The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending

At least 15 states have borrowed over $15 billion for highway projects that were planned but never built. Kansas alone has $1.2 billion in outstanding debt for a turnpike corridor that remains a gravel road. Lucas and Luna trace how earmarks, optimistic traffic projections, and a 'borrow now, pay later' culture in state transportation departments create phantom infrastructure. They examine the cas...

The US government spends over $600 billion annually on contractors — more than the entire budget of most countries — yet lacks basic data on who it's paying and whether the work is worth it. This episode drills into a 2024 Government Accountability Office report revealing that half of all federal contract actions lack sufficient competition, and many are awarded without performance metrics. Lucas...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down a startling 2025 Government Accountability Office report revealing that federal agencies collectively lose roughly $200 billion annually to improper payments—overpayments, underpayments, fraud, and simple clerical errors. They focus on the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which account for more than half of that waste, and discuss why the payment error rat...

Episode 76 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores the hidden costs of government debt. Lucas and Luna break down the concept of fiscal space, using Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio of over 250 percent as a case study. They explain how servicing debt crowds out public investment, why low interest rates don't make debt free, and what happens when market confidence wavers. Specific examples include Japan's l...

Episode 75 explores the paradox that the U.S. government borrows at lower interest rates than almost any private company, even though its total debt exceeds $35 trillion. Lucas and Luna examine the structural reasons behind this phenomenon: the dollar's reserve currency status, the depth of the Treasury market, and the unique role of central banks. They walk through how this 'safe asset' premium a...

Episode 74 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast looks at the staggering $5 trillion gap in state and local government pension funding across the United States. Lucas and Luna break down how this shortfall grew, why it matters for public services and taxes, and why most official numbers actually understate the problem. They focus on the case of Illinois teacher pensions, currently funded at just 39 percent...

Every day, the US federal government holds roughly $150 billion in unpaid invoices. That float — the gap between when the government owes money and when it actually pays — earns interest for the Treasury, not for the businesses waiting on their money. In this episode, Lucas and Luna drill into a 2025 Government Accountability Office report showing that the Treasury Department earned $1.2 billion i...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into a single number that explains why the U.S. government pays roughly 40 percent more than private companies for identical goods—from office supplies to fighter jet components. They walk through the 2019 Government Accountability Office report on procurement inefficiency, the role of the 40-page rulebook known as the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and a concr...

Episode 71 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast: Government pension funds hold trillions in assets, but a little-known accounting rule lets them report gains that don't exist yet. Lucas breaks down how the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) reported a 21% return in 2024 while actually collecting just 6% in cash. Luna digs into why this matters: when funds spend based on paper gains,...

Episode 70 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores how carbon taxes are quietly transforming government balance sheets. Lucas and Luna examine British Columbia's revenue-neutral carbon tax model, which cut income taxes while pricing pollution, and compare it to Canada's federal backstop and Sweden's high-rate success. They unpack why carbon tax revenue fell 12 percent in British Columbia after a rat...

Episode 69 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores why government contractors—from office supply vendors to IT consultants—routinely charge the public sector 30 to 50 percent more than private clients for identical goods and services. Lucas and Luna examine the 2024 RAND Corporation study that found the premium is driven not by government incompetence but by unique procurement regulations, risk-aver...

In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the hidden inefficiency in government contracting: the lack of productivity gains. They anchor on a 2024 study by the US Treasury's Office of Financial Innovation, which found that federal procurement productivity has been flat for two decades, while the private sector has seen a 12 percent improvement in the same period. They...

In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a little-known cost embedded in government bonds: the tax drag that eats into yields for ordinary investors. Using the case of US Treasury bonds versus municipal bonds, they break down how tax treatment varies by bond type, why that matters for state and federal budgets, and what it means for the $28 trillion Treasury market. Luc...

Episode 66 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores a hidden fiscal drag: the U.S. federal government owns roughly 640 million acres of land — about 28 percent of the country. But much of it sits vacant, generating zero revenue while requiring maintenance. We drill into one specific case: the Bureau of Land Management's 245 million acres, which cost taxpayers $1.2 billion annually to manage but gener...

Episode 65 digs into a surprising shift in public finance: government pension funds are piling into alternative assets — private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and hedge funds — at a pace that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Lucas walks through the specific numbers from CalPERS, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which now allocates nearly 40 percent of its portfol...

The U.S. government holds over 8,000 tons of gold in places like Fort Knox and West Point, worth roughly $500 billion at market prices. But because the Treasury values it at a fixed statutory price of $42.22 per ounce from 1973, the balance sheet shows just $11 billion. This episode explores how that accounting fiction hides a massive unrealized asset, costs taxpayers in forgone interest, and dist...

Episode 63 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast dives into the economic evidence on targeted government subsidies for corporate headquarters and data centers, using Amazon's HQ2 bidding war as the central case. Lucas and Luna walk through the numbers: how Virginia's promise of up to $750 million in incentives for HQ2 compares with the actual job creation and wage data. They discuss the broader lesson from...

Lucas and Luna dive into the economics of government subsidies for professional sports stadiums, using the recent $1.2 billion public financing deal for a new NFL stadium in Buffalo as a case study. They break down the promises of job creation and economic boost versus the actual data, which shows these projects rarely generate the returns proponents claim. Lucas explains the concept of substituti...

Episode 61 dives into a bizarre inefficiency in public procurement: the U.S. federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on printer ink, paying up to 10 times the retail price per milliliter. Lucas and Luna trace the roots of this problem to a 1995 policy called the 'Best Value' rule, which prioritizes lowest initial bid over total cost of ownership. They examine a 2024 Gove...

Episode 60 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo digs into why governments consistently pay significantly more for infrastructure projects than private firms. Lucas and Luna examine a recent study of 1,500 global projects showing that public roads, bridges, and transit systems average 50 percent cost overruns compared to private benchmarks. They focus on California's High-Speed Rail Authority,...

Episode 59 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast digs into the small but expensive fees that state and local governments pay on every electronic benefits transaction — from EBT cards to unemployment debit cards. Each swipe costs taxpayers roughly 3 percent in interchange fees, adding up to over $1.5 billion a year nationally. Lucas and Luna examine how New York state recently cut its payment-card cost by 4...

In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna take aim at a costly inefficiency in government spending: prescription drug pricing in public health programs like Medicaid and Medicare Part D. They zero in on a 2025 federal report revealing that government health plans pay on average 50 percent more than the Veterans Health Administration for the same brand-name drugs. They walk throu...

Lucas and Luna dig into a staggering inefficiency: governments at every level pay 30 to 50 percent more for identical software licenses than private companies. They use the specific example of Microsoft 365 — where the US federal government's contract price per user is nearly double what a mid-size business pays — and trace the root causes to procurement rules, bundled contracts, and the absence o...

Episode 56 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo examines why the US government—the largest buyer of prescription drugs in the world—pays higher prices than many European countries. Lucas and Luna unpack the legal barrier known as 'non-interference clause' that prevents Medicare from negotiating drug prices, compare it to how the Department of Veterans Affairs negotiates effectively, and explo...

In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how the US government's drug-pricing system for Medicare and Medicaid results in overpayments of over 50 percent compared to other countries. They focus on a specific case: the drug insulin, which costs US taxpayers $6,000 per patient per year versus $1,200 in Canada. The hosts discuss the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)...