Should We Raise Taxes?

The Effects of Government Spending and Borrowing Government borrowing can be inflationary because the government borrows from banks, which increases the money supply. Banks assume that consumers will not take more than 10% of their savings out and on that basis are able to lend to the government. This increases the money supply because the government has borrowed from the bank but the consumer’s savings stay the same and therefore there is more money in circulation. According to monetarist beliefs an increase in the money supply will directly increase inflation. Inflation can lead to unemployment, as people demand less due to higher prices and therefore demand for labor maybe decreased.

Sub prime lending means making loans that are in the riskiest category of consumer loans. It is lending to borrowers with bad credit, limited debt experience, a history of missed payments and recorded bankruptcies. With a subprime loan there’s a higher risk that the lender doesn’t get paid back, and so a higher interest rate is charged due to the greater risk for the lender. Between 1997 and 2006, the price of the typical American house increased by 124%. Many people assumed that this trend of increasing housing prices would persist.

Conversely, if people see that interest rates are low and they are considering the possibility of purchasing a house, they may decide to go ahead with their purchase due to the fact that it will be more affordable- at least in the short run- due to the lower interest rates. Variable rates will also make mortgagors vulnerable to fluctuations in interest rates as even small changes in the interest rate can have a big effect on the outgoings of those with large mortgages. When rates rise steeply, one likely result is an increase in the number of mortgagors who cannot afford ... ... middle of paper ... ... of their home being repossessed increases. If a large number of homes are being repossessed, people will be put-off purchasing a house. Also, people who are considering taking out a mortgage will be less likely to do so because they will be less able to afford it due to the fact that they are paying more tax.

Its causes could be triggered by the private sector and the government spending more than their revenues, or by shortfalls in output. Price increases could also be triggered by increases in costs of production. For instance increases in prices of imported raw materials will cause inflation if not managed. Whatever the initial cause, inflation will not persist unless accompanied by sustained increase in money supply. In this sense, inflation is a monetary phenomenon.

Marginal propensity to consume is the idea that that consumers will spend more money if they have more, but increases in income do not lead to equal increases in consumption because people save some of the money. With this increase in aggregate demand, firms will need to produce more in ord... ... middle of paper ... ... in an increased price level if firm’s cannot expand output to meet that demand. If there is no expansion by firms, no additional employees may be hired to reduce the rate of unemployment. Therefore, a significant risk occurs when trying to decrease unemployment in an economy operating at its production possibilities frontier. As an economic advisor to the leadership of Bartvavia, I would not recommend attempting to adopt an expansionist fiscal policy aimed at reducing the already low unemployment.

When subprime mortgages began to flourish, the term housing bubble came into existence. The term relates to the time in which houses sharply increased in value, and consumers often borrowed at less than the lowest rates. People believed that the price of their homes would rise and they could then refinance for lower payments. The problem with that mentality is many people didn’t just refinance for lower payments, they also refinanced for personal spending. Inflation of home prices meant homeowners suddenly had more equity and were able to spend the money as they chose.

Inflation is one of the main reasons for raising the interest rate, but currently inflation is not doing it usual numbers when it comes to a growing economy. It is expected for inflation to rise during this period but it is fact currently falling. So if inflation isn’t rising as expected that leads to the dollar being stronger than expect as well. Now a strong dollar is good and bad, it is bad because it will cause our exports to cost more for other countries. With a lot of other economies struggling recently the U.S. exports could take a hit because of lower conversion rates.

Some argue that personal retirement accounts would be a mistake and that the government instead should set up its own investment fund to help finance future benefit payments. The good news is that this indicates a growing awareness that ¡°pre-funding¡± (i.e., accumulating assets) is a necessary component of Social Security reform. The bad news, however, is that government-controlled investment is the wrong answer to the wrong question. It assumes that policymakers should focus solely on balancing the program¡¯s revenues and expenditures. This ignores the other Social Security crisis¡ªthe fact that the tax burden on today¡¯s workers is extraordinarily high compared to the benefits received (often referred to as the rate-of-return crisis).

A tax cut, though most Americans would favor it initially, would prove counter productive. Cutting taxes would over stimulate an already raging economy, and enhance the possibilities of an increase in the rate of inflation. Paying off the national debt would actually help lower interest rates and boost investments, and therefore further increase the wealth of the population, while keeping inflation at bay. It seems Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan beat the Treasury secretary to it. Greenspan could not wait for the economy to fix itself by paying of the debt.

These two new rules proposed by Alan are mainly to protect the country from inflation and many economists and other people don't understand it. The article also reflects that many people think that Alan is doing the wrong thing. This is mainly because they are not getting the economic benefits they wish and are not thinking about the country's economic future. A very clear example is given in this article as well. The chief economist of the Deutsche Bank, Edward Yardeni states that, "If the wealth effect continues to boost demand, then why can't productivity continue to boost supply?"