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By Judy Shelton - Entitlement programs have accounted for all the growth in federal spending relative to gross domestic product in the past 60 years, causing the persistent budget deficits during that period. Entitlement expenditures are determined differently from so-called discretionary programs. Spending on the latter programs is set by fixed appropriations of money. Entitlement expenditures aren’t fixed in advance but determined by the program’s level of benefits, its eligibility rules and economic factors. Jurisdiction for entitlement legislation is dispersed among more than a dozen committees in each congressional chamber....In this system, no committee is accountable for total spending. Each…
By John Steele Gordon - One justification for the Federal Reserve is to keep the power to print money out of the hands of politicians. A Federal Accounting Board would keep the power to cook the books out of their hands as well. Like the Fed, it would be run by a board of seven members, all professional accountants of long experience, serving 14-year terms. They could be removed only for cause. One member would be appointed chairman, serving a four-year term. The board would take over the duties of the Congressional Budget Office, and the White House Office of…
By Fred Siegel - But there was another "rights" movement, largely overlooked, that has also had a profound effect on American life. The looming public-pension crisis that threatens to bankrupt city, county and state governments had its origins in those same years when public employees, already protected by civil-service rules, gained the right to bargain collectively. Read More
By Judy Shelton - Welcome to the era of good-cop, bad-cop tactics from major government institutions. Fiscal and monetary policy are now working at odds to fight inflation. The Fed could crush demand by raising interest rates to stratospheric levels only to have a spendthrift White House and complicit Congress pump up consumer prices through fiscal measures that expand spending power—cash payments, subsidies, rebates, student loan forgiveness. Read More
By Judy Shelton - Now that the U.S. economy seems to be turning the corner on the worst inflation in 40 years, it’s important to remember that sound money and sound finances go hand in hand. While the Federal Reserve will continue to focus on reducing demand through restrictive interest rates, Congress should concentrate on expanding supply. Yet it all needs to be accomplished while also pursuing a balanced budget. Read More
By Tunku Varadarajan and John Cochran - The present crisis may “reteach our politicians, officials and commentariat the classic lessons that there are fiscal limits, that fiscal and monetary [policy] are intertwined.” It may also teach them, Mr. Cochrane says, “that a country with solid long-term institutions can borrow, but a country without them is in trouble.” Read More
By Red Jahncke - The Federal Reserve’s policies of increasing interest rates and quantitative tightening—reducing its $8.9 trillion balance sheet—will increase the volume and cost of federal government borrowing, slamming the federal budget and exposing the consequences of decades of deficit spending. Total federal gross interest cost over the 12 months ending on May 31 was $666 billion. If we include the impending extra interest on Treasury bills and the maturing notes, that figure rises to $863 billion. This is a staggering cost. National military spending was $746 billion over the past 12 months; Medicare spending was $700 billion. Read…
By Andy Kessler - A short lesson in basic economics Read More
By Phil Gramm and Robert B. Ekelund Jr. – Working Americans sense that taxes and transfers now leave them little better off than those who work less. An article on...the most comprehensive accounting to date of how taxes and government payments affect income distribution in the U.S. ...The most surprising finding is the astonishing degree of equality among the bottom 60% of American earners, generated in part by the explosion of social-welfare spending... Read More