Deficit? How About Jobs

Yesterday I posted a link to a good article in the Washington Post about deficits and debt.

The Post article, however, left out the most important thing - why managing the federal budget isn't at all like managing a household budget. The reason is jobs and overall economic health of the nation.

The government manages our money. The public quite rightly holds the president and members of congress responsible for the economy.

Money is a creation of man. Whether gold, silver or paper, it is a social artifact that must be managed. Wisely.

Some fantasize that a return to the gold standard for our currency will bring financial stability, forgetting that we were on the gold standard in 1929 when the great depression began and for four years after that. It didn't help. Other proposed magical solutions for a financial utopia include a balanced budget amendment. After all, every state has to balance its budget.

But states don't have their own money.

The federal government does.

There are two ways the government uses money to maintain or restore the health of the economy:
(a) Monetary policy. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) make key decisions affecting the cost and availability of money and credit in the economy. If the Fed determines that inflation looms, they increase the discount rate or reduce the money supply to cool down the economy. If economic activity falls below trend, it may reduce the discount rate or increase the money supply.

The statutory goals of the Fed's monetary policy are to maintain stable currency and full employment. That is already very different from managing a household budget.

(b) Fiscal Policy. On a day to day basis, the Department of the Treasury borrows and repays money as necessary to conduct government operations. Government receives its revenue sporadically, but has to pay its bills when they come due. It covers any shortfall by short term borrowing and repays the debt when revenue is received. This is very much the same way businesses operate. Payment to businesses for goods or services provided is typically received well after the goods or services are produced and delivered. The business in the meantime has to pay its employees, its suppliers and its contractors. To cover the delay in receiving payment, businesses establish lines of credit with a bank. The bigger the business, and the greater the resulting income, the larger the line of credit a bank is willing to extend. Nothing unusual here.

Bear in mind that every expenditure the Treasury covers has been authorized by the Congress and funds have been appropriated. Strict controls are in place.

That being said, it is possible that monetary policy, controlled by the Fed, may work against fiscal policy, controlled by the Congress and the president, since expenditures in excess of revenue can be expansionary, while revenue in excess of expenditures will be contractionary.

Right now, with the Fed’s interest rate set as low as it can go (the zero bound), there is nothing more the Fed can do to stimulate the economy. Businesses and banks are awash in cash, interest rates are as low as they can be, but businesses aren’t borrowing to expand capacity. They already have excess capacity as it is. What they need are customers.

For the foreseeable future, only the government can act as a purchaser at the scale needed to get the economy going again.

The last thing we need is reduced government spending.