Petrodollars, simply defined, are oil revenues denominated in U.S. dollars. The petrodollar loop is essentially the global practice of pricing oil exclusively in U.S. dollars rather than any other currency and having those dollars recycled into U.S. assets. So, no matter what country is buying oil, they pay the oil-producing country in petrodollars denominated in Read more
National Debt & Fiscal Policy
Our Legislators Try to Avoid Shutdown by Taking the CR, Then Making Two Steps to Stay Off the Omnibus
Though Congress appeared headed for another government shutdown soap opera when the then-current continuing resolution (CR) expired on Nov. 17, we have avoided a closure. The proposal from Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) for a “clean” (no cuts, no amendments) two-part CR passed through Congress on a bipartisan basis and was signed into law by Read more
The Debt and the Deficit Are Not the Same
The perennial political drama over raising the United States’ debt ceiling continues, with consequences of failure just being default and global financial catastrophe. So … same old, same old. Still, though politics has seemingly decided to regard fact-checking (and, maybe, facts) as outdated, this fact is important to remember: despite the bloviating, the debt and Read more
Mind Your Head: Debt Ceiling Crisis Looms Again
We are now in the early stages of the perennial political melodrama over raising the debt ceiling. If this debate goes as usual, it should look like this: demands will give way to threats and lead to a fiscal cliff and government shutdown and the specter of default and global catastrophe before – whew! – Read more
Mind the Ceiling: The Debt-Limit Drama
The U.S. debt ceiling places a limit on the total amount of money the federal government is legally authorized to borrow to meet its existing obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments. Once that ceiling is reached, Congress must decide to either increase Read more