Political Economy

Somewhere Between Scylla and Charybdis

October 12, 2011 Budget

Recently I had lunch and caught up with an old friend and colleague, one who’s been central to the wars over health coverage. We’re equally distressed about, not only the state of the economy, but the state of political discourse and decision making. We’ve been concerned for quite some time, but this past summer’s debt […]

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Beware of political gimmicks in public finance … they metastasise

July 28, 2011 Budget

I keep thinking that this debt ceiling debacle is the result of a political gimmick whose origin is long forgotten. During decades of work in public finance, I’ve certainly seen more than my share. Somebody probably thought it was an essentially harmless but useful political symbol to buy a few votes on a budget or […]

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