I’ve read several comments lauding the move toward a structural budget balance in Wisconsin under Governor Walker’s administration. I decided to take a look at what the actual evidence for a surplus is, and what the economic impact has been of policies purported to improve economic performance.
Author Archives: Menzie Chinn
Wisconsin Employment under Walker
Continued stagnation in July.
The National Savings Identity, Crowding-Out, and Apocalypse Predicted
Consider this prognostication from 2011:
Americans face the most predictable economic crisis in this nation’s history. Absent reform, the panic ahead is no longer a question of if, but rather when. A deterioration of confidence by investors in government’s ability to pay its bills will drive interest rates up, increasing borrowing costs for government, small businesses and families alike. A vicious cycle of debt will compound upon itself; the available exit options once the crisis hits will be limited; and all will involve pain. (p.59)
Guest Contribution: “Don’t Look to Congress for a Solution to the Nation’s Long-Term Transportation Woes”
Allowing Private Sector Innovation Holds the Most Promise, if Government Doesn’t Impede Progress
Today we are fortunate to have a contribution written by Clifford Winston, Searle Freedom Trust Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. This post is based on a more extensive analysis available here.
Kansas Downgraded
From WaPo:
Continue reading
The Ever-Expanding Government, Revisited
John Fund, in National Review Online, writes of:
“…an ever-expanding government that chokes off economic opportunities for the middle class and those who aspire to it.
Parsing the Employment and GDP Releases
The employment release reported a 209,000 net increase in nonfarm payroll (NFP) employment was below consensus, but still represented the sixth straight month of +200K net job creation. The net change in private NFP was 198,000. Here I want to note (1) the household survey based alternate measure of nonfarm payroll employment also continues to rise; (2) revisions in NFP and private NFP have typically been positive in recent months; (3) the 2014Q1 drop in GDP seems a little out of line with labor input.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Blogging
With apologies to Richard Hofstadter.
On reading “New Classical Kansas”, James Sexton comments:
Guest Contribution: How Janet Yellen Might Have Responded to the Policy Rules Legislation
Today, we’re fortunate to have Alex Nikolsko-Rzhevskyy, Assistant Professor of Economics at Lehigh University, David Papell and Ruxandra Prodan, respectively Professor and Clinical Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Houston, as Guest Contributors
New Classical Kansas?
Two years ago, Governor Brownback asserted:
Our new pro-growth tax policy will be like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.