The issues that have cropped up in applying present value ideas to government finance, in my last post, caused me to write up a little financial-econometric history, which seems worth passing on to blog readers. The lessons of the 1980s and 1990s are fading with time, and we should avoid having to re-learn such hard-won lessons. (Warning: this post uses mathjax to display equations.)

How should we model surpluses and deficits? In finishing up a recent article and chapter 5 and 6 of a Fiscal Theory of the Price Level update, a bunch of observations coalesced that are worth passing on in blog post form.

On June 12, I posted briefly about the efforts of Justin Wolfers and other economists to get Harald Uhlig fired from his position as editor of the Journal of Political Economy.

Black workers, the economy, and the jobless would benefit from President Trump’s proposed payroll tax cut, part of the negotiations for a new coronavirus stimulus package, according to an anti-tax group. In a new report provided to Secrets, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity said that Trump’s No. 1 goal of cutting taxes will help African Americans “disproportionately” because they pay more in paycheck taxes, according to studies.