Update 551 — Carried Interest Loophole:Which is the Fairest Payfor of Them All? The prospect for trillions of dollars in new federal spending in FY 22 and a consensus that the spending should be paid for — by taxes, not by borrowing and adding debt — put a premium on payfors, provisions to raise up …
Update 548 — July 31 Debt Limit Deadline:How to Avoid Policy Concessions This Time This Saturday, July 31, the federal debt limit suspension passed by Congress two years ago expires. If Congress does not act, the U.S. could default on its debt in the fall, without precedent but promising catastrophic global economic effects. Republicans have …
Update 545 — Powell Promotes Recovery;Accommodates Growth and Mild Inflation Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified this week before the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees. Since his last testimony in February, the economy has begun to improve, with strong GDP growth expected this year. Inflation, as expected, has increased. He has much to say about …
Update 537 — Biden’s FY22 Budget Plan:Rx for Recovery, Rebalancing of Economy Last week, President Biden released his FY2022 budget proposal, calling for $6 trillion in government funding next fiscal year. After ten years of restrictive budget caps and four years of across the board cuts to domestic spending by the Trump administration, Biden is …
Update 522 — Skinny Budget, Heavy Lift?President Outlines FY2022 Spending Plans Last Friday, the Biden administration released its “skinny budget,” the initial framework for its FY2022 discretionary funding request. Although not elaborate, the $1.52 trillion budget gives us the first clear glimpse into President Biden’s priorities. The administration calls for increased spending levels across the …
Update 516 — Support for Recovery (Act)?Powell Faces Fiscal, Macro Policy Potpourri Federal Reserve Chair Powell and Treasury Secretary Yellen both appeared before the House Financial Services (HFSC) yesterday and Senate Banking today. The main takeaway from them: the economic recovery needs additional federal support. The ARP will boost the economy and the Fed projects …
Update 507 — Don’t Improvise, FiscalizeThe Politics of the Minimum Wage Hike A long-awaited, much-debated provision in President Biden’s stimulus package, raising the minimum wage to $15/hour after a decade of stasis, has emerged as a sticking point in negotiations in Congress. Last week, the House Education and Labor Committee successfully inserted the provision in …
Update 453 — The Paycheck Recovery Act:Nobel Economist Endorses in Bill Hearing A star performance yesterday by economic Nobel laureate Prof. Joseph Stiglitz at a critical bill hearing in an obscure House Financial Services Subcommittee reignited interest in an alternative to the nation’s current COVID economic policy course of response. The bill, H.R. 6918, the …
Update 446 — PPP Poked, Probed, Prodded:How Many Paychecks Have Been Protected? The administration’s $700 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) represents the only federal effort to protect wages threatened by the Corona crisis. Congress enacted some tweaks to PPP last week that will save some small businesses but protect fewer paychecks. PPP can help some …
Update 421 — COVID Response in Congress Stimulus: What Works, How Much is Enough? The President’s churlish, sententious address to the nation on Wednesday night regarding his efforts to combat and contain the COVID-19 crisis inspired little confidence and precipitated the worst one-day drop in the capital markets in 33 years on Thursday. Democrats in Congress …
