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The Battle Over the Stimulus, Cont'd
The Corner on National Review Online —
... ] Meanwhile Bruce Bartlett has an excellent primer on the whole debate, going back to the 1920s (via NRO Web Briefing). Very worthwhile. ...
Bruce Bartlett Replies
The Corner on National Review Online —
... ] This just in from economist Bruce Bartlett : 1. I think Friedman would tell the Fed to pump as much liquidity into the economy as possible. His Monetary History of the United States proved that a shrinkage of the money supply was at the core of the Great Depression and that the Fed failed the country by not increasing the money supply. I believe we are in a similar situation. The problem has been a sharp decline in velocity the ratio of the money supply to GDP which has economic effects identical to those that would result from a decline in the money supply. When ...
A Guide To Stimulating
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
I'm a layman on economics but do my best to make sense of the arguments out there. I found Bruce Bartlett helpful as usual: The problem is that fiscal stimulus needs to be injected right now
to counter the liquidity trap. If that were the case, I think we might
well get a very high multiplier effect this year. But if much of the
stimulus doesn't come online until next year, when we are likely to be
past the worst of the slowdown, then crowding out will greatly diminish
the effectiveness of the stimulus, just as the critics argue. According
to the ...
Conundrum Time
Sound Politics —
Conundrum Time Republicans oppose a waste-filled, untimely stimulus because it won't do what the lay person hopes and expects...even before one talks about the massive price tag. Problem: the federal government can do precious little to proactively solve economic problems - though by policy action that can incentivize behavior that improves economic conditions or which helps correct past government mistakes (example: a "conservative libertarian" averse to government intervention ...
Whatever Happened to the Last Big Infrastructure Bill?
The Volokh Conspiracy —
... Whether Congress is controlled by Democrats or Republicans, it is almost inevitable that much of the money appropriated in in large spending bills will be allocated on the basis of political power rather than economic rationality. Congressmen who refuse to channel money to politically influential constituents are unlikely to hold onto power long. I know, of course, that many argue that we need an infrastructure bill today in order to provide economic stimulus. Economists actually disagree among themselves over the question of whether a stimulus bill would do more harm than ...
