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Sunday, October 2, 2011

Fiscal and Monetary Stimulus NOW!


Professional economic forecasters think that fiscal policy works: Paul Krugman directs us to a Goldman Sachs report.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong118/English  The calculations and logic of Keynesianism.
Martin Wolf:  Time to think the unthinkable and start printing again
a recent speech by Adam Posen (pdf), opens by speaking about how shy people are to do Keynsian or monetarist policies:
Both the UK and the global economy are facing a familiar foe at present: policy defeatism. Throughout modern economic history, whether in Western Europe in the 1920s, in the US and elsewhere in the 1930s, or in Japan in the 1990s, every major financial crisis-driven downturn has been followed by premature abandonment—if not reversal—of the macroeconomic stimulus policies that are necessary to sustained recovery. Every time, this was due to unduly influential voices claiming some combination of the destructiveness of further policy stimulus, the ineffectiveness of further policy stimulus, or the political corruption from further policy stimulus. Every time those voices were wrong on each and every count. Those voices are being heard again today, much too loudly. It is the duty of economic policymakers including central bankers to rebut these false claims head on. It is even more important that we do the right thing for the economy rather than be slowed, confused, or intimidated by such false claims.

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