Tag Archives: economic policy
20 questions for the President’s press conference

20 questions for the President’s press conference

The President is scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday evening at 8 PM EDT. I offer twenty questions about economic policy for consideration by members of the White House press corps. They cover the economy, stimulus, taxes, autos, health care, energy and climate change, and trade.

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Many mixed signals

Many mixed signals

The President and Vice President have this week sent mixed and confusing signals on the macroeconomic picture. This seems to be part of a broader problem with the Administration’s ability to send clear, coordinated, and internally consistent signals on economic policy.

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Blog status report

KeithHennessey.com has now been live for eight weeks.  I would like to thank you for reading and give you a status update.

I am pleased with the traffic for this fledgling effort.  I’ve had about 150K visits in eight weeks.  I am not certain how good that is, but it feels pretty good, especially given that [...]

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America’s long run fiscal problem is spending growth, not taxes

Yesterday I wrote about the history of tax increases since World War II, and about the battle over the total level of taxation.  Now I want to turn to spending.
I am a low-tax guy.  I have worked on tax issues for 12 of my 15 years in Washington, helping elected officials lower taxes and prevent [...]

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Four unpleasant options for TARP funding

Despite Secretary Geithner’s statement to the contrary, I still think the Administration is running out of room within the $700 B Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).  In my last four posts on TARP funding (1 2 3 4), I have stuck to what I think I can demonstrate analytically.  I am now going to shift [...]

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Let’s not hide $1.4 trillion of IOU’s

Yesterday on his blog the President’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, asks himself and then answers the question, “How much does the federal government owe?”
This sounds like a technical question of concern only to “those of us wearing the green eyeshades,” but the Director’s suggested answer has dangerous ramifications, and could mislead or at [...]

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Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.  If you would like to learn more about American economic policy, I would be honored to be your guide.  I will do my best to explain the options faced by senior American economic policymakers, and to analyze the choices they make.
I anticipate defining “economic policy” broadly as we did at [...]

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About

About Keith Hennessey
About this blog
About the National Economic Council
About my work in the White House
Photo credits
Technical credits

About Keith Hennessey

I served as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush.  My job was to coordinate economic policy for the President, including macroeconomic issues, financial markets and institutions, tax [...]

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The G-20 Summit in pictures

The President hosted the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy this past Friday and Saturday at the National Building Museum here in Washington, DC.
This is the first of a two-part note.  Part one will describe the mechanics of the Summit and show some photos.  Part two will describe the substance.
The action began in [...]

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