FISCAL POLICY

Schick, Allen; LoStracco, Felix. Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process Revised Edition. Brookings Institution Press 2000 http://www.brook.edu/press/books/federal_budget.htm Chapter 1 on line: http://www.brook.edu/press/books/chapter_1/federal_budget.pdf U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Budget and Economic Outlook: an update. July 2000. http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=2241&sequence=0&from=7 James Horney and Robert Greenstein How Much of the New CBO Surplus Is Available for Tax and Program Initiatives? Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Report, July 18, 2000 http://www.cbpp.org/7-18-00bud.htm Rudolph G. Penner Tax Benefits for the Elderly Urban Institute. Report number 5 in Series, 'The Retirement Project'. April 2000 http://www.urban.org/retirement/reports/5/retire_5.html

Balanced Budgets and Unreasonable Expectations.

Reischauer, Robert D. The Brookings Institution) Challenge, September/October 1995, pp 4-11

"We are a couch-potato society. We are unwilling to invest inorder to achieve the good life. We want balanced budgets and lower taxes, while preserving growing social programs and maintaining a strong defense -- clearly contradictory desires."

  President's 1997 Budget Thematic Overview

February 5, 1996, 16p President Clinton presented a tentative 1997 budget February 5, calling for $1,640,000 million in spending and a slight increase in the deficit.

  The Federal Debt.

Gordon, John Steele  American Heritage, vol. 45, no. 7, November 1995, pp. 82-92

During the last 18 years, the United States has marked more than a 25 percent increase in federal revenues and the collapse of its only significant external military threat. Yet in those years the United States has spent as much of tomorrow's money as it would have spent fighting a major war or a new Great Depression.

Through fat and lean times, the federal debt grew and grew. As soon as the new Congress convened on January 3, 1995, it began to change the system. Gordon looks at the growth of the federal debt, and how it continues to occupy Congress as a major economic and political problem.

Budget Deficits and National Saving.

Nordhaus, William D. (Yale University) Challenge, March/April 1996, pp.45-49

"This former member of the Council of Economic Advisers says low savings is not America's problem. Rather, we can afford what we have to do, he argues. Our problem is that wasteful government programs are crowding out productive ones."

Recipe for a Depression

The Atlantic Monthly, July 1996, pp. 43-58

"The conventional wisdom is that the federal budget deficit is a very bad thing, But what if it is the attempt to eliminate the federal budget deficit -- in a climate of falling wages, rising unemployment, rising consumer debt, and rigidly engineered disinflation -- that turns out to be a very bad thing? Articles by Thomas I. Palley (New School for Social Research ) and Robert A. Levine (former C.B.O.) raise this disturbing question."

 A Balanced Budget is not the Answer

Johns, Michael

The World & I, vol.11, no.4, April 1996, pp.120-125

Johns, a public-policy analyst and consultant, argues that the Republican leadership in the U.S. Congress misinterpreted the results of the 1994 elections when it elevated balancing the budget to the top of America's political agenda. He examines and refutes many of the current arguments for a balanced budget, asserting that not enough attention is being paid to economics facts.

 Has Social Spending Grown Out of Control?

Sutch, Richard (Univer. of California - Berkeley)Challenge, May/June 1996, pp. 9-15

"The findings of this economic historian might surprise many Americans: Social spending, any way you measure it, has not grown has a percentage of GDP over the past twenty years. It surely can't account for the ballooning federal deficit of the 1980s."

What Really Happened in the 1980s

Chimerine, Lawrence (Economic Strategy Institute)Challenge, May/june 1996, pp. 29-34

"Those who favor a flat tax today rely on much the same logic as did the tax cutters of the 1980s. The author points out how flawed that logic actually was."

The Blair House Papers: National Performance Review January 1997

"In 1993, President Clinton asked me to figure out how to make government work better and cost less. We called it reinventing government... Everyone in government knows big challenges remain... So, even before the second inauguration, President Clinton and I called our new Cabinet to Blair House to give them their reinvention marching orders. This book contains the instructions we gave the Cabinet in a set of papers on that Saturday, January 11, 1997."

The Sorry Politics of the Balanced Budget

Palley, Thomas (AFL-CIO) Palley, Thomas (AFL-CIO) Challenge, May-June 1997, pp 5-13

"We should put the danger of the balance budget amendment in clear perspective and perhaps bury it once and for all, so that policymakers can focus on the real challenge of achieving sustainable fiscal balance" (edical cost-containment).

The Economic Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986

Auerbach, Alan J. Auerbach, Alan J. Journal of Economic Literature, June 1997, pp 589-632

"The Tax Reform Act of 1986 constituted the most sweeping change in the U.S. federal income tax since it became a tax that applied to most citizens during World War II... The passage of a decade since the enactment of this Act provides an opportunity to assess what the Act accomplished and its implications for future tax policy."

