“The lights are going out all over America—literally.” So begins Paul Krugman’s latest NY Times column, in which he laments the crumbling of America’s foundations. The proximate cause of this decline, according to Krugman, is insufficient government spending on infrastructure and education. But the root cause is rhetoric: How did we get to this point? [...]

Tags: education, infrastructure, Krugman, public finance
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Here is your assignment for the day. First, read this article by David Ranson on the WSJ Opinion page. Second, stare at this chart that I made, which uses state and local receipts in addition to federal receipts (sources: BEA NIPA tables 1.1.5 and 3.1). Third, ponder whether and in what ways the level of [...]

Tags: Hauser's law, public finance, Ranson
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