Russ Roberts on the debate about the impact of the stimulus act:
My take is summed up the by the quotations marks I’ve put around “measuring.” Blinder and Zandi don’t really measure the impact of government intervention. They measure what the model says is the impact. The model is based on past relationships [...]
Will Wilkinson on countercyclical economic policy:
They’re talking about financial crises in particular, but I suspect the same holds for recessions generally. As long as the government doesn’t do anything spectacularly stupid or crazy, we’ll return to trend. Policy so far has been only mildly stupid and not crazy. The heated arguments [...]
I suppose it is at least refreshingly honest to tell the public that if we want to keep spending at this rate, taxes will have to rise on everyone to pay for it. Greg Easterbrook says taxing the rich isn’t enough:
Here’s the uncomfortable point few want to face: even if the rich do get [...]
There has been a lot of press recently about the amount of cash sitting on corporate balance sheets. Since GDP growth is very dependent on investment spending, what companies do with their $1 trillion cash horde is most important. This Bloomberg article makes the case that companies are about to start spending:
The $1.24 trillion in [...]
