adam Smith) have pointed out–spending is taxing. Three choices (laid out very nicely by Brad DeLong): Raise taxes in the future.…

  • Who’s Fiscally Responsible?

    This is old news, but here are the latest figures. Federal Debt: 1940–2019: (Updated 1/31/2010) Yet another of those telling inflection points in 1980. (With a brief respite in the late nineties.) The red line–Gross Debt–is the scary (and actual) one; it includes loans from government trust funds (mainly Social Security) that will have to…