scholarly journals The Political Economy of the Budget Surplus in the United States

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Alesina

Current surpluses in the U.S. have been achieved by a combination of a strong economy, low interest rates, and sharp cuts in defense spending. These surpluses follow a period (the 1980s) of rather exceptional budget deficit. This paper investigates the origin, size, and expected future patterns of the U.S. budget balance. It discusses how different political forces may generate alternative fiscal scenarios for the U.S. in the next decade.

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-24
Author(s):  
Richard L Clarke

U.S. maritime unions have played a vital historical role in both the defense and the economic development of the United States. The economic and the political forces that helped shape and promote the growth of U.S. seafaring labor unions changed dramatically in the 1990s. Maritime union membership in the United States has fallen by more than 80 per cent since 1950. Inflexible union work rules and high union wage scales have contributed to this decline. Recent regulatory and industry changes require a new union approach if U. S. maritime unions are to survive the next decade.


2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Carruthers ◽  
Timothy W. Guinnane ◽  
Yoonseok Lee

The Uniform Small Loan Law (usll)—the primary tool of the Russell Sage Foundation (rsf) intended to improve credit conditions for poor people in the United States during first decades of the twentieth century—created a new class of lenders who could legally make small loans at interest rates exceeding those allowed for banks. By the 1930s, about two-thirds of the states had passed the usll. Econometric models show that urbanization, state-level economic characteristics, and the nature of a state's banking system all affected the chance of passage. That party-political affiliations had no effect is consistent with the usll's “progressive” character. The passage of the usll in one state, however, made passage less likely in neighboring or similar states. The evidence suggests that the rsf only imperfectly understood the political economy of the usll, and that a different overall approach might have produced a result closer to its real aims.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Andrew Johnson

The recent recession that swept through this and many countries worldwide had many causes, one of which was low interest rates in the United States. Loose monetary policy pursued by former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was a major component of the housing crash and following recession. Furthermore, the Fed’s current monetary policy is extremely similar to policy pursued before the 2008 recession. The current system of monetary policy implemented in the U.S., necessitating that credit and debt expand forever, is a dangerous and potentially disastrous policy to be pursuing. Unless a change takes place, the American economy could experience another — and possibly worse — recession in the near future. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Khaled Elgindy

This essay looks at the hearing held by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in April 1922 on the subject of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, as well as the broader congressional debate over the Balfour Declaration at that crucial time. The landmark hearing, which took place against the backdrop of growing unrest in Palestine and just prior to the League of Nations' formal approval of Britain's Mandate over Palestine, offers a glimpse into the cultural and political mindset underpinning U.S. support for the Zionist project at the time as well as the ways in which the political discourse in the United States has, or has not, changed since then. Despite the overwhelming support for the Zionist project in Congress, which unanimously endorsed Balfour in September 1922, the hearing examined all aspects of the issue and included a remarkably diverse array of viewpoints, including both anti-Zionist Jewish and Palestinian Arab voices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (67) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
مالك عبد الرحيم محمد ◽  
أ.د. ميثم العيبي إسماعيل

The American economy suffers from a general budget deficit, mainly due to the high public expenditures, especially the military, as the United States of America occupies the first place in the world in the proportion of military spending, and the budget deficit is mainly financed through the sale of government securities, which led to an increase in the volume of public debt In the United States of America, which is a dangerous indicator, especially after interest payments on public debt exceeded the barrier of $ 500 billion for the year 2018, which pushes them to borrow again to finance these benefits, this cumulative and continuous increase in the size of public debt works to influence the economic variables Monetary and financial. The research aims to analyze the development of internal public debt in the United States of America and its most important causes, in addition to clarifying the mechanisms and methods used to alleviate the severity of the internal public debt without compromising the ability of the economy or the ability to repay previous debts to maintain investor confidence in the strength of the American economy. The research reached several results, the most prominent of which is that the large increase in the volume of the internal public debt and the consequent increase in the money supply did not negatively affect the monetary side of the economy as inflation rates did not reach high levels and international reserves increased, accompanied by a decrease in interest rates. While the research presented several recommendations, including the need to achieve financial discipline and market access to borrow at the lowest possible costs by issuing debt regularly, in addition to avoiding resorting to any special measures to increase the volume of public debt and adhere to the debt ceiling approved by the US Congress.


