Alan J. Auerbach, Robert D. Burch Professor of Economics and Law and director of UC Berkeley’s Burch Center on Tax Policy and Public Finance
Biography provided by participant
Auerbach is director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance. The joint program between UC Berkeley's Economics Department and the School of Law (Boalt Hall) was established to promote research in tax policy and public finance, and to stimulate informed discussion on nationally significant tax policies.
He is a member of the advisory committee for the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Commerce Department and served as deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation in 1992. He also was a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The author of numerous scholarly articles, policy papers, books and reviews, Auerbach was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.
Given the success of independent monetary authorities, it is logical to ask whether such independence should be extended to fiscal policy. Here, it is important to draw a distinction between independent evaluations of fiscal policy and policy independence itself. Having an official and yet independent entity that evaluates the fiscal performance of the government, makes projections of the consequences of current fiscal policy, and evaluates alternative policy paths would be all to the good. Whether this might take the form of an evolved and more independent Congressional Budget Office or a new agency is an open question. Forcing the government to respond publicly… Read more
A stable debt-GDP ratio might seem like a reasonable policy objective, but closer consideration reveals its inadequacy in the current fiscal environment. We need to start with two simple facts. First, a stable ratio of debt to GDP requires that the gap between non-interest spending and revenues cannot grow at a faster rate than GDP does. Second, three programs that together already account for nearly half of all non-interest federal spending – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – are, under current program rules, certain to grow much faster than GDP does for the foreseeable future, as a consequence of the economy’s… Read more
Based on the most recent projections by the Congressional Budget Office and the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare, the U.S. federal government faces a permanent long-run fiscal gap of roughly 6 percent of GDP, even under the very optimistic assumptions of the CBO baseline, including repeal of the Bush tax cuts in 2011, slow growth of discretionary spending, and no permanent adoption of any of the tax provisions contained in the stimulus package currently working its way through Congress. There is NO WAY that the current fiscal path can be sustained. But actions speak louder than words, so President Obama… Read more
Automobile industry leaders have argued that the Chapter 11 process is less well suited to carmakers than it was to airlines earlier in this decade, because automobile purchases involve more durable relationships than air travel. Buying a car manufactured by a company in bankruptcy requires more faith in the company's future than does buying a ticket to travel next week. But this argument is compelling only if we think that providing cash to the automobile companies now will make bankruptcy in the foreseeable future unlikely. Simply delaying bankruptcy filings will make the ultimate cost of industry transition more expensive, as… Read more
Let us first agree that large current reductions in federal spending would make little sense, given the decline in the broader economy that is emanating from our financial crisis. Whatever the form an enacted economic stimulus takes, we should not undercut it with contractionary policy. Then why devote effort to combing through the budget looking for programs to cut? Let us think back to the recent presidential campaign, and ask why John McCain harped continually on the $18 billion in earmarks that he aimed to reduce. To some, this was a puzzling strategy, given that reducing earmarks would have had… Read more
Biography provided by participant
