Blog
Welcome to our blog – The Bottom Line, where you’ll find up-to-date commentary and analysis on the most important news in the fiscal world. Below is a list of our blog posts.
Obama Puts Forth Jobs Plan
Today, in a speech at the Brookings Institution, President Obama outlined a strategy designed to accelerate job growth. In particular, he outlined...
Vote on the Best Way to SAVE Money
Earlier this year, the Administration launched a contest to let federal employees submit ideas to save the government money (at the time, we called...
Six More FDIC Bank Closings
On Friday evening, the FDIC reported that it has taken over an additional six banks ( Greater Atlantic Bank, Benchmark Bank, AmTrust Bank, The...
Weekend Editorial Roundup
Here are the highlights from this weekend’s editorials on fiscal and budget policy: The New York Times applauded a CBO estimate that under the health...
Time for Tax Reform
Today, the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) was scheduled to release its recommendations on reforming the tax code. Although they...
November Unemployment Report
According to today's Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the unemployment rate eased back to the 10 percent politically sensitive threshold in November...
ECB Calls for Fiscal Consolidation Strategies
A few hours before similar remarks were made by Fed Chairman Bernanke (see previous blog), his European counterpart, European Central Bank (ECB) head...
Bernanke on Fiscal Exit Strategy
On December 3rd, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee for the hearing on his nomination to a...
Fiscally Responsible Organizations Issue Statement on Health Care Reform
A group of budget experts including CRFB president, Maya MacGuineas, released a “Statement on Health Care Reform,” calling for further efforts to...
House Votes to Make Estate Tax Permanent
The House today voted to avoid eliminating the estate tax next year, only to have it return in 2011 at higher levels. Instead, the current levels of...
TARP Winding Down as BofA Says It Will Repay Aid
Secretary Geithner recently said that the Administration will outline its exit strategy for TARP in the next few weeks, but the expiration date has...
Bad Budget Concepts and The Case of Student Loans
Sometimes, the way we score certain items in the budget leads to sub-optimal policy choices. For example, as we explained recently, the long-term care...