Tristan Loa

1 week ago | brookings.edu | Tristan Loa |David Wessel

What is a budget baseline? A budget baseline is a projection of federal spending, revenues, deficits or surpluses, and debt, based on assumptions about the economy and trends in spending and revenues. Congress relies on baselines, often looking out ten years, produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). This post explains the importance of baselines to the congressional budget process. How do current law and current policy baselines differ?

Aug 7, 2024 | brookings.edu | David Wessel |Tristan Loa

State and local governments are frequent targets of cyberattacks. In “City Hall Has Been Hacked! The Financial Costs of Lax Cybersecurity,” a paper presented at the 2024 Municipal Finance Conference at Brookings, four economists find that municipal borrowing costs rise after a publicly reported cyberattack.