The impact of the federal budget deficit on the economy is a source of continuing concern, both among macroeconomists and – even more urgently – among political decision makers. The old Keynesian consensus that budget deficits were generally good for the economy, in the sense of making it...

Despite the oft-heard claims that current generations are stealing from future generations by running fiscal deficits, both theory and evidence suggest that this is either not true or not knowable. Intergenerational justice is not an appropriate lens through which to analyze fiscal issues,...