fiscal responsibility


Joseph M. Firestone's picture

Spare Me the “Middle Ground” Please!

By Joe Firestone
June 10, 2011

In a debate at FiredogLake about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) perspectives on the so-called deficit/debt crisis and the idea that there is no long-run deficit problem, powwow, a perspicacious commenter and occasional blogger at MyFD more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

Why Do “They” Want To Limit Our Sovereignty In Our Own Currency?

By Joe Firestone
April 12, 2011

One of the most emotional issues in American politics is the sovereignty of the United States itself, and its independence from foreign powers, interests, other nations and their ruling elites, and emerging globalizing elites who place their own interests against the nation interest of America and its people. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

Neo-Liberalism Can't Beat the Tea Party: But MMT Can

By Joe Firestone
April 1, 2011

In the big budget fight going on right now in Congress, the Tea Party conservatives rightly point out that $61 Billion in spending cuts is just a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.6 Trillion predicted deficit, and they react with a great deal of moral fervor to the suggestion that they ought to compromise on $33 Billion in cuts in order to avoid shutting down the Government. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

Bill Mitchell on the Austerity War

By Joe Firestone
March 18, 2011

A number of people including myself have been furiously blogging for many months now on the world-wide austerity war that most Governments are fighting against the well-being of their citizens. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

Trouble Is When We Take the Truth Off the Table

By Joe Firestone
February 27, 2011

Arianna Huffington is calling attention to “the great budget battle of 2011,” between the President and the Republicans. She correctly points out that whichever of the two sides win, we, the people, lose. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

Federal Spending Doesn't Cost Anything!

By Joe Firestone
February 26, 2011

Over the past year, I've written numerous posts about fiscal sustainability, fiscal responsibility, and the various fairy tales and myths underlying what almost all of our policy makers have to say Government finance. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Simplest and Best Way Out

By Joe Firestone
February 24, 2011

Well, the proverbial s__t is now hitting the fan in our State Governments, and we're looking at struggles in State after State between newly elected Republican Governors scapegoating civil servants, while they insist that taxes can't be raised on the wealthy and large corporations during a recession. more »

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Lectured On Fiscal Responsibility By The Irresponsible

By Dean Baker
April 20th, 2010

Dean Baker is the chief economist for the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Do you have to be clueless about the economy to talk about fiscal responsibility? This is a question that people should be asking, given the list of prominent economists and economic analysts who are headlining the debate on deficit reduction. Should we be listening to lectures on the need for belt-tightening from the group of luminaries who could not see the $8 trillion housing bubble that wrecked the economy and put 15 million people out of work? Let's look at the record of the people being asked to lead the debate. more »

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What Do We Really Want For Our Grandchildren?

CONservative Spin:

“Under President Obama’s budget plan, our debt will increase to shocking levels that are simply unsustainable and will devastate future economic opportunities for our children and grandchildren.”
Isaiah J. Poole's picture

PROgressive Response:

By Isaiah J. Poole
April 2nd, 2009
Related Topics:

You can't just look at the debt; it's even more important to consider whether that debt helps our generation invest in things that will improve the lives of our children and grandchildren.

Nancy Folbre, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, makes the point in an April 2009 article for The New York Times: "Borrowing creates assets as well as liabilities—and future generations will inherit both. It’s the relationship between assets and liabilities that matters most."

Conservatives often argue from a "generational accounting" frame that says what we spend today our kids and grandkids will pay for tomorrow, but does not argue that the public works projects, health care reforms, education investments, clean energy research and development, and community development initiatives we do today are inherited as well. "Generational accounting typically ignores the value of the government services children will receive as well as the important non-market assets they will inherit," Folbre writes. "The president’s proposed budget features investments in health, education and environmental sustainability that promise important future benefits."

 Source

Nancy Folbre. "The Granddaddy State." The New York Times. April 2, 2009.

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Roger Hickey's picture

An Election, a Budget, and Two Summits = A Bold Obama Strategy for Health Care Change.

By Roger Hickey
March 8, 2009

Like most participants in President Obama’s Health Care Summit last Thursday, I was thrilled to be invited to the White House for the big public meeting on health care. At the Summit, the President did what the leaders and activists of the 800 organizations in our Health Care for America Now coalition have been urging: more »

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