Federal Debt Facts from CATO
CATO published the following summary of the current status of the federal debt:
Year: 2023
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Good Bank, Bad Bank
I am worried that my previous post may have been too favorable to bankers. Bankers are not universally loved. They have a reputation for foreclosing on decent people having a hard time financially, for not lending to anyone except those who don’t need a loan, and so on. Two movies that illustrate this are “It’s…
SVB and Bank Profits
This article in The Economist magazine describes well what happened with Silicon Valley Bank and some other impending bank failures. It also describes the other side of the banking business, which is getting less attention today. The lesson of SVB is don’t borrow long term bonds to back up short term deposits. But SVB had…
Need for Unskilled Immigrants
An article in Foreign Affairs says that automation will not eliminate the need for low skilled workers. It contributes to the debate about immigration, and how it affects the economy, discussed in previous blogs (such as this one). The article says: Undoubtedly, truly revolutionary changes have occurred in how people communicate, seek information, organize and…
Fareed: Groupthink on China
In his Washington Post column, Fareed Zakaria says that Washington has succumbed to groupthink on China. He says: Washington has embraced a wide-ranging consensus on China that has turned into a classic example of groupthink. Today, U.S.-China relations are a mess. China continues to do things that alarm Washington but there is no discussion between the two…
High Tech Immigration
There are two types of immigration, as I described earlier in my blog on Immigration and Employment. A recent article in Foreign Affairs, “Innovation Power” has picked up the theme of needed high tech immigrants. It says: In addition to directly investing in the technologies that fuel innovation power, the United States must invest in the input…
Reasonable Joe Manchin
Reason Magazine says that Senator Joe Manchin is one of the few adults in Congress. It reports that he said: “We’ve been spending more than we bring in every year for the past 21 years, and the debt that has resulted from that is absolutely crippling,” he said, pointing out that presidents and congressional leaders from…
Carter Was A Good President
The Financial Times story by Edward Luce says that Jimmy Carter has been wronged by history. He was a much better President than he is portrayed to be. Luce says: The downside to US political memory is that substance often counts for little. If it were taken more seriously, Jimmy Carter would be credited for…