How Republicans Plan to Spend Like Crazy Without Running Up Debt

In the James Room of the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, Erick Sager is demonstrating what happens when you admit that people die. Half-lit by PowerPoint, he explains that a seminal 1998 paper on the ideal level of government debt relies on an infinitely lived agent—it assumes that people are immortal.

This isn’t as crazy it sounds. A lot of macroeconomic predictions still rest on this assumption. It makes the math easier. Packed in the room with Sager are 19 Ph.D. economists from universities and government agencies, taking turns at the lectern. They’ve gathered for the annual conference of the National Tax Association. Infinitely lived agents certainly don’t sound crazy to them.