Only a few weeks ago, Shinzo Abe, leader of Japan’s centre-right Liberal Democratic Party and a noted nationalist, became prime minister for the second time. Abe has a reputation for militarism and for a revisionist attitude toward Japan’s conduct during World War II. Yet, despite those shortcomings, I am here to praise Abe today, to provide one of those rare posts about something genuinely positive that is happening right now in the world in Japan. Abe has decided to do what so many countries in the west are afraid to do–he has decided to embark upon a policy of stimulus. I’d like to look at precisely what Abe has proposed, what it can be expected to do for Japan, and what sort of lessons it has the potential to teach the rest of us.
Tag: Deficit
The Fiscal Cliff: Stepping Back From the Abyss
A couple days later than perhaps would have made a decent show, Congress managed to slap together a stop-gap and avert the economic catastrophe that the CBO projected would have resulted from the fiscal cliff. So let’s get to business–what does the cliff deal do, and where does this leave us going forward?
Continue reading “The Fiscal Cliff: Stepping Back From the Abyss”
Boehner’s Hindenburg
Remember a few days ago when we were discussing a possible fiscal cliff deal that Obama might or might not go for? Well, Speaker of the House John Boehner discovered that his republicans would not support the tax increases on the those earning more than $400,000, the increase in capital gains and dividends taxes, and the cap on deductions at 28% of income. So Boehner abandoned that arrangement–it’s dead. Instead, Boehner proposed something called “Plan B”. (British readers are familiar with a different Plan B that proposes a stimulus alternative to their coalition government’s austerity policy; this is not that.) Plan B was substantially more favourable to the republican position, but nonetheless, the republicans in the house refused to support it, and now it is dead too. So where does this leave us in our struggle to avoid the fiscal cliff, the combination of large spending cuts and tax increases that kick in on January 1st and which the CBO forecasts will lead to a recession in 2013?
The Decision: Obama’s Difficult Position
Rumour has it the republicans have given Obama an offer to avert the fiscal cliff, the combination of deep, immediate spending cuts and tax increases that the CBO predicts would send the country into a new recession. The offer gives Obama something he cannot get without a deal–most notably, an extension of emergency unemployment benefits. The offer comes at a cost, however. In exchange, the republicans demand a small but painful cut in social security benefits.
Jindal, Rubio, and 2016
The right is already tossing around Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio as potential US presidential candidates in 2016. Are they presidential material? Each has shown up recently in the news and offered us some insight into that very question. Today I would like to further examine the remarks of both Jindal and Rubio, the former on the fiscal cliff, the latter on young earth creationism.
Benjamin Studebaker 