U.S. Economic Performance

A red traffic light stands in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan).

Opinion

Today's Budget Impasse Is Much More Dangerous Than '95

October 7, 2013, Alice M. Rivlin

The current budget standoff, encompassing the government shutdown and the raising of the debt ceiling, is both more politically polarized and economically tenuous than seemingly comparable episodes from recent history explains Alice Rivlin.

Recent Activity

Refine by: The Federal Budget | Taxes | Job Creation | U.S. Budget Deficit

Interview | Washington Post Wonkblog

Alice Rivlin Was In Charge of the Last Government Shutdown. This is What She Saw.

September 27, 2013, Neil Irwin
Interview

A Conversation on the Upcoming G-20 Leaders’ Summit in St. Petersburg

August 23, 2013, Kemal Derviş, Eswar Prasad and David Dollar
Interview | Washington Journal, C-SPAN

U.S.-China Relations and the Obama-Xi Meetings

June 7, 2013, Cheng Li
In the News

We've been in a very, very slow recovery now since 2009 and what we've been seeing is a very, very slow decline in the unemployment rate... increases in employment that barely keep up with the growth of the population.
May 3, 2013, William T. Dickens, Yahoo! News
In the News

The number of unemployed continues to shrink, and job gains entirely in the private sector continue to be fast enough so that we can be whittling down the problem of both long-term unemployment and regular unemployment.
March 9, 2013, Gary Burtless, National Public Radio
In the News

[Washington, DC's reliance on goverment is] a relatively less dangerous addiction than others. Diversification can never be sold until it’s too late. Complexity breeds resilience. It’s true in natural systems, and it’s true in economics.
March 7, 2013, Mark Muro, Washington Post
In the News

I think Detroit faces some of the toughest challenges of any American city.
March 6, 2013, Bruce Katz, The Craig Fahle Show-WDET
In the News

It’s not just waiting for government to do something [for the economy]. A lot of the actions that need to be taken in [Rhode Island] really could be taken by private, civic and university leaders. The economy is co-produced. It’s not produced by government. It’s produced by networks of leaders.
February 27, 2013, Bruce Katz, Rhode Island Public Radio
In the News

What has a chance of going somewhere if the president and the Congress can get back together is some version of a grand bargain, and a grand bargain means we have to slow the growth of the entitlements, especially Medicare and Medicaid. We have to put Social Security back on a firm foundation. And we have to reform our tax code so it raises some more revenue. We need to do that and stop fooling around with this counterproductive thing called the sequester, which is bad macro policy, it would reduce employment when we don't want to.
February 23, 2013, Alice M. Rivlin, CNN
Podcast

Real Specifics: 15 Ways to Rethink the Federal Budget

February 20, 2013, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney