The Financial Times has listed “Bigger Government” as one of the best economics books of 2020. The FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf, writes that the book is “quantitative, meticulous and sobering”. Read the review here.
Author: Marc Robinson
Bigger Government: Interview on ABC Radio National
My interview on Australian ABC Radio National’s program “The Money” (Oct 29) on Bigger Government is now available on YouTube.
Health Care: What’s at Stake in the Presidential Election
Of all of the issues facing Americans in next Tuesday’s presidential election, healthcare is one of the biggest. Healthcare is a huge financial burden on Americans. The bad news is that the burden is set to become even heavier in coming years. This is why bold reforms are needed to tackle the waste and profiteering […]
The Future US Debt Crisis
Faced with the pandemic, big deficits and increased debt are not only inevitable, but desirable – on a strictly temporary basis. This is something on which nearly all economists agree. But this does not mean that high debt has someone become acceptable in the longer term. In the longer term, it creates huge risks. The […]
Long-Term Care Spending Will Grow Greatly
Although it is not the main driver of rising health expenditure, population aging will be a significant source of pressure on government budgets in other areas. Age pensions will, in some countries, be part of the problem. In the United States, for example, Congressional Budget Office projections suggest that government age pension spending will rise […]
Population Aging & Health Spending
There is a widespread notion that demographic aging will be the most important single factor driving health expenditure up over coming decades – or that, at a minimum, its impact on spending will be as great as any of the other forces which may be at work to increase spending. This is, however, wrong. Why […]
Bioscience Revolution To Drive Health Spending Up
In Bigger Government: The Future of Government Expenditure in Advanced Economies I show that government spending is set to increase greatly over the coming three decades in all advanced countries because of powerful external forces and pressures which will operate irrespective of the political orientations of governments. Overshadowing everything else will be very large long-term […]
Post-Pandemic Fiscal Consolidation?
Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the budget deficits of advanced economies are projected to reach 15 percent of GDP on average this year. Debt, already high, is set to increase by more than 20 percent of GDP. What can and should be done to fix public finances after the pandemic is over? The last thing […]
“Bigger Government” Podcast
To mark the publication today of Bigger Government: The Future of Government Expenditure in Advanced Economies, I am releasing a two episode podcast. The podcast is can be heard by clicking on this link, or may be heard on any of the main podcast directories (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Listen Notes etc). Episode 1 […]
Is Austerity to Blame?
In many advanced countries, the parlous condition of public hospitals – due largely to inadequate funding – has been thrown into sharp relief by the coronavirus crisis. The United States, France and the United Kingdom are extreme examples. In these and other countries, many public hospitals were grossly stressed even before the pandemic, with patients […]