Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

The case against the case against discretionary fiscal policy / Alan S. Binder -- Comments on Blinder's "The case against the case against discretionary fiscal policy" / Oliver J. Blanchard -- Comments on Blinder's "The case against the case against discretionary fiscal policy" / Christopher A. Sims -- American fiscal policy in the post-war era : an interpretive history / Alan J. Auerbach -- Comments on Auerbach's "American fiscal policy in the post-war era : an interpretive history" / James S. Duesenberry -- Comments on Auerbach's "American fiscal policy in the post-war era : an interpretive history" / Douglas W. Elmendorf -- Fiscal policy from Kennedy to Reagan to G.W. Bush / C. Eugene Steurle -- Economic policy in the first Reagan administration : the conflict between tax reform and countercyclical management / W. Elliot Brownlee -- Reflections on congressional fiscal policy in the 1980s / Van Doorn Ooms -- Fiscal policy during President Reagan's first term / Rudolph G. Penner -- Deficits and debt in the short and long run / Benjamin M. Friedman -- Comments on Friedmann's "Deficits and debt in the short and long run" / Susanto Basu -- Comments on Friedmann's "Deficits and debt in the short and long run" / Barry P. Bosworth -- Is the United States prone to "overconsumption"? / Jean-Philippe Cotis, Jonathan Coppel, Luiz de Mello -- Comments on Cotis et al.'s "Is the United States prone to 'overconsumption'?" / Willem H. Buiter -- Budget and external deficits : not twins but the same family / Edwin M. Truman -- Twin deficits and twin decades / Jeffrey A. Frankel -- The current account and the budget deficit : a disaggregated perspective / Catherine L. Mann -- What can we do about the "twin" deficits? / Alice M. Rivlin.