tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8537995.post7271000596891128083..comments2023-10-29T10:54:58.681-04:00Comments on Vox Baby: How To Advise on Fiscal PolicyAndrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13514024573333057559noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8537995.post-41770284050590402612007-07-06T17:24:00.000-04:002007-07-06T17:24:00.000-04:00State and local governments have capital budgets t...State and local governments have capital budgets that are often financed, either by sinking funds or explicitly with bonds. GAAP is quite clear what is capital and what isn't with regard to governments. I would recommend changing Andrew's "rule" to allow for capital projects in any part of the business cycle.<BR/><BR/>That nit aside, I'd sure be impressed by any candidate who made a promise to Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07472891144832591202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8537995.post-13077982077801681432007-07-06T13:50:00.000-04:002007-07-06T13:50:00.000-04:00So excellent that I had to take the liberty of pos...So excellent that I had to take the liberty of posting this over at Angrybear. One recommendation - fix the links.PGLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18248302122192095044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8537995.post-54855240828077852832007-07-06T12:32:00.000-04:002007-07-06T12:32:00.000-04:00When considering ingenerational fairness, remember...When considering ingenerational fairness, remember that deferring payment has a progressive bias: future generations will be richer than current ones. Of course, this should be balanced by your view of the proper discount rate for utility. If you think it is zero - as I do - then that progressive bias would be outweighted by the extra interest costs, and the conclusion is the same.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8537995.post-44144890187385293472007-07-06T12:30:00.000-04:002007-07-06T12:30:00.000-04:00The issue isn't the appropriateness of advising; i...The issue isn't the appropriateness of advising; it's the subsequent dissembling about the effect of the policy enacted.<BR/><BR/>If NGM were to say, "This is what I said they should do. They didn't" (in a more sensible manner than Paul ["Alan played politics and I didn't"] O'Neill did, of course, but we would expect that naturally), no one would be berating him. It's "I recommended this, and itKen Houghtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01440837287933536370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8537995.post-57395949899875395242007-07-06T12:14:00.000-04:002007-07-06T12:14:00.000-04:00it violates my notion of fairness that we have to ...it violates my notion of fairness that we have to pay off previous generation's debts but can't pass any of ours off to the next one. why should this generation be the one left holding the bag?<BR/><BR/>plus, deficit spending could be on things that provide benefits far down the road. for instance, in education, where the next generation will be the primary beneficiaries of our investment. it Matt Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15140950330661482224noreply@blogger.com