Kevin Warsh, a Federal Reserve governor during the Great Recession, noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this year, “If you’ve seen one financial crisis, you’ve seen one financial crisis.” That is to say, all…
Category: Budget and Spending
Is Government Growth Inevitable? Insights from a 19th Century Economist
The late-19th century German economist, Adolph Wagner, observed that as progressive industrialized economies grow the public sector expands as a percentage of the overall economy. Wagner’s observation, which later became known as Wagner’s Law, or “The Law…
Obama’s FY 2016 Budget: Higher Wages, More Spending, Less Real Estate
There’s good news if you’re a federal employee, assuming that President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget is enacted intact: It will come with a 1.3 percent pay increase. Now, 1.3 percent isn’t a big hike, but it’s…
The Positive Result of the Mid-Term Election
In last week’s election, the Republicans won majority control of the Senate and further solidified their control of the House of Representatives. This means that the Republicans will lead the 114th Congress when it convenes next year. Is this event…
Continuing Resolutions, Continuing Crisis
If you think getting an immigration bill, say, or healthcare reform through a bitterly divided Congress is hard, try an annual budget. In mid-September, Congress, having been unable to agree on that budget, passed what is…
The Trouble with Rising U.S. Debt
The federal debt held by the public in the second quarter of 2014 was $12.57 trillion. That equates to 72.6% of GDP, down slightly from the post-WWII peak of 74.0% that was recorded in the first quarter of this…
The Bounceback: GSA’s Budget Returns to “Normal” (and what that means for lessors)
We’ve often said on this blog that you need only look at GSA’s budget as the bellwether for leasing demand. In recent years we’ve noted that budget reductions imposed by Congress have put GSA in a…
What the Budget Deal Means for Federal Leasing
“Clearly this is not a Grand Bargain but it was never meant to be. It was designed to create some bipartisan agreement and some momentum.” – Rep. Paul Ryan On December 26th, President Obama signed the…
A Look at the Federal Buildings Fund
One of the lessons learned from the October shutdown, as recently discussed on this blog, is that GSA rent is subject to congressional appropriations even though the Federal Buildings Fund (FBF) has the needed money. In fact,…
Lessons Learned From Shutdown ’13
Through all of the partisan dysfunction our nation has endured in recent years, the federal budgeting process nonetheless managed to stagger along. Until October 1st. Then the U.S. Government experienced its first shutdown since 1995. The…