• "Well written, well researched, and the thesis put forth is well argued.... Woods has opened up an area of historical analysis that should invite further study."
    -Journal of American History

  • "During these times that challenge our freedoms there is no one more qualified to make U.S. history relevant to the fight against big government than Thomas Woods."
    -Barry Goldwater Jr.
    Former Member of Congress

  • "I strongly recommend Woods's work."
    -The Honorable Ron Paul,
    U.S. House of Representatives

  • "Written with great clarity and fluency, making the complex philosophical and theological concepts approachable."
    -Journal of American Studies

  • "A must-read."
    -Barron's

  • "An excellent reading source for anyone interested in financial markets, and much more so for anyone interested in learning about capitalism without all the misinterpretations being thrown about in the financial media."
    -Asia Times

  • "Provocative, well-written, and deserves to be read."
    -Catholic Historical Review

  • "An engaging and important contribution to scholarship on the history of American Catholicism."
    -Journal of the Historical Society

  • "Woods and [co-author Kevin] Gutzman appeal to both left and right in this constitutionalist jeremiad…. The authors' exegeses of the Constitution and court decisions, heavy on original intent arguments, are lucid and telling."
    -Publishers Weekly

  • "A marvelous read. Every chapter taught me something new and unexpected."
    -Tom Bethell, senior editor,
    The American Spectator

  • "The hottest book today is Meltdown, by my friend Tom Woods."
    -Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst,
    FOX News Channel

  • "Should be required reading."
    -Economic Affairs (London)

  • "Woods, one of the best classical liberal [libertarian] scholars of his generation, has once more placed us in his debt with this lucid and tightly argued book."
    -David Gordon, The Mises Review

  • "Tom Woods is one of my dearest allies in the struggle against wrong-headed and dangerous economic policy."
    -Peter Schiff

I’m Just So Scared of the Fiscal Cliff

I hope you’re sitting down for this: coverage of the “fiscal cliff” is a lot of hype.

Bob Murphy looks at the numbers and concludes that if the government goes over the “cliff,” then some $9 billion in cuts will take place. That’s three-tenths of one percent of government spending. By 2014 U.S. government spending will be above where it was this year.

The deficit will go down by $487 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, if nothing is done to avert the cliff. Of that $487 billion, the aforementioned $9 billion will be due to spending cuts. The other $478 billion will occur thanks to increased tax revenues.

So 1.8 percent of the deficit cuts will come from spending reductions, while the other 98.2 percent will come from increased tax revenues. When the economy fails to revive, this will be blamed on the alleged “austerity” program of the federal government, without noting that the laughable “spending cuts” were vastly exceeded by the tax increases.

Daniel Kuehn, Bob’s nemesis, crunches the numbers a bit differently, but still finds a vast imbalance between spending cuts and tax increases, and agrees with Bob that the panicked talk is overblown.

Unlearn the Propaganda!

  • Anonymous

    Well, one of Bob’s nemeses, anyway.

  • J Fournier

    “Like saving ten cents on a trip to the moon!” Do you think “falling off the fiscal cliff” is better than the likely alternatives? Is the likely alternative higher spending and more money printing, and if so, is that worse? Maybe instead of a $9 billion drop in spending, there would actually be a large increase? I get that the point of the post is that we shouldn’t be scared of the fiscal cliff, but should we welcome it?

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