Despite decades of repeated failure, President Obama and Congress continue to promote the myth that government can spend its way out of recession. Heritage Foundation economic policy expert Brian Riedl…
Public spending
In this CF&P Foundation video entitled, “Deficits are Bad, but the Real Problem is Spending,” Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute explains that huge deficits and skyrocketing debt are rightly causing worry, but these are merely symptoms of the real problem of excessive government spending. “Fiscal responsibility is lacking in Washington.
Wanna know how much is the US Government spending right now? Or how fast US debt growths? You should add US.Debt.Clock.org on your favourite websites.
The Fitch rating agency on Tuesday downgraded Greece’s long-term debt ratings as well as those on four of the country’s largest banks, describing prospects for Greek public finances as negative. Greece is now exposed to the risk of losing the small amount of credibility it still has in front of its creditors. The concerns are growing about its ability to pay its huge public debt, estimated to 110% of GDP and budget deficit above 12.7% of GDP. A look at the evolution of the external debt of Greece is illustrating the concern of credit rating agencies and international financial markets:
This study is realized by Ludger Schuknecht, economist at the European Central Bank. He is making the case for the return to healthy and sustainable public finances. In that perspective, the authors identifies four central issues.
First, deficits and debts must be returned to a sustainable path. In many countries, deficits will need to fall by one percentage point of GDP per year and in some by much more. Even then, a balanced budget would only be reached in about 2015 for the average of the euro area and even later in the U.K.
The author of this book, Gérard Bramoullé, is deputy mayor in charge of finance for the city of Aix-en-Provence. He is explaining why the local taxes are explosing in France…
Public Spending and Growth by Patrick Minford and Jiang Wang
L’endettement de l’Etat: stratégie de croissance ou myopie insouciante ? – Pierre Garello, Vesselina Spassova (french and english versions available)
A new historical database on debt and banking crisis is showing that we might be in a trivial, rather than exceptional economic situation regarding government debt. Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, the authors of the database and the connected study are showing that over the longer sweep of history governments regularly resorted to defaulting or at least restructuring their “uncomfortable” government debt. After the Great Depression, over 40% of the countries did so, and after the 1980-82 recession, 30% of the countries did it.
France’s Draft 2010 Finance Bill provides for the abolition of the Business Tax, which is perceived by local communities and currently accounts for 10% of their revenues. Called by François Mitterrand “the idiot tax”, the Business Tax is the main local tax, paid every year by nearly 2,9 mln of companies. It is based on the investment in equipment done by local firms (the basis of the tax is the rental value of a company’s tangible fixed assets) plus 1.5% tax on the value added for companies with a turnover exceeding 7.5 mln €.
Les individus pauvres font confiance au marché. C’est la principale conclusion qui ressort d’une récente étude de la Banque mondiale bizarrement passée sous silence par les médias français. Analyse de Nicolas Lecaussin