News
Bloomberg | Biden-Led Debt-Cutting Group Is Said to Agree on $200 Billion in Savings
The narrower focus of the Biden talks stands in contrast to the work done by the so-called Gang of Six, led by Senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, that hit an impasse as it sought an agreement to reach $4 trillion in debt reduction over 10 years by trimming defense spending and entitlement-program benefits and raising revenue by closing tax loopholes.
Politico | GOP isn't buying Barach Obama's debt limit pitch
House Republican leaders have spent a lot of time lately assuring Wall Street that they understand the calamitous consequences that would result from a defualt on the nation's debt.
WSJ | States See New Need for Bonds
Some states may issue municipal bonds to shore up their underfunded unemployment-benefits programs, gaining flexibility but not necessarily a long-term answer to keeping the programs solvent.
Econ Comments
Washington Post | The symbolic battle over the debt ceiling
Symbolism doesn’t pay off debts or cover the costs of Social Security and Medicare. This has not stopped politicians in the nation’s capital from engaging in an extended and entirely symbolic fight over how to raise the debt ceiling.
National Journal | Coburn Op-Ed: ‘Let the Debate Begin’
Days after stepping out of the Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of Six” budget negotiations, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said in a Washington Post op-ed Thursday that all is not lost.
RCM | How to Address the Debt Ceiling
Creative accounting has a bad reputation. Just ask the people who invested in Bernie Madoff. Or the Congress that paid for a new healthcare law by promising ten years of tax increases and six years of higher spending. Failing to honor obligations has consequences.
WSJ | The Outlook at Calpers Is Brightening, a Little
The nation's biggest pension fund is on target to notch one of its strongest annual returns in the past 20 years, performance that is helping the fund regain its health and its confidence.
