This policy brief will assess the underlying problems with the United States' budgetary process and the issues that arise as a result of the country's current fiscal trajectory. We explore the role that spending rules play in restraining the growth of government spending wherever they are...

In this policy brief, we review the literature on the debt-growth relationship since the publication of “Growth in a Time of Debt” to evaluate the claim that high government-debt-to-GDP ratios have negative or significant (or both) effects on the growth rate of an economy. In addition, we...

This paper reviews the empirical literature to determine which forms of fiscal consolidation successfully reduce debt-to-GDP ratios and impact economic performance. We perform a cross-country analysis of fiscal adjustments in 26 democracies for 1995–2018 and find that expenditure-based fiscal...

In this policy brief we discuss what economists know (and don’t know) about fiscal spending multipliers. We then review the growing economic literature on the relationship between the fiscal position and the size of the fiscal multiplier. In addition, we explore the inflationary risks that...

On Monday, May 16, 2011, the United States reached the current statutory limit on the federal government's borrowing power, the debt limit or debt ceiling, of $14.294 trillion. In theory, reaching the debt limit constrains the Treasury's regular methods of financing federal activities or meeting...