Steven Pressman Part-Time Professor of Economics The New School 1. What is the debt ceiling? Like the rest of us, governments must borrow when they spend more money than they receive. They do so by issuing bonds, which are IOUs that promise to repay the money in the future
The Doctor I have disagreed with many commentators in the last few days here on The BFD about the cause of inflation here in New Zealand. Many believe that if government spending were constrained and if the government stopped borrowing money, then inflation would reduce. But for Austrian economists such
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Yesterday, as part of the Wellbeing Budget 2023, the government announced the scrapping of the $5 prescription charge. This will cost $170 million annually covering around 29 million scripts. They have done this because an estimated three per cent of adults apparently do not collect their medicine
Ryan McMaken mises.org Ryan McMaken (@ryanmcmaken) is executive editor at the Mises Institute. Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy and international relations from the University of Colorado. He is the author of Breaking Away: The Case of Secession, Radical
Thirty years ago, a Labor government all-but bankrupted the state of Victoria. Against a torrent of hate and vilification from the left, Jeff Kennett and Alan Stockdale did the hard yards of rebuilding the state’s economy. And Victorians promptly elected another Labor government. In fact, Labor have run
Grant Robertson’s Hail Mary budget, ostensibly designed to save the election for Labour, has shown that he learnt all his book-keeping sitting on the knee of his fraudster father. What he has delivered is more debt, more corporate welfare, higher taxes, more subsidies for EV owners, billions of
John W. Diamond Director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute Rice University Convening war rooms, planning speedy bailouts and raising house-on-fire alarm bells: Those are a few of the ways the biggest banks and financial regulators are preparing for a potential default on U.
Sir Bob Jones nopunchespulled.com Students of social and economic history will see ominous signs reminiscent of 1929 currently in America. After the boom 1920s, seemingly overnight it all fell apart leading on to the Great Depression of the 1930s. From the President downwards, initially, numerous commentators, all, as subsequent
It appears that Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have made the same mistake as the Liberals: taking their traditional base for granted. Where the Liberals have deserted traditional conservatives, Labor have for even longer abandoned the blue-collar working-class. This is nowhere more apparent than in last week’s
It seems too good to be true: a Labor Treasurer delivering a budget surplus. It would, after all, be the first time that’s happened in nearly 40 years. Like all such fairy stories, if it sounds too good to be true, well, it kinda sorta isn’t… not wholly
The Sofronoff Inquiry into the handling of Brittany Higgins’ failed rape accusations just keeps on delivering. On the fourth day of questioning, the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions was squirming harder and faster than ever. On Wednesday, he sensationally claimed that there was a “political conspiracy” to stop the case
Don Brash bassettbrashandhide.com Some months ago, this blog reprinted the final chapter of my autobiography, Incredible Luck. The chapter was headed “Does democracy have a future?” and dealt with the inherent temptation for elected governments to bribe voters with their own money. I quoted the great 19th century French
The sense is growing that Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ second budget is not at all what the government is claiming. Far from a triumph of good economic management, economists are calling it a “smoke and mirrors” budget, with a “surplus” that amounts to little more than an accidental windfall of
The Albanese government’s demented climate policies are helping drive the cost of living for Australians through the roof. So, the government is throwing money back at Australians as “cost of living relief”. To pay for the “relief”, they’re jacking up taxes on energy, which will… You get the
Somehow, it’s hard to be quite so hoopla as Zippy and Albo are at their “budget surplus”, when mortgages, power bills, fuel prices and grocery prices are zooming into the stratosphere. Especially when the “surplus” is entirely a chimaera of creative accounting and tax gouging, and splashing benefit handouts
