I had this long(ish) piece up today at Neighborhood Effects, so expect less of the genital humor and cute animals you’ve come to expect from us today. It’s a relatively bitter critique of a new fiscal responsibility law, to be proposed today. I think it’s mostly drivel, some of my colleagues are more optimistic.
But check back tomorrow morning, we should have a new House of Punte for you.
{ 0 comments }
This post originally appeared at Neighborhood Effects. Chart courtesy of The Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Ezra Klein conjured up a fanciful reason why the stimulus spending hasn’t stimulated… anything. Matt and Eileen broke it down pretty thoroughly. Today, Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy has somevisual evidence to rebut Ezra’s Keynsian dreams.
Klein is exactly wrong when he writes:
Uncertain about the future, [consumers] spend less now. The role of the government is to step up and keep the economy moving until consumer confidence returns.
Uncertainty isn’t a side-effect of a downturn, it’s a primary cause. In the recent bust, asset values were drastically skewed. If the government “keep[s] the economy moving,” confidence can’t ever return; everyone knows the old status quo was horribly flawed. Ezra, like Krugman, believes that government spending can drive an economy. Veronique’s chart neatly dispels the illusion that public spending can effectively supplement (or supplant) the private sector.
{ 3 comments }