The Debt

Bill Clinton’s Surplus Miracle, 20 Years Later

By Sheila Weinberg

Standing behind a podium in the Rose Garden, President Bill Clinton delivered a bold prediction 20 years ago. “Well ahead of the most ambitious schedule, America has balanced the budget,” he declared...
Forget Tax Cuts: Trump’s Immigration Policy Is Drowning Out GOP Issues

By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Republicans had planned to focus on the tax cuts this week as we approach the six-month anniversary of the Trump administration's major legislative achievement, the passage of the tax bill in...
The Politics Behind Permanent Trillion-Dollar Deficits

By Yuval Rosenberg

Budget Guy Stan Collender writes that budget deficits under the Trump administration are projected to hit $1 trillion in 2020 — and keep rising to $1.5 trillion in fiscal 2028. “But what’s most...
Another Way Trump’s Trade War Could Hurt the US

By Yuval Rosenberg

Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at the Bleakley Advisory Group, adds another wrinkle to the dangers of an emerging trade war. In a Monday morning email, Boockvar notes that foreigners were...
3 Reasons More Tax Cuts Would Be a Terrible Idea, According to the Center for American Progress

By Yuval Rosenberg

Round One was bad. Round Two would only make things worse. That’s the argument Seth Hanlon and Galen Hendricks of the liberal Center for American Progress make in a new analysis of additional tax...

Team Trump Sees a Long-Term Boom Ahead. The IMF Disagrees.

By Yuval Rosenberg

The tax cuts and spending increases enacted by the Trump administration and Congress will increase the risks to the U.S. and global economy, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday in an annual...
Why Trump’s Spending Clawbacks Matter ... and Why They Don’t

By Yuval Rosenberg

In a party-line vote, the House on Thursday evening narrowly passed the White House’s proposal to claw back nearly $15 billion in previously approved federal funding that was never spent. The vote...
Do Deficit Hawks Have a Snowball’s Chance in Hell in Today’s Politics?

By Michael Rainey

When Starbucks founder and executive chairman Howard Schultz announced his retirement earlier this week, he set off a round of speculation about a possible presidential run in 2020. Schultz has never...
Rates on US Bonds Now Higher Than for Other Developed Countries

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Rising interest rates in the U.S. have pushed the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds higher than the yields for similar government bonds from seven major developed countries for the first times since...
3 Big Risks the US Faces as Debt Levels Soar

By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

In a new note to clients, Goldman Sachs economists say that U.S. fiscal outlook “is not good.” If you’re reading this you likely already knew that the picture isn’t pretty — but the new Goldman Sachs...

Why the Deficit Outlook Could Be Even Worse Than It Seems

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The Congressional Budget Office warned earlier this month that the U.S. will start running $1 trillion deficits in 2020, and that the national debt will be nearly as large as the economy in a decade...
Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic as 10-Year Treasury Yield Tops 3%

By Yuval Rosenberg

Yields on 10-year Treasuries hit the widely watched and psychologically significant 3 percent level Tuesday for the first time since January 2014, continuing a months-long climb that has been driven...
Deficit Owls Say You Shouldn’t Give a Hoot About $1 Trillion Budget Shortfall

By Yuval Rosenberg

As warnings rise about the Congressional Budget Office’s projection that the federal budget deficit is on pace to top $1 trillion in 2020, The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein on Friday highlighted a...
How Congress Cheats with Our Money — and How We Can Stop It

By Marc Goldwein and Zach Moller

The U.S. is on course to top its record debt levels set after World War II, and permanent trillion-dollar deficits — meaning, forever — are likely to return within two years . And unlike after World...
April Is Financial Literacy Month. Someone Tell Congress.

By Joseph J. Minarik and Caroline L. Ferguson

February is Black History Month, March is National Women’s Month, and April? Well, it’s Financial Literacy Month, of course! The U.S. government gave financial literacy its own month in 2003. April...