The Biden Economy

[Dondilion]

Chairman Powell left .75 in his toolbox, but .5 is not gonna work. Inflation is entrenched.

[whell]

Originally Posted by Mark B

Most of the Total Government Debt was accumulated by Repubs.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news...bt/5891161001/

No. This is more of a "depends how you measure it" item.

https://www.thebalance.com/us-debt-b...t-by-president

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

No. This is more of a "depends how you measure it" item.

https://www.thebalance.com/us-debt-b...t-by-president

There is, however, no doubt that Democratic presidents have had to clean up the deficit messes that resulted from Republican presidents' supply-side policies and tax cuts, be it Reagan>Clinton, Dubya>Obama, and Trump>Biden.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

There is, however, no doubt that Democratic presidents have had to clean up the deficit messes that resulted from Republican presidents' supply-side policies and tax cuts, be it Reagan>Clinton, Dubya>Obama, and Trump>Biden.

Anyone can "blame" someone for something. It takes no intellectual energy to throw blame around. If I wanted to, for example, I could "blame" the dot-com bust on the greed to the Clinton years. Or the near - death economy of the 70's on Carter.

Biden inherited low unemployment, low inflation, low energy prices, and a vaccine for Covid. We now have stratospheric inflation, rising energy prices that started with his order to shut down Keystone, and more deaths from Covid than ever, and one wonders about the long-term impact on the job market of all this. If we believe in the blame game, Biden has ascribed most of this to "Putin's War". I'll go with that explanation.... Blame..... whatever....

[Chicks]

Increased immigration could help fix the U.S. labor gap: Goldman Sachs
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/immig...185635183.html

Today's GOP is SO far removed from reality now. Imagine them throwing their support behind Goldman's analysis on this one! Not gonna happen...

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

Anyone can "blame" someone for something. It takes no intellectual energy to throw blame around. If I wanted to, for example, I could "blame" the dot-com bust on the greed to the Clinton years. Or the near - death economy of the 70's on Carter.

Biden inherited low unemployment, low inflation, low energy prices, and a vaccine for Covid...

I'm not blaming someone, I'm blaming supply-side economics. This thoroughly discredited economic theory has become catechism in the GOP, but has consistently led to huge deficits, not to mention greater income inequality. Arthur Laffer's back of napkin theory is admittedly attractive for promising that "you can have it all, but you have to pay for it with tax cuts," but it is indeed voodoo economics as Reagan's own OMB Director claimed.

As for Biden, I agree that he is too old and has been pulled too far to the left. That said, in the last election we had a choice between one candidate who believed in democracy and the rule of law and we had a pathological lying narcissist and authoritarian proto-fascist who still holds sway over the GOP.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

I'm not blaming someone, .

You're not? Odd that you mention "the culprits" by name, but now you're not blaming anyone? Hmmmm....

[whell]

Originally Posted by Chicks

Increased immigration could help fix the U.S. labor gap: Goldman Sachs
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/immig...185635183.html

Today's GOP is SO far removed from reality now. Imagine them throwing their support behind Goldman's analysis on this one! Not gonna happen...

Two things:

One, your article clearly states that immigration policy is not the primary driver of the labor shortage. The main driver is a consistent, multi year decline in labor force participation rate, specifically among 25-54 year old males. Fix that and you'll close the labor gap big time. in fact, there's a case to be made that increased immigration could further erode the labor participation rate.

Two, legal immigration? All for it. Always have been. My grandparents on both sides were immigrants...legal immigrants. Supporter of legal immigration? Not so much...

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

You're not? Odd that you mention "the culprits" by name, but now you're not blaming anyone? Hmmmm....

Because all of them passed supply-side tax cuts and thereby significantly increased the deficit. Try to keep up, Mike.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Because all of them passed supply-side tax cuts and thereby significantly increased the deficit. Try to keep up, Mike.

Oh, so now you ARE blaming them...

We've been down this road before. Yes, in the year following the tax cut, there's a revenue reduction because the tax cut's effects on revenue are not immediate. We've agreed before that the lack of consistency in tax policy in this country makes business planning more challenging. Also, on a personal income tax level, a tax cut this year for many folks isn't realized until next year when they file their federal taxes and get their federal tax "refund".

For better or worse as we've seen recently, Federal tax cuts are not accompanied by a commensurate reduction in Federal spending. It's not even accompanied by a willingness to keep spending at the same levels year over year adjusted for inflation. It sometimes seems lost in this discussion is that a budget deficit is defined by a lack of balance between revenue and expenses. The appetite to manage expenses in DC died long ago.

But, rolling forward the revenue increases become evident. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/1...andemic-515792

Despite a pandemic, a recession, and a slew of tax cuts, federal tax receipts are booming.

Revenues jumped 18 percent in the fiscal year that just ended, analysts say — the biggest one-year increase since 1977.

That translates into $627 billion more than in 2020, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that, for the first time, total government revenues topped $4 trillion.

That said, in a sane world lower revenues SHOULD BE the goal of tax cuts. The tax cuts allow individuals to keep more of their earnings and serve as a check and balance on the runaway growth of the Federal government. But this isn't a sane world, or at least, the world inside the DC beltway parted company with sanity long ago.