5 ms·

The Feds could, you know, do something to help.

• beamatronic 7y ago
  But this is exactly what Republicans want. Shrink government spending.
  • generalpass 7y ago
    Well, that's what they tell their constituents. In practice, they increase budgets, run deficits, and increase debt every year.
  • anm89 7y ago
    Federal budget figures over the last 5 presidencies (and many other similar figures) say otherwise.
  • sumedh 7y ago
    They do the exact opposite when they are in power though.
• generalpass 7y ago
  This is even harder than it sounds, for reasons good and bad. If anyone is still bothering to follow the Constitution, the funds have to be distributed across the states, so you can't just give California only some funds. It is also politically infeasible to give just California funds, most especially because a whole bunch of states don't want to pay for the other states. Even if it gets passed that, this is the kind of spending that is virtually guaranteed to increase consumer price inflation, which is a far worse problem than state budget shortfalls.
  • elipsey 7y ago
    >> this is the kind of spending that is virtually guaranteed to increase consumer price inflation Why would this kind of spending increase CPI more than other kinds of bailout spending, and what kind of spending might it be? I guess TARP, QE, corporate bonds, etc., are buying things that consumers don't directly buy very much, so those programs didn't apparently cause lots of inflation of CPI indexed things. So what would this be buying instead? Could the fed buy things like municiple bonds, or maybe other debts assumed at the state level to provide liquidity and keep interest rates/ratings under control? I don't see consumers caring as much about the price of municiple bonds, for example, as food or houses or cars. I am a rank initiate in this area, so if I'm missing something I'd like to know more.
    • generalpass 7y ago
      The distortions in the markets caused by new money creates a lot of very serious systemic issues, it just doesn't do much to price inflation (or, at least, hasn't) because the money has been remaining in financial instruments. Most of the state budget is going to be things like welfare (e.g., health care), unemployment payments, and salaries of state employees. Some infrastructure, but then much of that goes to salaries, too. Purchase of bonds is the same thing. The money is still created and spent. It's kind of a good deal for the city because by the time they have to pay it back it may cost more to cut a check than what is left on the principal, but of course that also means that every bit of wealth has been reduced to zero. Many municipalities have passed laws (usually through initiatives) that forbid the cities from borrowing without a vote, and even in California voters do not just automatically pass every bond measure. However, the state might be able to pass bonds, but it looks like there are some hurdles even for that. I found what I thought was an amendment is a referendum and was pass in 2004: https://lao.ca.gov/ballot/2004/58_03_2004.htm https://lao.ca.gov/ballot/2004/58_03_2004.htm
  • sjg007 6y ago
    The Feds could just pay people to stay home for 2 months. Essential workers could work in shifts or something fair in addition to getting the "stay home pay". The UK is doing that, Europe is doing that.. It's not hard. Just pause and then restart. We shouldn't let rich billionaires and well to do Senators or even the President push back and say that we should reopen because they screwed up. UBI will lead to a better economy anyway.
• ars 7y ago
  The Feds are not some separate entity from the people of the US. Federal money comes from the same place as state money.
  • generalpass 7y ago
    Well, technically speaking, the federal government has the ability to create money. The states do not.