Read on Twitter
1. It was recently announced that US debt would exceed 100% of GDP and that the 25 ppt surge in debt was the largest annual leap since the 1790s. This news provoked statements of serious concern by neither party and consternation among nobody, because... https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-debt-is-set-to-exceed-size-of-the-economy-for-year-a-first-since-world-war-ii-11599051137
2. ...none of the dire predictions debt hawks made about what would happen when we crossed this line have come true -- no interest rate spike, no inflationary spiral, no loss of confidence in the dollar. And austerity seems 100% wrong in a pandemic. But.. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/business/economy/national-debt-coronavirus-stimulus.html
3. ...conservatism used to entail worrying about worst-case scenarios, which would have been helpful pre-pandemic. And we still face the political problem of raising funds for needed public investments in the face of rising debts https://www.brookings.edu/research/fiscal-therapy-12-framing-facts-and-what-they-mean/
4. My @NiskanenCenter colleagues point out that Baumol's cost disease means spiraling prices of the most labor-intensive & highly regulated services -- incl child care, health care & education -- can pressure politicians into more anti-market actions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease#/media/File:US_CPI.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease#/media/File:US_CPI.jpg
5. So @hamandcheese has announced a new Niskanen fiscal policy initiative to explore structural market reforms aimed at eliminating regulatory capture and exposing cost-diseased sectors to robust innovation and competition. Stay tuned... https://www.niskanencenter.org/announcing-the-niskanen-centers-new-fiscal-policy-initiative-its-the-costs-stupid/
