News
Politico | Moody's: U.S. must tackle deficit
Following the fiscal cliff deal, lawmakers must focus on deficit reduction when they tackle the debt ceiling issue to turn around a negative outlook on the U.S. credit rating, according Moody’s Investors Service.
Politico | Obama signs bill to avert fiscal cliff, via autopen
President Barack Obama ordered Wednesday that his signature be affixed to legislation that averts the bulk of the so-called "fiscal cliff" and prevents federal income tax rates from rising on the vast majority of Americans, the White House said.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | ‘Fiscal cliff’ deal ignores the real problem
Not until after the clock ran out on 2012 did the Senate cobble together a “fiscal cliff” deal that finally passed the House late on Jan. 1, in a 257-167 vote. This deal amounts to a kind of “bungee cord” that has snapped us back to the top edge of the cliff again. That we should get a deal instead of a solution should come as no surprise. The entire process has been focused on the wrong problem all along.
Market Watch | U.S. Treasury takes new step to avoid debt limit
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said late Monday that he was suspending investment in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund in a effort to delay the day the government will exceed its $16.4 trillion legal borrowing authority.
CNN Money | Deficit hawks: Fiscal cliff deal a real downer
That, in a nutshell, summarizes how independent deficit hawks view the fiscal cliff compromise that Congress passed on Tuesday and which President Obama signed into law Wednesday.
AEI | Republicans got a pretty good deal
The more you think about it, the more it becomes clear that Republicans did far better in the tax negotiations than one might have expected. One might even say that they won.
CATO | The Spending Cliff
Twenty-three point nine trillion dollars. That will be our national debt in 2022 under the fiscal-cliff bill that just passed Congress. That’s nearly $4 trillion more than the current-law baseline, and while most of that comes from making the Bush tax cuts permanent for most Americans without offsetting the loss of revenue through spending cuts, at least $330 billion of the new debt results from the increased spending that was part of the deal. Our government debt will amount to more than 118 percent of GDP.
Blogs
Reason | Fiscal Irresponsibility Day
It's the deficit-reduction package that doesn't reduce the deficit. It's the debt-ceiling deal that doesn't touch the debt ceiling (and doesn't cut debt). It's the long-term entitlement negotiation that—after nearly three years of wheedling—does not delay, let alone stave off, a Baby Boomer retirement bomb currently on pace to swallow half of federal outlays by 2030.
Library of Economics | How I Was Wrong About Government Debt
When an individual owes three times his annual income, we think it questionable: Okay for recent home-buyers, but probably a bad idea. But when a government owes 300% of GDP in peacetime, we think it blatantly irresponsible. I've often been puzzled by the disparity.
