News
WSJ | Catalonia to Seek Aid From Madrid
The regional government in Catalonia said Tuesday it will ask for around €5 billion ($6.27 billion) in financial assistance from the central government, as the country's economic recession deepened in the second quarter and outflows from bank deposits hit a record high.
Bloomberg | Spanish Recession Deepens as Austerity Damps Outlook: Economy
Spain’s recession worsened in the second quarter as the government’s austerity push to reduce the euro area’s third-biggest budget deficit and a slump in consumer spending offset growth in exports.
Politico | $8 billion surprise grist for new spending fight
...to the surprise of many, the agency now says it represents an $8 billion increase from what it calculates the current rate of discretionary spending, $1.039 trillion.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | Social Security’s Woes Are Worse Than You Think
On both left and right, the politicians and the experts are saying the U.S. needs to fix Medicare -- and have made fixing Social Security an afterthought.
Heritage Foundation | How Arms Controllers Would Reach a Budget Agreement
America is never going to fix its structural fiscal problems until we recognize that we face a political science problem more than an economic policy problem.
CNN Money | Where's all that government spending really going?
So where are the new trillions in spending really going? To find out, let's start with the total increase in outlays.
Blogs
Political Calculations | The Recession And Social Security Disability
Picking up on recent comments by Russ Roberts on the changes in the disability rolls over time, we thought we might revisit Social Security's data on the number of disabled workers collecting disability benefits for the years corresponding to the Great Recession.
NRO: The Corner | More Evidence That Spending Cuts Are the Best Way to Shrink Our Debt
As I have explained in the past, increasing taxes on rich people is unlikely to address concerns about income inequality.
Keith Hennessey | The “insufficient detail” critique of the Ryan budget
Dr. Orszag’s principal critique is that the Ryan budget is short on details.
