Moreover, the tax reforms helped the state rack up a budget surplus of nearly $5 billion for the last fiscal year. And this year, the “rainy day” fund is expected to climb above $6.5 billion, not to mention the billions in federal Covid relief and infrastructure funding that have yet to be distributed.
And yet, many state leaders seem determined to return to the bad old days. Indeed, this November, Massachusetts voters will decide on a constitutional amendment, the campaign for which is largely funded by the state’s two teachers’ unions, that would add a 4 percent surcharge to all annual incomes over $1 million, with the proceeds going to fund education and transportation.
Pieter Cleppe provides a European perspective on what Liz Truss’s fall means for markets:
In the end, Truss was sunk by the fact that, in an environment where inflation has now returned to the economies of the West, markets are once again acting as gatekeepers to keep debt accumulation in check. The “bond vigilantes,” investors who keep a close eye on governments’ fiscal policies when deciding to start buying or selling countries’ government bonds, are back.
If Rishi Sunak, Truss’s successor, wants to continue a true pro-growth policy of tax cuts, he must do what Thatcher did, which was to reduce the size of the state in Britain.
Vivek Ramaswamy joins David Bahnsen on the latest episode of the Capital Record. Listen to the two of them discuss the morality of markets here, or wherever you get your podcasts.