The New York Times, December 11, 2009 by Catherine Rampell
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/business/11vat.html?_r=1
“What really is the difference between prepared food versus nonprepared food?” said Alan J. Auerbach…. “You start having to split hairs, and that can become quite complicated.”
San Francisco Chronicle, November 30, 2009 by Carolyn Lochhead
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/30/MNHS1AQDKV.DTL&type=printable
Auerbach said one reason he signed the letter was his “fear that as timid as the Senate bill might be, it goes much more in the right direction than the House bill does. They could certainly do more, but my fear is they’ll do less. Simply expanding coverage when none of these even attempt to reduce costs would be very unfortunate.”
San Francisco Chronicle, November 22, 2009 by Wyatt Buchanan
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/22/MN2V1AO1D2.DTL&type=printable
UC Berkeley professor of economics and law Alan Auerbach said extending the tax increases is an obvious place for lawmakers to look for a solution. “But that is only part of the solution. Where the rest of it comes from who knows?” said Auerbach…. He predicted the Legislature would “muddle through” the problem with spending cuts and tax increases.
The New York Times, September 28, 2009 by Stephen Ohlemacher
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/28/us/politics/AP-US-Social-Security-Early-Retirements.html?_r=2
”A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire,” said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. ”If they were younger, we would call them unemployed.”
SF Weekly, September 14, 2009 by Matt Smith
http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-09-16/news/obama-s-stimulus-money-will-increase-traffic-but-not-bridge-safety/
Economists disagree on many things, but not on the wisdom of raising the gas tax. “Given all the problems associated with gasoline consumption—congestion, global warming, national security, pollution, damage to roads—a sufficient tax on this activity is the most efficient way to cause people to take these costs into account,” said Alan Auerbach.
CNN Money, September 9, 2009 by Alan J. Auerbach and William G. Gale
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/08/news/economy/fiscal_gap/?postversion=2009090819
While strong action is needed on health care, it cannot be sufficient, or even close to sufficient, to bring the nation’s books into balance. Significant further tax increases or spending cuts will need to be considered.
USA Today, September 3, 2009 by Tamara Lush
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2009-09-03-unemployment-benefits-running-out_N.htm
Unemployment benefits play an important part in stabilizing the economy because recipients tend to spend their weekly checks, rather than saving the money or paying down debt. “It’s definitely a valuable component of economic stimulus,” said Alan Auerbach, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2009 by David Lazarus
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus26-2009aug26,0,6090427,print.column
“I have problems with the way this whole reform thing is going,” said Alan Auerbach…. “I’d like to see a more explicit explanation of ways that medical costs are going to be controlled, and I’d like to see a more comprehensive way of paying for it. But if we don’t do anything at all, we’re clearly going to be worse off. The problems just get bigger if you don’t do anything.”
-The Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2009 by Jon Hilsenrath
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125099227629751737.html#printMode
Large long-term deficits could cause “serious economic disruptions,” said economist Alan Auerbach of the University of California at Berkeley, who co-wrote a paper with William Gale of the Brookings Institution…. Over the next decade … the U.S. budget deficit will add up to $10 trillion, and possibly more. Credit markets, they added, have begun to signal a risk of U.S. government default, something unheard of a few years ago.
-Marketplace, August 25, 2009 by Tess Vigeland
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/25/pm-cbo-q/
If you look down the road to later years up to 2019, both the administration and CBO are projecting higher deficits. And the most important reason for that is that revenues are coming in slower and are going to be projected to come in slower than previously. And that means that the recovery is not going to generate as much revenue as they thought. So for the longer term the news is bad.
The Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2009 by David Wessel
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125070781745443839.html
The recession was more than a year old when Mr. Obama took office, the Fed already had cut interest rates to zero and the economy was still in free fall. “If ever there was a case for a fiscal stimulus, this was it,” says Alan Auerbach, a University of California, Berkeley, economist who will kick off an appraisal of the stimulus at this weekend’s Fed retreat.