"A Case for Balanced-Budget Stimulus"
People often object to the idea of a multiplier because it comes from the old Keynesian model. Real macroeconomists, we are told, use DSGE models. But using a DSGE model doesn't matter, the result is essentially the same: A case...
GDP Growth Could be Higher
GDP growth for the first quarter, as noted in the post below this one, is estimated to be 2.2%. That is not as high as it needs to be to recover in a decent amount of time, and one of...
"Ideology and Facts in the Economic Policy Debate"
Antonio Fatás: Ideology and Facts in the Economic Policy Debate: The fact that ideology matters in the economic policy debate should not be a surprise to anyone. But the influence that ideology has has in some of the economic analysis...
The Shrinking Government Sector
Tim Taylor highlights a recent publication from the Cleveland Fed on "The Shrinking Government Sector" showing, among other things, that "government spending on goods and services was actually higher in the much of the 1970s than it is today": Government...
Why Do Acemoglu and Robinson Resort to Hitler?
I suppose I should come clean. I sent an email saying: This is nuts (re: Krugman and Wells): http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2012/4/18/inequality-and-keynesian-economics.html Hitler was a Keynesian, so it's not true that Republicans hate Keynes? Huh? They really don't make much of a case...as...
Jobs Report Shows Weakness. Will Policymakers Respond?
Here's my reaction to the jobs report: Jobs Report Show Weakness. Will Policymakers Respond? (CBS MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY The Employment Report for March was weaker than many analysts expected. The unemployment rate fell slightly from 8.3 percent to 8.2 percent, and...
Feldstein v. Lazear
pgl: Feldstein v. Lazear on the Size of the Output Gap , econospeak: Martin Feldstein is worried that the Federal Reserve will not reverse its increase in the monetary base even as we approach full employment: Here is what worries...
Feldstein v. Lazear
pgl: Feldstein v. Lazear on the Size of the Output Gap , econospeak: Martin Feldstein is worried that the Federal Reserve will not reverse its increase in the monetary base even as we approach full employment: Here is what worries...
"U.S. Economy Needs Stimulus, Not Soothsayers"
I have argued many, many times that policy mistakes are asymmetric, mostly to no avail, so it's nice to see Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson emphasizing the point that the costs of doing too little are larger than the costs...
Real-Time Economic Analysis
When Narayana Kocherlakota gave this speech based on this paper, a paper that uses a very simply model that is essentially an IS curve analysis, the economists who believe strongly in the science of monetary policy were appalled. How could...
