The Wages of Debt

Hereā€™s an excerpt from our latest report, written by Sergio Marxuach, on the worrying trends regarding Puerto Ricoā€™s public debt. The full report is available here. We have also posted a brief interview, in Spanish, that explains the nuts and bolts of the report.

Doing Away with Another Barbarous Relic

In 1923 John Maynard Keynes published his Tract on Monetary Reform, which was his first attempt to analyze the monetary instability that plagued the post-World War I world. In classic contrarian fashion, one of Keynes’ conclusions was that central bankers – by shackling tehemselves to the “barbarous relic” of the gold standard – were actually exacerbating monetary problems.

Gastos Escondidos

La crisis fiscal por la cual atravesamos ha provocado que nuestro gobierno tome una serie de medidas en busca de lograr estabilizar la situaciĆ³n. Por un lado ha aumentado varios renglones impositivos como el impuesto sobre la propiedad y una sobretasa especial para ciertos contribuyentes.

A new Challenge on Climate Change

On June 29, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the American Clean Energy and Security Act by the narrow margin of 219 to 212. This comprehensive bill, which now moves on to the Senate, seeks to create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, and reduce global warming pollution.

Despidos

Hace poco tuve una de esas experiencias frecuentes que nos unen a todos los puertorriqueƱos. Estaba tratando de resolver un problema por telƩfono con una agencia de Gobierno.

Ironic Temperament and Economic Policy

In one of his best-known poems, William Butler Yeats wrote that there are times when things fall apart and the center cannot hold; when the best seem to lack all conviction and the worst run about full of passionate intensity. A pithy summary, perhaps, of the times we are living in Puerto Rico.

Presupuesto

Como parte de nuestro programa de “Futuro fiscal”, y cumpliendo con nuestra misiĆ³n de proveer anĆ”lisis independiente y de alto rigor a los asuntos econĆ³micos importantes del paĆ­s, el Centro para la Nueva EconomĆ­a ha desarrollado una serie de indicadores sobre el desempeƱo fiscal de Puerto Rico los cuales acabamos de actualizar con la data del presupuesto recomendado por la actual AdministraciĆ³n para el aƱo fiscal 2009-10.

Assessing Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Performance

In 2008, the Center for the New Economy, in fulfillment of its mission to provide rigorous, independent analysis to policymakers, the press, and the public at large, established a fiscal analysis program to monitor and keep track of important fiscal trends affecting the Puerto Rican economy. As part of that program, we developed a series of budget performance indicators, which we have updated with data from the budget for fiscal year 2009-10.