Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

Born-Again Fiscal Hawks Turn Into Doves

Funny how some folks stop caring about federal deficits after an election.

August 28, 2017 at 5:04 PM UTC

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

Remember how great it felt to run up the deficit?
Photographer: Dirck Halstead/LIFE Images Collection/ Getty Images

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One of the weirdest things to come out of the financial crisis was the rise of the born-again fiscal hawks, as I called them in 2010. These are the folks who had never shown much interest in fiscal restraint before, but very suddenly became concerned about deficit reduction. Coincidentally, their awareness of the evils of deficits occurred sometime in late January 2009, once they were no longer in power in Washington.

Both major political parties engage in deficit alarmism, although it would be a false equivalency to suggest they do so equally.