The Effects of State and Local Public Policies on Economic Development

New England Economic Review, March/April 1997, pp 1-12"A symposium held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on November 8, 1996 brought together experts from government, academia, business and finance, and research and other organizations, to examine and critique evidence on the effectiveness of state and local tax, spending, and regulatory policies as instrument of economic development." 'The $40 Billion Emergency Supplemental: How Will It be Spent?' National Priorities Project, Table, December 12, 2001 http://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget/FortyBillion.html Are We All Keynesians (Again)? Levy Economics Institute (LEI), December 2001  http://www.levy.org/docs/pn/01-10.html New Study Explores Hidden Costs of Government Spending  JEC, Study, December 2001, 13p.  http://www.house.gov/jec/hidden.pdf What's a Good Tax Incentive?  Corporation for Enterprise Development, December 2001  http://www.cfed.org/sustainable_economies/Tax_Incentive.htm Attractions of Payroll Tax Holiday Diminish Upon Closer Examination  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), December 2001, 5p. http://www.cbpp.org/12-3-01tax.pdf Corporate Income Taxes in the 1990s  Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Report, October 2000, 64p http://www.itepnet.org/corp00an.pdf

  Public Sector The Public Sector and Sunbelt Development Luker, Bill, Jr (University of Wisconsin) Luker, Bill, Jr (University of Wisconsin) Challenge, July/August, pp 59-82

"In today s economy, the private sector gets all the attention. But the author argues that paying attention to the government s contribution to economic development is vital, despite assumptions to the contrary, especially in the fast growing Sunbelt."

A Conservative Case for Regulation

Stelzer, Irwin M. Stelzer, Irwin M. The Public Interest, Summer 1997, pp 85-97"Conservatives should abandon the notion that enforcement of our antitrust laws represents regulation and, instead, accept the fact that vigorous antitrust enforcement is a bulwark against the spread of direct government involvement in markets."

 Telecom s Big BangBusiness America, July 1997, pp 4-29

"In the United States, few industries can surpass the pace of technological innovation and market development set by U.S. telecommunications equipment and services industries... The Commerce Department is committed to providing a foundation of support which will help translate U.S. telecom industries expertise into exports -- strengthening our economy and our future."

Are We Deregulating Telephone Services? Think Again Crandall, Robert Crandall, Robert Brookings Policy Brief No 13, 1997  http://www.brook.edu/ES/POLICY/POLBRF13.HTM

"It would seem prudent to reconsider major sections of the 1996 Telecommunication Act and to simplify the approach to liberalizing entry. Congress should consider amending the act to reduce the amount of regulation immediately and to phase out regulation entirely within five years..."Even imperfect unregulated competition is better than regulated competition."

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation: Myths and Realities

Schaeffer, Brett D. Schaeffer, Brett D. The Heritage Foundation, June 26, 1997, 11p http://www.heritage.org/heritage/library/categories/trade/bg1127.htlm The author asserts that "Congress should close down this government corporation to prevent it from continuing business as usual." Paul Light To Restore and Renew: Now is the Time to Rebuild the Federal Public Service The Brookings Institute, article, November 2001, 12p http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/light/PaulLightMagazine.pdf Physical Infrastructure - Crosscutting Issues Planning Conference Report GAO, Report October 2001, 140p http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02139.pdf Infrastructure and Social Welfare in Metropolitan America    Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Economic Policy Review Forthcoming, 2001 http://www.newyorkfed.org/rmaghome/econ_pol/2001/801ahau.pdf  

FINANCE - SAVINGS - PENSIONS U.S. Senate. "Day Trading: case studies and conclusions". Report prepared by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs. July 27, 2000. http://thomas.loc.gov/ search for committee reports 106th -- no 106-364 FRB Philadelphia Business Review. July/August 2000. 12p Financial Modernization: Vastly Different or Fundmentally the Same? http://www.phil.frb.org/files/br/brja00eb.pdf Dale Arthur Oesterle (Monfort Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law) Securities Markets Regulation: Time to Move to a Market-Based Approach Cato Policy Analysis No. 374. June 21, 2000. 20p http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa374.pdf Subcommittee on Securities, Senate Banking Committee, Hearing, July 19, 2000 Adapting a 1930's Financial Reporting Model to the 21st Century http://www.senate.gov/~banking/00_07hrg/071900/witness.htm Wynne Godley Drowning In Debt The Levy Institute, Policy Note, June 2000. Annamaria Lusardi. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies  "Most American Are Not Saving" Research Summary, University of Chicago, July 2000 http://www.harrisschool.uchicago.edu/publications/research_summaries/rs_vol1_num5.html Pamela Perun "Employee Stock Ownership Plans: A Status Report" Urban Institute. Brief number 10 in Series, 'The Retirement Project'. June 2000 http://www.urban.org/retirement/briefs/10/brief10.html Dr. Marilyn Watkins Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century Economic Opportunity Institute, Policy Brief, July 2000 http://www.econop.org/SS2000.htm