The Debt

April Is Financial Literacy Month. Someone Tell Congress

By Joe Minarik and Caroline L. Ferguson

February is Black History Month, March is National Women’s Month, and April? Well, it’s Financial Literacy Month, of course! The U.S. government gave financial literacy its own month in 2003. April...
Why All the Warnings About Unsustainable National Debt Could Be Wrong

By Michael Rainey

International economists are warning about rising global debt levels and deficit hawks in Washington are increasingly worried about what they see as unsustainable debt levels in the U.S., but a new...
The US Has an Exceptional Debt Outlook – and Not in a Good Way

By Michael Rainey

The International Money Fund’s latest global fiscal survey warns that in five years, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will be higher than Italy’s, a nation not generally known for its exemplary fiscal...
When the Budget Won’t Balance, Just Get Rid of the Budget Committee?

By Michael Rainey

It may sound like a joke — Erik Sherman of Forbes said it seemed like something “from The Onion or Andy Borowitz at the New Yorker, only with less humor and pith” — but Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), chair...
With Recent Laws, Congress Has Added $540 Billion to the 2019 Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

Spending hikes and tax cuts passed since 2015 under the Trump and Obama administrations account for $540 billion of next year’s projected $981 billion budget deficit, or 55 percent, according to...

Extending the Individual Tax Cuts Would Reduce Economic Growth: Penn Wharton Budget Model

By Michael Rainey

Most of the individual tax cuts in the GOP tax overhaul that became law in December are scheduled to expire after 2025, but Republican lawmakers are expected to try to make them permanent well before...
Why Trillion-Dollar Deficits Matter

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Congressional Budget Office confirmed this week that the deficit is on pace to surpass $1 trillion in 2020 and climb higher from there barring action by leaders in Washington, potentially...
Paul Ryan's Fiscal Legacy: Lots of Red Ink

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election this year and will retire at the end of his term in January, becoming the most prominent in a wave of Republican lawmakers...
Yellen, Democratic Economists Say Fixing Debt Crisis Isn’t All About Entitlements

By Yuval Rosenberg

Late last month, a quintet of big-name Hoover Institution economists warned in a Washington Post op-ed that a coming “string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits” could soon lead to a...
The Era of Permanent $1 Trillion Deficits Will Start in 2020, CBO Says

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Republican tax plan and increased government spending will provide a temporary boost to the economy but sharply increase the federal deficit, sending it above $1 trillion a year in 2020, two...

Can Mick Mulvaney Still Call Himself a Deficit Hawk?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, may have just put out a budget proposal that never reaches balance and that projects more than $7 trillion in deficits over...
Massive Spending Deal Brings Government Shutdown to an End

By Jacob Pramuk, CNBC

President Donald Trump signed a major budget plan into law Friday, ending the year's second government shutdown hours after it started. Both chambers of Congress passed a short-term funding bill in...
The Rand Paul Shutdown: A Low Point in the Deficit Debate

By Yuval Rosenberg

The federal government shut down briefly for the second time in three weeks on Friday after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) temporarily blocked a Senate vote on a massive spending deal that would have kept...
Are the GOP Tax Cuts Spooking the Stock Market?

By Michael Rainey

After a prolonged and unprecedented period of stock market calm, investors are looking for someone or something to blame for the recent sharp drop in equities and Tuesday’s volatile swings. The...
The Return of the Bond Vigilante Argument

By Michael Rainey

As the fear of inflation rattles Wall Street, Politico asks if we’re seeing the return of the “bond vigilantes” — investors who drive up interest rates by selling bonds when they think inflation is...