2020 ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
Sebastián Hurtado-Torres

This chapter focuses on the role of copper policies in the relations between the United States and Chile during the Frei administration, especially as they relate to the developmental efforts of the Christian Democratic project. During the Frei administration, the political debate on copper policies reached a climax. Since U.S. capitals were among the most significant actors in the story, the discussions around the issue of copper converged with the ideological visions of the United States and the Cold War held by the different Chilean political parties. As the Frei administration tried to introduce the most comprehensive and consistent reform around the structure of the property of the Gran Minería del Cobre, the forces in competition in the arena of Chilean politics stood by their ideological convictions, regarding both copper and the United States, in their opposition or grudging support for the policies proposed by the Christian Democratic government. Moreover, the U.S. government became deeply involved in the matter of copper in Chile, first by pressuring the Chilean government into rolling back a price increase in 1965 and then, mostly through the personal efforts of Ambassador Edward Korry, by mediating in the negotiation between the Frei administration and Anaconda on the nationalization of the U.S. company's largest mine, Chuquicamata, in 1969.


2020 ◽  
pp. 234094442092771
Author(s):  
Paula Castro ◽  
Maria T Tascon ◽  
Francisco J Castaño ◽  
Borja Amor-Tapia

This article contributes to the literature by indicating how certain monetary policies impact the compensation incentives of US managers to adopt riskier business policies. Specifically, based on the agency problems between shareholders and managers and between shareholders and creditors, a research framework is developed to identify the influence of low interest rates on managers’ risk-taking incentives proxied by the sensitivity of executive compensation to stock return volatility (Vega). We examine 1,293 firms in the United States between 2000 and 2016, and the results indicate that low interest rates increase the managers’ short-term risk-taking incentives and that those incentives contribute to the risk effectively taken by the firm. Our results are robust to the use of alternative monetary proxies and to the presence of passive versus active institutional shareholders. JEL CLASSIFICATION E41; E43; E51; M12; M52


1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-16
Author(s):  
David Rymph ◽  
Linda Little

Washington, D.C., like many major cities in the U.S., has experienced a large influx of illegal immigrants in the past decade. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics have entered the United States, many of them fleeing from the political violence in Guatemala and El Salvador. The Washington metropolitan area may have as many as 80,000 refugees from El Salvador alone.


2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-23
Author(s):  
Rachel Adler

Conducting research among immigrants in the United States can pose ethical problems not encountered by anthropologists working abroad. Research occurs, of course, in the context of a political milieu. When anthropologists are working outside of their own societies, it is easier to dissociate themselves from the political sphere. This is because foreign anthropologists are not expected to embrace the political rhetoric of societies of which they are only observers. Ethnographers inside the U.S., on the other hand, often become politicized, regardless of their academic intentions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Czajkowski

OUTER SPACE IN THE SECURITY STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES This book contributes to a necessary effort to understand the impact of human activities in outer space on international security. Its specific task is to grasp the changing role of space applications for the security of the United States. It is not, however, a treatise on military doctrine or modern warfare, neither it is a handbook on technology. Instead, it utilizes paradigms of international relations to extract the political dimension out of this so highly technical issue. The book contains five chapters. In the first chapter, we find the analysis of some theoretical and legal aspects of the relationship between human activities in outer space and security with its multiple dimensions. The considerations of chapter two revolve around the science and technology of space applications with special attention to security issues. It is not, however, a technical manual but rather the comprehensive, general description of the characteristics of outer space presented for the sake of comprehensiveness of the whole argument. Chapter three contains a description of the historical background, which means the evolution of military space applications. But again, it does not provide detailed technical knowledge but rather concentrates on the political and strategic dimension. Chapter four is the essential part of the book as it depicts the space security policy of the United States against the background of the general international strategy of the U.S. And finally, chapter five contains some thoughts about specific issues related to the space security. The most general findings expressed in this book are as follows. Firstly, the core elements of the United States international strategy and foreign policy rely heavily on the unhampered use of space applications. But, secondly, the capabilities that these applications provide with, are increasingly contested by many international players. These competitors not only have the abilities to negate some of the American space-borne capabilities, but also create their own, similar. The latter contributes greatly to the narrowing of the technology advantage of the U.S. over its peers. And thirdly, this problematic situation will persist, compelling the United States to at least try to reverse the process of loosing of what is sometimes called the space hegemony.


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