Author Archive: Carl Close
Full biography and recent publications
The $800 per Person Uncertainty Tax
Wednesday May 1st, 2013 • Posted by Carl Close at 3:32pm PDT • 3 Comments
On April 29, the U.S. Treasury announced that it expects to pay down $35 billion of the total national debt this quarter—the first debt reduction since 2007. Great news, right? Not so fast. That fat sum is miniscule compared to the size of the national debt—a mere 0.2 percent of the nearly $16.8 trillion...
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Deficit Reduction and the Coming Inflation?
Thursday April 18th, 2013 • Posted by Carl Close at 12:23pm PDT • 2 Comments
Would a higher rate of inflation be a worthwhile tool for lowering the federal deficit? Some in Washington, DC, think so. In a blog post written last month, Doug Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), makes the case that greater inflation would raise revenue more than it would raise spending. Here’s an...
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Disincentives to Work Have Slowed U.S. Economic Growth
Wednesday January 16th, 2013 • Posted by Carl Close at 12:53pm PDT • 7 Comments
The 21st century has not been kind to the U.S. economy: the annual rate of GDP growth for the past 12 years, once all the data are available, probably will prove to be about half the 3.5 percent annual rate the country enjoyed from its founding to the late 20th century. One key factor...
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