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Next year is going to be a mess for U.S. fiscal policy. The individual provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the 2017 GOP tax cuts, expire. The [...]

The current argument over government funding and the risk of a shutdown is small potatoes. The debt-limit fight over the summer was small potatoes. Even the great 'fiscal cliff' of [...]

35 percent--how much the payroll-tax rate would have to be raised to fully fund Social Security, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Social Security is funded by the payroll tax, [...]

4,392 4,392--the number of pages in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, as of August 2024. The International Trade Commission keeps track of U.S. tariffs in the Harmonized [...]

$208 billion--how much money the federal government could save by implementing recommendations the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has already made. The GAO makes about 1,200 recommendations per year about how [...]

At his State of the Union address in February, President Biden got a bipartisan round of applause when he urged Republicans and Democrats to promise not to reform Social Security [...]

In any introductory macroeconomics class, you will be taught something about public finance that goes like this: The government's budget deficit is related to the business cycle. Near the peak [...]

Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream, by David Leonhardt (Random House, 528 pp., $32) In the introduction to his new book about the American dream, [...]

47 percent--the proportion of aid to state governments under the American Rescue Plan Act that has not been spent yet, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The American Rescue [...]

When President Biden appointed Lina Khan as chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission in June 2021, there was talk of a revolution. She was only 32 years old, had risen [...]

On February 27, Representative Joe Wilson (R., S.C.) introduced the National Right to Work Act, a one-page bill to amend federal labor law and enshrine at the national level the [...]

When Joe Biden appointed Gary Gensler as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, progressives celebrated. They had one of their own at the head of Wall Street's regulator. As [...]

The article discusses the looming fiscal crises facing the United States in the coming years. It highlights various factors contributing to the budget blowout, including the expiration of tax cuts, the end of income limits for Obamacare subsidies, and the need to raise the debt limit. The article emphasizes the growing national debt and the lack of attention given to the budget and debt in political debates. It also mentions the long-term impact of entitlement programs on the national debt and proposes potential solutions, such as spending cuts and modest tax increases. The article concludes by urging politicians and voters to address the budget problems and make informed decisions. [Extracted from the article]

"The Week" is a document that covers a wide range of topics, including political events, cultural issues, and international conflicts. It discusses Donald Trump's stance on abortion, Taylor Swift's political endorsements, and an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery involving Trump's campaign team. It also covers Hunter Biden's guilty plea in a tax trial, indictments against Russians and Hamas leaders, and Mark Zuckerberg's apology for Facebook's censorship. The document explores migration trends, personnel shortages in the U.S. Navy, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It presents a variety of perspectives and provides readers with a comprehensive overview of current events and issues. [Extracted from the article]

2040--the year when the number of deaths in the U.S. will begin to exceed the number of births, according to the long-term budget outlook from the Congressional Budget Office. The [...]

111 days--the amount of time it took to accumulate the most recent trillion dollars in national debt, according to the 'Debt to the Penny' report from the Department of the [...]

-1,268,000 barrels per day--the highest net export of crude oil since 1990, in the week of March 31, 2023, smoothed by a four-week average, according to the U.S. Energy Information [...]

Macroeconomics is difficult, and nobody is entirely sure how it works. Anybody who claims to have it all figured out is trying to sell you something. It's a field where [...]

$2.25 trillion--the size of the U.S. manufacturing sector in 2023, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Contrary to the narrative about a puny and shrinking U.S. manufacturing sector, manufacturing [...]

Sixty-one percent--the amount by which the federal government's interest payments increased between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2023, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. [...]

FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, and Sam Bankman-Fried, its 30-year-old now-former CEO, were supposed to change the world. They may have, but not in the way they expected. There was nothing [...]

The article discusses how the tax code and regulatory environment in the United States favor the success of tech companies. The tax code discourages investment in physical capital and instead incentivizes investment in human capital. The regulatory apparatus, including environmental regulations and labor laws, creates obstacles for businesses in industries other than tech. The article argues that instead of vilifying tech companies, policymakers should learn from their success and undo regulations and tax incentives that hinder non-tech industries. The Biden administration's increased regulation is criticized, and pro-growth policies are proposed to empower workers and reduce government interference. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of private innovation and the need to remove regulations to allow all industries to thrive. [Extracted from the article]

After the 118th Congress is sworn in in January, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. The House [...]

Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us, by Russ Roberts (Portfolio, 224 pp., $27) Russ Roberts is having second thoughts about economics. In his new book, Wild [...]

To understand renovations being made to a building, it is good to understand the kind of order that the renovator hopes to establish. Edmund Burke writes to a French correspondent [...]

Gas prices are high. Voters are upset. And Republicans want to blame Joe Biden's energy policy. It might be smart politics to do so, but it's not exactly honest. Joe [...]

