Pension Promises and Fiscal Reality: The Coming Demographic Challenge
The largest liabilities governments have ever incurred don't appear on any balance sheet—and the bill is coming due.
The Bond Vigilantes: How Markets Discipline Government Borrowing
Financial markets enforce fiscal discipline on governments, but their power to punish can create the very crises they claim to predict.
Fiscal Federalism Fundamentals: Matching Services to Government Levels
Why getting government responsibilities and tax powers at the right level matters more than most policy debates
The Deficit Bias Puzzle: Why Democracies Struggle to Balance Budgets
Democratic incentives systematically favor spending today and taxing tomorrow—understanding why reveals what might help
Public Investment and Long-Run Growth: When Government Spending Pays for Itself
Examining when debt-financed public investment generates returns that exceed borrowing costs and becomes fiscally self-sustaining
Tax Competition: Racing to the Bottom or Efficient Discipline?
How competing for mobile capital can discipline governments—or drain the resources needed for public investment
Carbon Taxes and Revenue Recycling: Fiscal Policy Meets Climate Policy
How governments design carbon pricing to achieve environmental goals while managing economic burdens and international competitiveness through strategic revenue decisions.
Intergovernmental Transfers: The Invisible Glue of Federal Systems
How money flows between government levels quietly determine whether federal systems deliver fair services or entrench regional inequality
Earmarking Tax Revenue: When Dedicated Funding Works and When It Doesn't
Understanding which tax-spending connections strengthen public finance and which create costly constraints on government flexibility
Why Some Countries Tax Wealth and Others Don't: The Political Economy of Asset Taxation
The hidden economic, administrative, and political barriers that determine whether taxing accumulated wealth actually works in practice.
The Hidden Architecture of Tax Systems: How Structure Matters More Than Rates
Why tax policy outcomes depend more on system architecture than headline rates, and how to analyze what actually matters in fiscal design.
Debt Sustainability Without the Jargon: A Practical Framework for Assessment
Master the three analytical tools that separate meaningful debt assessment from misleading headline panic.
Why Governments Borrow Even When They Could Tax: The Strategic Logic of Public Debt
Understanding when government borrowing reflects strategic fiscal policy rather than budgetary failure reveals the economic logic behind public debt decisions.
Municipal Bonds and Local Power: How Cities Fund Their Futures
Understanding how tax exemptions, revenue structures, and credit dynamics determine which communities can invest in infrastructure—and which cannot.