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A structure for our value judgments
The visible hand in economics — Earlier I mentioned that Paul Walker and myself had different ideas surrounding the need for a stimulus in the US. Fundamentally I think he is completely against while I see scope for some stimulus. Over at Brad Delong’s blog he mentions a description of the stimulus by Kevin Murphy. The structure he describes is below: Evaluating the Fiscal Stimulus Kevin M. Murphy January 16, 2009 A Framework for Thinking about the Stimulus Package Let G = increase in government ...

Assorted links
Marginal Revolution — 1. Good things Obama has done. 2. A paper in support of fiscal policy. 3. Summary of Kevin Murphy on stimulus. 4. Political scientists in the movies.

But Brad Please Tell Your Readers That Many Economists Said Bush Was Horrible from the Start
The Austrian Economists — ... One of President Bush's first acts in power was to provide aid to the steel industry.  And several economist on the "right" voiced their opposition.  However, readers on Brad de Long's blog continue to suggest that market oriented economists are only voicing opposition to Obama due to partisanship.  Brad seems to reinforce this impression.  Even while admitting that Kevin Murphy raises some strong points in his critique of fiscal stimulus, he raises questions about what would change Murphy's priors. ...

Alpha = 0?
TRUTH ON THE MARKET — ... resources * Ricardian equivalence implies that people will save to pay for future taxes reducing private spending * ? is non-zero and likely to be substantial * People place positive value on their time * Unemployed resources produce value through relocation (e.g. mobility & job search) * d is likely to be significant * Wide range of estimates of d * Estimates based on the analysis of taxable income imply d?0.8 * With these parameters the stimulus package is likely to be a bad idea Brad DeLong calls this the best anti-stimulus argument he’s seen and suggests that perhaps the ...

Murphy vs. DeLong and the macroeconomics of my youth
Newmark's Door — ... Brad DeLong of Cal-Berkeley, accepting the inequality for the sake of argument, gives different estimates of the four parameters and concludes the benefits are much greater. ...