Bernanke urges for an increase in the debt ceiling, demonstrating the wisdom of James Buchanan and Richard Wagner. In Democracy in Deficit, Chapter 8, the authors set out to model Keynesian-oriented fiscal policy with the “the plausible hypothesis that monetary authorities are, like elected politicians, subjected to both direct and indirect political pressures, and…
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What is the hidden cost that Americans are paying to have the U.S. federal government spend so much money? To answer that question, let’s take a closer look at when U.S. federal government spending really went out of control. Here, if we track the U.S. federal government’s spending [1] per U.S. household against median…
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The Christian Science Monitor reports that “Counting underutilized and marginally attached workers, the unemployment rate rose in April, according to the new jobs report”, to 15.9% for “total unemployment” and 9% for the standard rate of joblessness. And according to CNNMoney.com’s “Bailout Tracker”, this increase in joblessness has occurred despite the staggering commitment to…
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Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss at Reuters reports in “Dollar tumbles to 3-yr low; data underpins rate view” that: The dollar slumped to a three-year low against major currencies on Wednesday and its outlook darkened further as surprisingly soft economic data underpinned expectations that U.S. interest rates will remain low this year. The greenback also fell to…
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Bloomberg BusinessWeek has identified the biggest risk in continuing today’s levels of deficit spending for the U.S. government: Barack Obama may lose the advantage of low borrowing costs as the U.S. Treasury Department says what it pays to service the national debt is poised to triple amid record budget deficits. Interest expense will rise…
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As the Wall Street Journal reports in an article by Mark Whitehouse, “Number of the Week: $10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing”: $10.2 trillion: The amount of money advanced-nation governments will need to borrow in 2011 As the debts of advanced countries rise to levels not seen since the aftermath of World War II, it’s…
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In the new Wall Street Journal article, “Fed Fires $600 Billion Stimulus Shot,” Jon Hilsenrath reports that the day after the stunning mid-term elections that clearly were a referendum against the Keynesian spending binge of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the Federal Reserve has launched another gigantic “stimulus” measure exactly like what…
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The Wall Street Journal notes in a new article, “The 2010 Spending Record: In two years, a 21.4% increase”: “Perhaps you missed it, but then so did the Washington press corps. Late last week the Congressional Budget Office released its preliminary budget tallies for fiscal year 2010, and the news is that the U.S….
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Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs examines the serious problem of “regime uncertainty” being created by the feasting of federal spending programs starving (crowding out) the private investment needed for recovery from the recession: “Private saving and investment are the heart and soul of the dynamic market process. Together they provide and allocate the…
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