Recent years have demonstrated the enduring strength of a core Keynesian insight: deficit spending may result in higher growth and enable states to move more quickly into surplus. In this light, Australian…
Barack Obama’s recent budget pursues the goals of full employment and fiscal balance, objectives that were heavily emphasised under Bill Clinton’s leadership.
AAP
Is it 2013 or 1999? Barack Obama’s evolution into a more successful Bill Clinton may be complete with the issuance of his recent budget.
On the one hand, Obama’s budget cuts entitlement spending by adopting…
The US remains the most militarily powerful nation on Earth – but will budget cuts bring it back to the fold?
EPA/Zurab Kurtsikidze
The maelstrom surrounding budget cuts that has engulfed the United States over the last twelve months seems no nearer to reaching a satisfactory conclusion.
The U.S. Congressional House and Senate currently…
The deadline for the US budget sequester —which will see across-the-board spending cuts of $US 85 billion implemented over the fiscal year — is rapidly approaching.
AAP
The first thing you should know about the sequester is that nearly everyone agrees that it’s a bad idea. In fact, that was the point.
In the summer of 2011, with congressional Republicans refusing to…
President Obama has proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, reigniting the debate about the effect of a wage hike on unemployment.
flickr\brianwallace
In his State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama reignited a perennial debate in his proposal to increase the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 an hour to $9.00 an hour. Advocating…
By opting for restraint in his state of the union speech, Obama presented his ideas not as bold initiatives to revive the liberal tradition, but as pragmatic proposals with widespread bipartisan support.
EPA
Barack Obama opened his fourth state of the union address to Congress with words from another Democratic president, John Kennedy: “The Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…
Obama outlined an ambitious economic agenda to foster growth and rebuild America’s middle class.
AAP
President Obama left little doubt during his State of the Union address as to what his top priority will be in the years ahead. “A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs”, the President declared…
It may seem like an idea with currency, but miinting a trillion dollar coin to sidestep the debt ceiling is a fabricated solution to a fabricated crisis.
Wikimedia Commons
In the midst of genuine economic and political challenges, Tea Party Republicans have been hard at work generating additional problems. From the debt-ceiling showdown that cost the US its AAA credit rating…
President Obama’s deficit reduction plan is likely to take a razor to the US social safety net.
AAP
Fiscal cliff. Grand bargain. Shared sacrifice.
The buzzwords on Capitol Hill this December tell a dramatic story. The United States, hurtling toward an unavoidable economic disaster, can be saved only…
Resolving the US' fiscal cliff through taxation reform will prove challenging for the President.
AAP
When President Obama took office in 2008, there was little time for rest or reflection. The economy was in freefall and immediate action was required. This time around, the situation is not so dire. But…
Without serious, structural fiscal reforms — which require bipartisanship and compromise — the US economy could go into free fall.
Bungee jump image from www.shutterstock.com
As we check our political calendars, many look to November 6 as the crucial date that will determine the future direction for US politics and the nation’s ailing economy.
But in policy terms, it is January…
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, is hoping that a third round of quantitative easing can bolster confidence in the US economy.
AAP
Finding bright spots in the US economy is a seemingly thankless task. The unemployment rate, despite dipping slightly in previous months, remains above 8%; last month, employers could only add 96,000 jobs…
Barack Obama’s life may be fascinating, but he isn’t as powerful as we think.
AFP/Saul Loeb
Sarah Palin’s voice, both in sound and content, still has the power to stop me dead in my tracks with fear and bewilderment. Her game of will she/won’t she run for the US Presidency has ended, but not…
Barack Obama’s handling of the economy will be closely scrutinised in the US presidential election campaign next year.
AFP/Mandel Ngan
President Barack Obama’s handling of the US economy has come under close scrutiny following the publication of Confidence Men by Ron Suskind – which charts his struggle to contain the Wall Street crash…
World Bank chief Robert Zoellick and IMF head Christine Lagarde have doubts about global growth.
AAP
Global markets have tumbled again this week, following the downgrading of Italy’s debt rating and a series of negative comments from leaders of the world’s financial institutions.
International Monetary…
President Obama has proposed $US1.5 trillion worth of tax increases for the rich.
AAP
Sometimes good policy and good politics are the same thing.
By tying together lessons learned from economist John Maynard Keynes and former president Harry Truman, Barack Obama is taking steps that may…
Obama’s mishandling of the politics of stimulus and deficit may be costing him voter support.
President Barack Obama’s $US447 billion jobs plan appears to be struggling.
Republican resistance to some aspects of the rescue deal announced last week – particularly around government spending – was…
In announcing his $US447 billion stimulus, Obama has his eyes firmly on the US election in 2012.
Barack Obama has laid out a US$447 billion (A$421 billion) plan to cut payroll taxes and boost government spending to create jobs, in a bid to “jolt” the stalled US economy back to life.
Obama told a…
Decades of US wage stagnation lies behind why repeated fiscal stimulus and monetary easing has failed.
AAP
The past several weeks on global financial markets has been quite some roller coaster ride.
As the US flirted with the prospect of default and Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s credit rating…
Stock markets around the world plummeted after news of the US credit rating downgrade (EPA/FRANK RUMPENHORST)
Without the firing of a single shot in anger, a country has been, at least in a sense, brought to its economic knees. The capitalist system, with variations and aberrations, is now reacting.
Shares are…
Barack Obama led a cheery cabinet after avoiding a US default – but was the deal too late?
“Most importantly it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America. And it will allow us to lift the cloud of doubt and uncertainty.”
President Barack…
The US debt deal: hold onto your hats, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.
AAP
“A catastrophe on multiple levels.”
That’s how New York Times columnist Paul Krugman characterised the US debt deal brokered this week between Democrats and Republicans.
President Obama on Tuesday signed…
Barack Obama announces an agreement has been reached to resolve the US debt crisis.
AAP
US President Barack Obama says Democrat and Republican leaders have reached an agreement on reducing US debt, before the August 2 debt ceiling deadline.
Failure to reach a deal may have led to a historic…
After initially refraining from public comment, China has now joined the ranks of countries and international institutions voicing concerns over the US public debt-ceiling impasse.
Late last month, China…
Minnesota’s three-week shutdown saw basic government services stripped back.
Flickr/mngop
Minnesotans have breathed a sigh of relief after the state’s Republican-led legislature signed off on a budget deal negotiated with Democratic Governor Mark Dayton, ending a three-week state government…
Intense US debt ceiling negotiations in a political war of nerve; but no resolution yet.
AAP
International ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poors have both indicated they would consider downgrading the US’s debt rating as negotiations aimed at raising the country’s statutory US$12.3…
US House Speaker John Boehner wants government programs cut: but is austerity politics the answer?
AAP
For some time, it appeared that the severity of the global financial crisis had created a compelling “learning moment” that promised to return the world to a more civilised form of capitalism.
Insufficient…
Weak labour data sent a signal to investors that US share markets might be overvalued.
AAP
Share markets in the US and around the world are expected to fall again this week following sharp declines on Wall Street last week.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed on Friday down 2.3% for the…