You may have noticed things are getting a little pricier. How'd we get here? The most basic equation in monetary economics is MV = PY. The money supply (M) times [...]

One of India's top entertainment exports is cricket, and it has come to America in the form of Major League Cricket (MLC), which played its championship game near Dallas on July 30. The Indian Premier League (IPL), which was founded in 2008 and now has ten T20 cricket franchises spread across India, was the first successful attempt to bring the American franchise-sports model, with all its revenue potential, to a cricket mass market. FEATURES THERE'S a sport beloved by well over a billion people around the world. [Extracted from the article]

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the payroll-tax rate would need to be raised by 35% in order to fully fund Social Security. Currently, Social Security is funded by a 12.4% payroll tax on taxable earnings and income tax paid on Social Security benefits. The CBO projects that Social Security revenue will remain stable at around 4.5% of GDP for the next 75 years, growing at the same rate as the economy. However, the increase in outlays is projected to cause a long-term deficit, with benefits potentially needing to be cut by 23% in fiscal year 2034. To avoid this, the CBO estimates that Congress would need to raise the payroll-tax rate to 16.7%. [Extracted from the article]

We've seen trimming of rates in other taxes, including 13 states with corporate-income-tax cuts, a couple of states with sales-tax cuts, and trimming other taxes as well." "After adjusting for inflation, state tax collections were 9.3 percent higher in 2022 than they were in 2017, even though 17 states had lower top income tax rates in 2022 than they did in 2017, to say nothing of cuts to corporate income taxes and other state taxes", Walczak wrote in a February article. The TCJA also capped the state-and-local tax (SALT) deduction, so high-income earners and some middle-income earners in high-tax states now feel more of the burden of their states' policies. "The past three years have seen the largest wave of state-tax cuts in the modern era, certainly since income taxes were created over a century ago at the state level", says Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the Tax Foundation. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the issue of increasing budget deficits in the United States, which have been growing consistently since 2002 regardless of the state of the economy. Despite President Biden's claims of fiscal responsibility, his budget for fiscal year 2025 requests a $1.8 trillion deficit, with projected deficits of $1.4 trillion to $1.9 trillion each year through 2034. The article explains that the increase in deficits is due to mandatory spending, which includes Social Security, major health-care programs, and interest payments on the debt. Mandatory spending already consumes 73 percent of the federal budget and is projected to grow every year, limiting Congress's ability to make changes to how the money is spent. The article concludes by stating that the national debt is expected to increase by $119 trillion in the next 30 years, with the majority of the increase coming from mandatory spending. [Extracted from the article]

The U.S. Secret Service, known for their expertise in security, has a history of failures and misconduct. Recently, they failed to prevent a shooter from entering a Donald Trump rally and causing harm. This incident is just one example of the agency's track record of allowing dangerous individuals to slip through their security measures. Over the years, Secret Service agents have been involved in scandals involving prostitutes, pornography, and drunkenness while traveling with presidents. Despite calls for increased training and more agents, little has been done to address these issues. It is important to hold this federal agency accountable for their dysfunction. [Extracted from the article]

According to the Congressional Budget Office's long-term budget outlook, the number of deaths in the U.S. is projected to exceed the number of births in 2040. However, the U.S. population is still expected to increase from 342 million to 383 million over the next 30 years, primarily due to net immigration. The population growth rate will be about 0.4 percent per year, which is lower than the average rate over the past 30 years. The aging population will continue to increase, with the proportion of Americans over 65 rising from 17.8 percent to 22.3 percent by 2054, while the proportion of Americans aged 24 or younger will decline from 31.1 percent to 27.7 percent. The current entitlement system for seniors is facing challenges in terms of funding, as there are too few working individuals contributing and too many retired individuals benefiting from it, and this issue is expected to worsen over the next 30 years. [Extracted from the article]

If firms didn't exist, each employee would have to contract with every other employee and every manager and every supplier; instead, the firm acts as a central contracting agent. That means employees need to sign only one employment contract with the firm, and the firm then has power to tell the employees what to do. Upper-income workers are more satisfied, at 57 percent, but 45 percent of lower-income workers are extremely or very satisfied with their jobs. [Extracted from the article]

In the last quarter entirely before the Covid pandemic, the fourth quarter of 2019, the federal government made interest payments of $564 billion on an annualized basis. Interest rates are much higher now than they were in 2019, and the federal deficit is larger as well, so more borrowing at higher rates will mean higher interest payments. Sixty-one percent - the amount by which the federal government's interest payments increased between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2023, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the possible effects of U.S. President Joe Biden's energy policy on gas prices. Also cited are how the U.S. became a net exporter of crude oil and other petroleum products, the high refinery of the U.S. petroleum industry, and the shortage of sand that adversely affect the production of the country's oil and gas sector.