In his State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed that "we commit 60 percent of the budget surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small portion in the private sector just as any private or state government pension would do."
One of the most important of all economic indicators is the money supply. Most economists believe that it plays a major role in the level of interest rates, inflation and real growth in the economy. The Federal Reserve controls the money supply through various policy instruments.
The underground economy also known as the second economy, parallel economy, unofficial economy, informal economy or just the black market is a phenomenon known throughout the world. It exists wherever governments excessively tax or unreasonably regulate economic activity. Although the underground economy also includes criminal activity, such as drug dealing, the overwhelming bulk of it consists of the provision of ordinary goods and services that in other times and other places would be perfectly legal and legitimate.
What benefit do salaried workers, including federal government employees, have that is unavailable to workers who are paid by the hour? They have the option of choosing "comp time" – time off from the job to compensate for overtime already worked. A bill that would give millions of hourly workers freedom of choice in the workplace passed the House last year (H.R. 1), and the Senate will consider similar legislation, known as the Family Friendly Workplace Act (S. 4), this year.
The next quarter century of capitalism promises a silent boom – a rapid economic advance that will improve everyday life but elude the regular readings of the economy's vital signs. Statistical tools simply can't keep up with an economy moving at light speed.
Job losses are less harmful than they are often thought to be. To the contrary, the upside of downsizing lies in a reinvigorated economy. Indeed, the layoffs of the early 1990s can teach important lessons about how the economy operates to turn the bad news of lost jobs into the good news of higher living standards.
President Clinton wants to raise the Child and Dependent Tax Credit for most families with adjusted gross incomes of $60,000 or less. Currently, families earning $10,000 or less can get a credit equal to 30 percent of their child-care expenses. That is, for every dollar they spend on child care, they get a 30-cent tax rebate from the government.
The unemployment rate stands at 4.9 percent, the lowest since the Vietnam war. Employers looking for workers are finding that the supply of labor, even unskilled labor, is tight. However, more than a million Americans who could work – in fact, desperately need the skills that come only from real work – remain unproductive. These are our nation's prisoners.
Giving people more economic freedom has been implicit in many Republican and Democratic proposals, yet neither party has turned it into an agenda for the 105th Congress. Both should.
April 1995 marked the beginning of the fifth consecutive year of U.S. economic expansion. Despite this good news, media reports often paint a bleak picture of the average American worker's prospects. Such reports cite studies that claim wages and incomes are falling, the pace of economic progress is slower than in the past and not everyone is sharing equally in the economy's gains. In light of these contrasting views on the economy, it is understandable that many people are seeking clarification.
Workers have chosen to take more of their compensation in the form of benefits, and their choice is not surprising. Benefits are tax free, whereas wages are taxable.
Multiculturalism is in vogue today among academicians, politicians and the media. But anthropologists identify cultural diversity as a universal source of social conflict and often as a barrier to economic progress as well as personal freedom.
Previous scholarly studies have demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between political and civil liberty and economic growth. This study surveys legal systems in 167 countries and compares the relationship between law, liberty and economic growth.
The partisan battle over the Republicans' "Contract With America" has obscured the fact that at least six of the contracts proposals would, if enacted, stimulate economic growth.
By 1997, every major economic indicator will be worse than it would have been had Bill Clinton done nothing. Unemployment will be higher, inflation will be higher and real economic growth will be lower.
As part of his health care plan, President Clinton has proposed price controls on health insurance premiums and "global budgets" that try to limit how much people can spend on health care each year. Capping the supply of care through budget and premium limitations, as in the Canadian system, will lead to lower costs only to the extent that they lead to shortages of technology, waiting for treatment and reduced response to the health care needs of Americans.
The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) has completed a fonnal forecast of the effects of President Clinton's economic plan. The forecast assumes adoption of the plan in full, including all tax and spending changes.
According to the political pundits, a lackluster economy is the main reason President Bush lost the election. That judgment is based on solid economic evidence:
In contrast to George Bush and Bill Clinton, Ross Perot has proposed a serious plan to reduce the federal deficit. 1 If all of Perot's recommendations were implemented, the plan would reduce deficit spending by $711.5 billion over the next six years. Even ignoring Perot's recommended cuts in Medicare and Medicaid on the grounds of political realism, the plan would reduce deficit spending by $570.2 billion. This contrasts markedly with the programs of the other two candidates.
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton's economic program consists primarily of higher spending, higher taxes and private sector mandates. Although Clinton claims that his program would stimulate investment, create jobs, spur economic growth and reduce the federal deficit, we predict the opposite results.
There is a consensus among the economists testifying that the reasons for slower growth are the same reasons for the current recession: higher taxes on labor and capital and an increase in costly regulations over the past three years. The current recession is a man-made even, not a natural one, and the price the American people have paid has been high.
There are remarkable differences among the people we label as 'poor'. The poverty population includes the elderly poor as well as unwed teenage mothers. It includes people with university degrees as well as people who are functionally illiterate. It includes the healthy as well as the sick. It includes people who are able to support themselves through productive work as well as people who are mentally impaired. It includes people who use the welfare system only for temporary relief as well as people who become perpetual wards of the state
Following the lead of Britain, countries around the world are applying the techniques of the Thatcher government and are joining the privatization revolution.