"... inequality has been steadily increasing, while, as Branko Milanovic notes, the income of countries’ middle and lower-middle classes has stagnated ..."
"... a good economy alone isn't enough if we simply spend more or otherwise reduce the amount of money the government collects."
"An ecosystem as intricate and evolved as ours," argues Sonia Friedman, "is beyond price. It cannot be rebuilt from scratch."
Lost amidst all the talk of Covid-19, economic shutdowns, and stimulus is one simple but incredibly important question… Just who is going to pay for all of this?!?!
"The great Murray Rothbard cut through the fog of modern class warfare with his observation that in a place with governments issuing edicts the citizenry breaks down into two classes — tax producers and tax consumers."
"New Jersey officials just reported that tax revenue in their state fell a whopping 60 percent during the month of April compared to a year ago."
"And it only took a little more than one year to do it."
"I don’t want to see this massive accumulation of debt destroy this great country."
"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States ..."
"Establishing a just and equitable distribution of mutually raised funds to bail out private sectors across borders will be politically almost impossible."
"...when the costs are being counted, there’ll surely be little left in the piggy bank to fund a UBI."
"They only focus on the ‘seen’ and ignore the ‘unseen’ effects of their policies, selling them to voters on that basis alone. This is the first rule of economic analysis."
"Many people over age 62 who wanted to delay Social Security, which can often be the best overall retirement income strategy to maximize long-term Social Security benefits, may want to consider claiming benefits sooner."
For millions of Americans, it is unclear when they will be able to get back to work.
New reports indicate the U.S. government helped fund research in Wuhan that may be linked to COVID-19.
"Should the United States lose its status as the global hegemon, bipartisan fiscal profligacy must surely take a major part of the blame."
"It’s also a myth to say the size of the [Australian] state shrank before Covid-19. Indeed, government spending as a percentage of GDP, especially on health and education, has increased in the past decade."
"...it is not the task of a central bank to deal with insolvencies."
"...fiscal profligacy has been marked by extraordinary levels of bipartisan collegiality."
"... as no longer being a high consequence infectious disease."
"...“most of my colleagues are just ready to rubber-stamp any spending bill” purported to counter the threats from coronavirus."
"Boris Johnson’s penchant for new infrastructure schemes is to say the least, fortuitous."
"There’s a concerted effort to shift the focus of economics away from financial data towards social."
"While the proposed scheme could be critiqued as being expensive due to the need for extra funding, this does not outweigh the human costs of period poverty for women and girl’s wellbeing, education, income and health."