Nerd Notes: A Harvard Econ Prof's Advice for Obama

From Hahvahd economics professor Greg Mankiw comes some practical advice for the incoming president. I really like this bit:

Pay attention to the government’s budget constraint. The nation faces a long-term imbalance between government spending and tax revenue. The fundamental problem is that the federal government has promised the elderly more benefits than the tax system can support. This fiscal imbalance will become acute as more baby boomers retire and start collecting Social Security and Medicare.

Yet during the campaign, you promised that you would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, that you would vastly expand health insurance coverage, and that you would never cut Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age. You will almost surely have to renege on some of these promises. As your economic team will often remind you, even if the laws of arithmetic are ignored during campaigns, they provide a real constraint when making actual policy.

"The laws of arithmetic"! Tee-hee! Remember what I said earlier about the hard realities of actually governing instead of campaigning?