trillions

28Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Infrastructure Spending Into Trillions Of Dollars Could Mean Hundreds Of Billions In Fraud

Jetson Leder-Luis, Boston University The U.S. government may be on the verge of spending as much as US$4.5 trillion in what could be one of the biggest investments in infrastructure and the social safety net in decades. The House plans to vote on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Sept. 30, 2021 – which was already approved by the Senate – and may soon follow that with up to $3.5 trillion in other investments. The measures’ passage – and the total to be spent – are still up in the air. But if either or both bills do become law, they would not only reflect massive new government spending that lawmakers see as investment, but also a serious target for fraud. Most government spending does reach the intended targets – like mass transit, clean energy and broadband internet – but...

Despite Trillions In Coronavirus Aid Americans Still Need A Lifeline

As Congress prepares another injection of COVID-19 aid for businesses and individuals, there’s been debate about whether it’s necessary on top of the US$3.5 trillion spent so far. President Joe Biden had initially hoped to get bipartisan support for his $1.9 trillion proposal, but the only counteroffer from Republicans was a $600 billion bill, with many in the GOP suggesting more money wasn’t needed. And some economists have expressed concern that giving Americans too much right now could overheat the economy. We are public opinion scholars at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In cooperation with our partners at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Public Radio, we conducted a survey in July and August of last year to try to understand how the first round of aid h...

Trillions in coronavirus spending is putting AOC’s favorite economic theory to the test

French philosopher Voltaire famously quipped: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Something similar can be said of modern monetary theory, also known as MMT, because it may be the economy’s only hope to get through the pandemic. Coined by Australian economist Bill Mitchell and popularized recently by Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to fund programs such as the Green New Deal, MMT holds that a country with its own currency can spend almost unlimited sums of money. While government spending is normally financed by either taxes or borrowing, MMT suggests that governments can also do this by simply creating money. I’m currently working on a book chapter that examines various economic theories about government debt, including MMT. I believe this theory is...