This paper begins by reviewing the current U.S. fiscal situation and the causes of its recent deterioration. As a guide to possible policy actions, it estimates past responses of revenue and expenditure both at the federal and at the state and local level. Federal fiscal policy is found to be...

Nonindustrial countries that have relied more on foreign finance have not grown faster in the long run as standard theoretical models predict. The reason may lie in these countries’ limited ability to absorb foreign capital, especially because their financial systems have difficulty allocating...

This paper considers whether the recent buildup in emerging market countries’ international reserves can be justified as precautionary insurance against volatility in capital flows. It presents a simple, welfare-based model of the optimal level of reserves to deal with the risk of capital...

This paper examines the wealth of successive birth cohorts in the United States using data from the 1989-2001 Surveys of Consumer Finances. We find that older households (those aged 55-64, 65-74 or 75-84) in 2001 had more wealth than households of similar age in 1989, but that the same was not...