UMD Smith's Michael Faulkender on Navigating the Debt Ceiling

Newswise — Michael Faulkender, Dean’s Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, says: “The fundamental issue is that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path. However, Congress must raise the debt ceiling. Default cannot occur and a balanced budget this year is not feasible.”

Faulkender’s current focus on the debt ceiling can be traced to his first week at the Department of Treasury, where he served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy from 2019 to 2021, as he began work on the Financial Report of the U.S. Government.

He cites as especially relevant from the report: “If changes in policy are not so abrupt as to slow economic growth, then the sooner policy changes are adopted, the smaller the changes to revenue and/or spending will be required to return the government to a sustainable fiscal path.”