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Writing by John Tamny and Parkview contributors, from the latest commentary to the collected archive.
54 essays · Newest first
Clear filtersBloomberg recently reported that Amazon is set to raise $15 billion in an upcoming bond sale. The funds will be used to continue Amazon’s AI buildout. Better yet for the purposes of this piece, the…
Money buys nothing, while products always and everywhere buy products. Which means governments that produce nothing can only spend insofar as they have taxable access to private sector production,…
Total federal debt was $620 billion in 1976. Why 1976? In a recent column, Holman Jenkins referenced Jimmy Carter’s contention in a 1976 debate that “The best way to control inflation is to cut down…
The deepest markets in the world continue to tell us that paying off the $37 trillion national debt will be the easy part, but budget experts are arguably missing the message. Think the Cato…
“Washington’s spiraling debt trends are simply unsustainable.” Those are the words of Manhattan Institute budget expert Jessica Riedl in the Washington Post. But unless Riedl knows something that the…
The $37 trillion national debt will not be paid for by America’s middle class. How we know this is the $37 trillion in debt itself, along with the accepted truth that soon enough $37 trillion will be…
$37 trillion in total debt is a loud, bullish sign that the U.S. is the world’s richest country…by far. But don’t misread what you’ve just read. The total debt run up by the U.S. Treasury isn’t…
California’s debt, currently around $1.6 trillion, is poised to soar in the coming years. Bank on it, though don’t be so simplistic as to blame the debt surge on Governor Gavin Newsom, or his…
The federal debt will soar in the coming decades. The previous truth can be found in the monolithic nature of the proposed debt solutions. Harvard’s Greg Mankiw is hardly alone in saying posssible…
Responding to me, Duke professor Michael Munger writes that, “If the real hawks like John Tamny get their way [full SALT deduction], with the cap going up to $100,000 or more, the loss in tax revenue…
“First, and most obviously, the U.S. government’s fiscal situation is very bad, getting worse, and driven mainly by unsustainable entitlement programs that grow faster than the economy and inflation,…
Do Bagladesh, Haiti and Peru have Medicare-style programs soon to cost $1 trillion annually? Hopefully the question quickly answers itself. Ideally it also answers Washington Post columnist Catherine…
Money is ruthless. The genius of compounding confirms the previous truth. This rates mention as economists Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray promote the fiction that U.S. “cannot default on debt…
Senate bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That was the headline in the New York Times as the Senate debated Donald…
“You can spin your political base, but you cannot spin the economy or the bond market. Those two are unforgiving – and eventually voters might be too.” Those are the words of Manhattan Institute…
Maya MacGuineas has been crying wolf for years, and likely decades. She’s always been wrong not because she’s evil, or because she isn’t bright, but because she focuses on nominally large debt…
New York Times reporters Ben Casselman and Colby Smith wrote on A1 yesterday that “There is a basic rule of thumb when it comes to the federal budget. The government should spend heavily during times…
“Rising yields on the back of the U.S. credit downgrade is indicative of what will occur if Washington does not curb its appetite for unsustainable spending and low taxes.” Those are the words of…
Whatever worries you about what’s going on in the world, stop. The advice is wise not because your fears aren’t potentially valid, but precisely because they’re potentially valid. If they are, rest…
Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels writes in the Washington Post about the coming “collapse of the U.S. public debt market and the dollar’s world reserve status.” Daniels believes that “It’s past…
I’m kind of proud of myself. I don’t want to bore y’all with another article on fiscal mismanagement in Richmond, Virginia, but I’ve had a mini-brainstorm. I am sure…
A government that is paying a billion dollars in interest per day is plainly taking in way too much tax revenue, thus its ability to run up so much debt in the first place.
Mick Mulvaney is disappointed with “everybody who gets elected” because they’re not like – you guessed it – Mick Mulvaney.
It’s popular among the conspiracy-minded and central bank-obsessed (frequently the two go together) to suggest that governments establish central banks to buy their debt. The very notion is…
