"The Case Against Intergenerational Accounting: The Accounting Campaign Against Social Security and Medicare"

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has proposed subjecting the entire federal budget to "intergenerational accounting"--which purports to calculate the debt burden our generation will leave for future generations--and is soliciting comments on the recommendations of its two "exposure drafts." The authors of this brief find that intergenerational accounting is a deeply flawed and unsound concept that should play no role in federal government budgeting, and that arguments based on this concept do not support a case for cutting Social Security or Medicare. The FASAB exposure drafts have not made a persuasive argument about basic matters of accounting, say the authors. Federal budget accounting should not follow the same procedures adopted by households or business firms because the government operates in the public interest, with the power to tax and issue money. There is no evidence, nor any economic theory, behind the proposition that government spending needs to match receipts. Social Security and Medicare spending need not be politically constrained by tax receipts--there cannot be any "underfunding." What matters is the overall fiscal stance of the government, not the stance attributed to one part of the budget.

The case against intergenerational accounting: The accounting campaign against social security and Medicare

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has proposed subjecting the entire federal budget to intergenerational accounting - which purports to calculate the debt burden our generation will leave for future generations - and is soliciting comments on the recommendations of its two exposure drafts. The authors of this brief find that intergenerational accounting is a deeply flawed and unsound concept that should play no role in federal government budgeting, and that arguments based on this concept do not support a case for cutting Social Security or Medicare. The FASAB exposure drafts have not made a persuasive argument about basic matters of accounting, say the authors. Federal budget accounting should not follow the same procedures adopted by households or business firms because the government operates in the public interest, with the power to tax and issue money. There is no evidence, nor any economic theory, behind the proposition that government spending needs to match receipts. Social Security and Medicare spending need not be politically constrained by tax receipts - there cannot be any underfunding. What matters is the overall fiscal stance of the government, not the stance attributed to one part of the budget

Maximizing Price Stability in a Monetary Economy

In this paper we analyze options for the European Central Bank (ECB) to achieve its single mandate of price stability. Viable options for price stability are described, analyzed, and tabulated with regard to both short- and long-term stability and volatility. We introduce an additional tool for promoting price stability and conclude that public purpose is best served by the selection of an alternative buffer stock policy that is directly managed by the ECB

The ‘Keynesian Moment’ in Policymaking, the Perils Ahead, and a Flow-of-Funds Interpretation of Fiscal Policy

With the global crisis, the policy stance around the world has been shaken by massive government and central bank efforts to prevent the meltdown of markets, banks, and the economy. Fiscal packages, in varied sizes, have been adopted throughout the world after years of proclaimed fiscal containment. This change in policy regime, though dubbed the 'Keynesian moment,' is a 'short-run fix' that reflects temporary acceptance of fiscal deficits at a time of political emergency, and contrasts with John Maynard Keynes's long-run policy propositions. More important, it is doomed to be ineffective if the degree of tolerance of fiscal deficits is too low for full employment. Keynes's view that outside the gold standard fiscal policies face real, not financial, constraints is illustrated by means of a simple flow-of-funds model. This shows that government deficits do not take financial resources from the private sector, and that demand for net financial savings by the private sector can be met by a rising trade surplus at the cost of reduced consumption, or by a rising government deficit financed by the monopoly supply of central bank credit. Fiscal deficits can thus be considered functional to the objective of supplying the private sector with a provision of financial wealth sufficient to restore demand. By contrast, tax hikes and/or spending cuts aimed at reducing the public deficit lower the available savings of the private sector, and, if adopted too soon, will force the adjustment by way of a reduction of demand and standard of living. This notion, however, is not applicable to the euro area, where constraints have been deliberately created that limit public deficits and the supply of central bank credit, thus introducing national solvency risks. This is a crucial flaw in the institutional structure of Euroland, where monetary sovereignty has been removed from all existing fiscal authorities. Absent a reassessment of its design, the euro area is facing a deflationary tendency that may further erode the economic welfare of the region

Nurkse and the Role of Finance in Development Economics

Ragnar Nurkse was one the pioneers in development economics. This paper celebrates the hundredth anniversary of his birth with a critical retrospective of his overall contribution to the field, in particular his views on the importance of employment policy in mobilizing domestic resources and the difficulties surrounding the use of external resources to finance development. It also demonstrates the affinity between Nurkse's theory of mobilizing domestic resources and employer-of-last-resort proposals

The Freedom Budget at 45: Functional Finance and Full Employment

Forty-five years ago, the A. Philip Randolph Institute issued The Freedom Budget, in which a program for economic transformation was proposed that included a job guarantee for everyone ready and willing to work, a guaranteed income for those unable to work or those who should not be working, and a living wage to lift the working poor out of poverty. Such policies were supported by a host of scholars, civic leaders, and institutions, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; indeed, they provided the cornerstones for King's Poor Peoples' Campaign and economic bill of rights. This paper proposes a New Freedom Budget for full employment based on the principles of functional finance. To counter a major obstacle to such a policy program, the paper includes a primer on three paradigms for understanding government budget deficits and the national debt: the deficit hawk, deficit dove, and functional finance perspectives. Finally, some of the benefits of the job guarantee are outlined, including the ways in which the program may serve as a vehicle for a variety of social policies

Soft currency economics II : what everyone think that they know about monetary policy is wrong

v, 88 p. ; 25 cm