Shows / The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Lucas and Luna dissect the machinery of public finance — how governments borrow, spend, and tax — without the political theater. Each episode examines a single fiscal lever: a stimulus check's ripple through consumer debt, the bond market's reaction to a budget deficit, or the real cost of infrastructure spending. Lucas traces the Treasury's cash flows with a fountain pen across an abstract budget breakdown, while Luna presses on the human outcomes: which households actually benefit from a…
Episodes
The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public SpendingHow Government Travel Per Diems Waste Billions on Mediocre Hotels
Episode 109 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo takes a hard look at the U.S. government's travel per diem system. Lucas and Luna break down how…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Pension Funds Overpay Wall Street Fees
Public pension plans managing over $4.5 trillion in assets are quietly paying tens of billions in investment management fees each year — often for returns that…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Budget Gimmicks Hide the True Deficit
The federal budget is full of accounting tricks that make deficits look smaller than they really are. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down three specific…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Government Spends 4 Billion on Obsolete Mainframes
The US federal government spends over $4 billion annually maintaining mainframe computer systems that are decades old. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Procurement Funds the Pentagon's Coffee Cups
The US federal government spends roughly $500 billion annually on procurement. A detailed breakdown shows that the Department of Defense alone manages over 1.5…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Federal Government Pays Doctors Below Market Rates
Episode 104 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo digs into a specific, underreported feature of US healthcare spending: the federal government sets…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Government Spends 50 Billion on Software Every Year
The US federal government spends over $50 billion annually on software licensing and IT services, yet a 2024 GAO report found that agencies waste an estimated…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Drug Price Negotiation Actually Works
In this episode, Lucas and Luna drill into the mechanics of the U.S. government's new power to negotiate drug prices for Medicare. Using the first ten…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Bond Auctions Create Hidden Winners and Losers
In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna investigate how the U.S. Treasury's bond auction mechanism quietly redistributes wealth. They…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government IT Procurement Costs Twice as Much
Episode 100 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast examines why the US government pays roughly double the private-sector price for comparable technology. Lucas and Luna…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Federal Governments Unfunded Pension Liability Works as a Stealth Tax
Beyond the headlines about Social Security trust funds, the federal government has a massive unfunded pension liability for its own civilian and military…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Bond Auctions Are Rigged Against Retail Investors
Lucas and Luna dig into the mechanics of government bond auctions — specifically how the primary dealer system and the single-price auction format…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Housing Vouchers Create Rent Inflation
Housing Choice Vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, are supposed to help low-income families afford decent housing. But in this episode, Lucas and Luna…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Federal Government Funds Sports Stadiums
Lucas and Luna examine how the federal government indirectly subsidizes professional sports stadiums through tax-exempt municipal bonds, costing taxpayers…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Federal Gas Tax Lost 40 Percent of Its Buying Power
Episode 95 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast. Lucas and Luna break down the quiet crisis of the federal gas tax: set at 18.4 cents per gallon in 1993 and never…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How One City’s Pension Math Broke Its Budget
In this episode of Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna zoom in on a single municipal pension crisis: Chicago's $30 billion unfunded liability. They walk…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Federal Government Loses Billions on Underused Buildings
The U.S. government owns over 250,000 buildings and leases millions more square feet of space. But a 2024 Government Accountability Office report found that…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Bonds Are the Most Powerful Tool You Cannot Use
Lucas and Luna dive into the strange economics of government bonds — specifically, why the US Treasury market is the deepest, most liquid financial market on…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Unfunded Mandates Shift Costs from Washington to Your Town
Episode 91 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast unpacks the hidden fiscal burden of unfunded mandates — federal laws that require state and local governments to spend…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the IRS Spends 12 Billion on Paper Returns
Episode 90 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast: Lucas and Luna dig into the IRS's $12 billion annual cost to process paper tax returns in 2026. They trace the…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the US Government Spends 30 Billion on Unused Buildings
The US government is the world's largest tenant, leasing hundreds of millions of square feet of office space. But a recent Government Accountability…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Land Auctions Leave Billions on the Table
Episode 88 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast digs into a hidden drain on public budgets: how governments sell land. Lucas and Luna examine a concrete case from the…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the Federal Government Spends 5 Billion a Year on Vacant Office Space
Episode 87 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast digs into a bizarre line item in the federal budget: roughly 5 billion dollars annually spent on rent, utilities, and…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the US Government Spends 7 Billion a Year on Unused Software Licenses
