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Are Large Deficits and Debt Dangerous?

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  • Michael J. Boskin

Abstract

The traditional view of large deficits and debt is that they are harmful, save in recession/early recovery, for tax smoothing or to fund productive public investment, as they crowd out private investment and lower future income, and taken to extremes, can cause inflation, even a financial crisis. Blanchard (2019) concludes they may have no fiscal cost and increase welfare. I present evidence of a debt problem, policies necessary to contain it, effects on recovery, interest rates, and long-run growth. There are several serious issues with Blanchard's reading of key data and modeling assumptions, the changing of which would reverse his conclusions.

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  • Michael J. Boskin, 2020. "Are Large Deficits and Debt Dangerous?," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 145-148, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:110:y:2020:p:145-48
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201103
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    Cited by:

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    2. Michael D. Bordo & Mickey D. Levy, 2021. "Do enlarged fiscal deficits cause inflation? The historical record," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 59-83, February.
    3. Michael D. Bordo & Mickey D. Levy, 2020. "Do Enlarged Fiscal Deficits Cause Inflation: The Historical Record," NBER Working Papers 28195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Akhmadieva, Veronika, 2022. "Fiscal adjustment in a panel of countries 1870–2016," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 555-568.
    5. M. Ayhan Kose & Franziska Ohnsorge & Naotaka Sugawara, 2020. "Benefits and Costs of Debt: The Dose Makes the Poison," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2006, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    6. Kevin L. Kliesen, 2020. "Bad Medicine? Federal Debt and Deficits after COVID-19," Economic Synopses, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue 32, May.
    7. Puonti, Päivi, 2022. "Public Debt and Economic Growth," ETLA Reports 127, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    8. Lozano-Espitia, Ignacio & Julio-Román, J. Manuel, 2020. "Debt limits and fiscal space for some Latin American economies," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 1(1).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

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