The Debt

The Fiscal Challenge for the Next Recession

By Yuval Rosenberg

The federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 was nearly $1 trillion. “In the next downturn, don’t be surprised if this number hits $2 trillion,” writes Nick Timiraos, The Wall Street Journal’s...
Does the Deficit Matter? Congress Asks Four Top Economists

By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Wednesday’s impeachment hearings will rightly dominate headlines given the bombshells in Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony, but they weren’t the only hearings happening in Congress. The House...
How the Deficit Looms Over the Democratic Presidential Race

By Yuval Rosenberg

Democrats are set to hold another presidential primary debate Wednesday night, and if the pattern from past debates holds true, we’ll likely hear the 10 candidates on stage talk a lot about health...
Rethinking the Debt Threat: House Panel to Hold Hearing Next Week

By Yuval Rosenberg

The House Budget Committee will hold a hearing next week examining the costs and consequences of federal debt, with four prominent economists slated to testify. Ahead of the hearing, Democratic...
Cost of Wars Since 9/11: $6.4 Trillion and Rising

By Michael Rainey

The total cost of the wars fought since 9/11 is approaching $6.4 trillion, according to an annual report published Wednesday by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown...

National Debt Hits $23 Trillion

By Michael Rainey

Total federal debt has surpassed $23 trillion for the first time, according to data released by the Treasury Department Friday. Of that amount, $17 trillion is debt held by the public, which is...
Two Takes on Republican Debt Hypocrisy

By Yuval Rosenberg

The federal deficit for fiscal 2019 was nearly $1 trillion, and the national debt is going to hit $23 trillion within a matter of days. President Trump once said he would eliminate the national debt...
The Budget Outlook Isn’t Good — but It Has ‘Improved Substantially Since 2010’: Report

By Yuval Rosenberg

The national debt is now approaching $23 trillion, up nearly $9 trillion from the end of 2010, and the debt held by the public now stands at nearly $17 trillion, up about $7.5 trillion from since the...
2019 Deficit Was Just Under $1 Trillion, Highest in 7 Years: CBO

By Yuval Rosenberg

The federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 grew to $984 billion, or 4.7% of GDP, the highest since 2012, the Congressional Budget Office estimated on Monday. The total for 2019 is 26% higher...
McCarthy Says Debt Will Be ‘Taken Care of’ if GOP Wins the House

By Michael Rainey

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Thursday that the national debt would be his top priority if Republicans succeed in retaking the House in 2020. “First thing we would do is make sure our debt is...

Was the Budget Control Act a ‘Colossal Failure’?

By Yuval Rosenberg

The two-year budget deal passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump earlier this month lifted spending caps for the next two years imposed under the 2011 Budget Control Act,...
Are US Interest Rates Headed Back to Zero — or Even Lower?

By Michael Rainey and Yuval Rosenberg

We live in unusual and unsettling economic times. Today’s evidence of that came via two mind-blowing market numbers, 1.6% and $15 trillion. The first represents the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries,...
The President and Congress Are Fiscal Swamp Monsters

By Ivan Eland

All the recent talk in the political media has been about ideological division and partisan rancor, yet the results when progressives and nationalists and Democrats and Republicans agree should also...
Senate Sends $2.7 Trillion Budget Deal to Trump

By Michael Rainey

The Senate on Thursday approved the massive two-year budget deal passed by the House last week. President Trump is expected to sign the bill, which was negotiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and...
Congress Needs Some Fiscal Rules

By Veronique de Rugy and Jack Salmon

Approval ratings for Congress are slumming at 17%. This is nothing new. With the exception of a short-lived patriotic spike following 9/11, it has been going on for decades . Yet this already failing...