Every year, federal agencies spend an estimated $7 billion on software licenses that nobody uses. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into a 2025 Government…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the US Government Pays Rent on Empty Buildings
The US government is the largest tenant in the country, leasing over 370 million square feet of office and warehouse space. But nearly a quarter of that space…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Landlords Set Rent Wrong
Episode 84 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast digs into a little-known but massive distortion in public budgets: how governments set the rent on their own…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Pension Funds Are Playing the Markets Wrong
Government pension funds manage trillions of dollars in assets, but their investment strategies often lag behind private sector peers due to political…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Municipal Bankruptcy Actually Works
When a city runs out of money, it can't just shut down. Municipal bankruptcy — specifically Chapter 9 — is a rarely used but powerful legal tool that…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Subsidized Job Training Fails Workers and Taxpayers
Episode 81 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast examines why government-funded job training programs often fail to deliver results. Lucas and Luna drill into a…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Subsidies for Professional Sports Teams Actually Work
In Episode 80 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the economics of subsidies for professional sports stadiums. They break down…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why States Borrowed Billions for Roads That Dont Exist
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How the US Government Spends 600 Billion a Year on Contractors It Cant Manage
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Inefficiency Wastes 200 Billion a Year
In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down a startling 2025 Government Accountability Office report revealing that federal agencies collectively lose roughly…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Debt Is Not Free Money
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Debt Is Cheaper Than Private Debt
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Employee Pensions Are Underfunded by 5 Trillion Dollars
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How One Billion Dollars Vanishes in Government Payment Float
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Procurement Drives Up Costs 40 Percent
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Pension Funds Are Sitting on Billions in Unrealized Gains
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Carbon Taxes Are Reshaping Public Budgets Worldwide
Episode 70 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores how carbon taxes are quietly transforming government balance sheets. Lucas and Luna examine British…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Procurement Creates a Two-Tier Economy
Episode 69 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores why government contractors—from office supply vendors to IT consultants—routinely charge the public sector 30…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Contracting Needs a Productivity Revolution
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Bonds Have a Hidden Tax Cost
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Owns So Much Vacant Land
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 Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Pension Funds Are Investing Like Hedge Funds
Episode 65 digs into a surprising shift in public finance: government pension funds are piling into alternative assets — private equity, real estate…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Gold Hoards Cost Taxpayers Billions
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Subsidies for Amazon Backfired
Episode 63 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast dives into the economic evidence on targeted government subsidies for corporate headquarters and data centers, using…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Subsidies for Stadiums Never Pay Off
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why the Government Pays More for Printer Ink Than Blood
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Infrastructure Costs 50 Percent More Than Private
Episode 60 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo digs into why governments consistently pay significantly more for infrastructure projects than private…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
The Hidden 3 Percent Fee in Government Payment Cards
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 —…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Health Programs Overpay for Drugs by 50 Percent
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Governments Pay More for Software Than Private Companies
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Pays More for Drugs Than Anyone Else
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Health Programs Overpay for Drugs by 50 Percent
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…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Software Projects Fail 70 Percent of the Time
Lucas and Luna examine why large government IT projects have a 70 percent failure rate, using the UK's National Health Service's abandoned…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How One State Tax Break Cost More Than It Generated
Episode 53 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast digs into a specific case study: Kansas's 2012 income tax cut experiment. Lucas and Luna walk through the…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Disaster Rebuilds Cost 50 Percent More
When a hurricane or wildfire destroys a community, the federal government steps in with disaster relief. But the rebuilding process is notoriously inefficient…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Government Rebuilds After Disasters Cost 50 Percent More
When a natural disaster strikes, the federal government typically reimburses state and local rebuilding costs — but a 2025 GAO investigation found that…
- The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How Government Land Banks Turn Vacant Lots Into Revenue
Episode 50 of The Fiscal Policy Podcast explores how cities are using land banks to turn tax-delinquent vacant properties back into productive use. Lucas and…