Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Kent Smetters, Faculty Director of the Penn-Wharton Budget Model discussed a new report on the potential economic and budgetary impact of generative AI. He also described an illustrative package of tax and spending reforms to reduce future budget deficits and grow the economy.

This week on Facing the Future, Rachel Snyderman and Caleb Quakenbush of the Bipartisan Policy Center discuss the prospect of a government shutdown, the growth in tariff revenue and the president's "pocket rescission."

This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution discussed the effects of higher tariffs and a new commentary he co-authored on the idea of using earmarked revenues as a deficit reduction strategy. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future we talked with Dennis Lockhart, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He gave us his take on the state of the economy and what might happen in a debt-induced fiscal crisis. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future, former Social Security Public Trustee Charles Blahous discussed the program's deepening financing challenges on its 90th anniversary and explained why postponing action just makes things worse.

This week on Facing the Future, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, explained why he believes the U. S. economy is edging closer to a recession, led by the negative impacts of higher tariffs and restrictive immigration policies. He also weighed-in on the dangers of runaway debt.

This week on Facing the Future, we looked at the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare with Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute. She explained why these programs add to budget deficits despite the misperception that they are self-financing.  

This week on Facing the Future, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution talks about the possibility of a government shutdown in the fall and whether the spending power is shifting away from Congress toward the executive branch.

This week on Facing the Future, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined us to discuss the need to develop contingency plans for a fiscal crisis in the U.S. that he sees as increasingly probable.