delong.typepad.com - 12/26/2008
—
Tyler Cowen is too pessimistic:
Marginal Revolution: Fiscal policy and the burden of proof : Don't let those switches distract you. My point is simple: it is very hard to find examples of successful fiscal stimulus driving an economic recovery. Ever. This should be a sobering fact.
...
bloomberg.com - 12/21/2008
—
bloomberg.com —
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Spending by American consumers
fell in November for a record fifth month, while...
home sales and orders for durable goods also declined as the recession deepened, economists said before reports this week. Purchases dropped 0.7 ...
(more)
Spending, Home Sales Probably Tumbled: U.S. Economy Preview
Comments
Blog Reactions
Brad DeLong on fiscal policy
Marginal Revolution —
... out onto the streets to
have them walk up to people and say: "Here's $500,000. You can have it
if you go buy a house"--then that would drive a recovery, right? I mean
it drove a recovery in 2003-2006, didn't it?
Even the Austrians believe that spending--in their case, driven by
credit-expansion created by the malefactors of fractional-reserve
banking--works. So why can't the government do what fractional-reserve
bankers can?
Here is the link.
Yes, niggling
Paul Krugman —
... . Yes, I know the original (written by my former colleague William Safire.) But “niggling” is better for the current situation. Here’s how I see it: the opponents of a strong stimulus plan don’t really have an alternative to offer. They don’t even have a really coherent critique; as Brad DeLong points out , if you believe that a surge in private spending would raise employment — and even the critics agree on that — it’s very hard to explain why a surge of public spending wouldn’t have the same effect. The critics are instead mainly engaged in a series of minor complaints, aka ...
More niggling on fiscal stimulus
Marginal Revolution —
... Here’s how I see it: the opponents of a strong stimulus plan don’t
really have an alternative to offer. They don’t even have a really
coherent critique; as Brad DeLong points out,
if you believe that a surge in private spending would raise employment
— and even the critics agree on that — it’s very hard to explain why a
surge of public spending wouldn’t have the same effect. ...
Macroeconomics without Supply
Marginal Revolution —
Paul Krugman writes: ...if you believe that a surge in private spending would raise employment — and even the critics agree on that — it’s very hard to explain why a surge of public spending wouldn’t have the same effect. Brad DeLong writes: But surely we believe that if the U.S. government were to follow the Countrywide plan--to send its representatives out onto the streets to have them walk up to people and say: "Here's $500,000. You can have it if you go buy a house"--then that would drive a recovery, ...
Related Content
Capital Spending and Consumer Spending
calculatedriskblog.com 9/21/2009 — Earlier today I posted a couple of bullish views and I disagreed with the projections of an "Immaculate Recovery". Former IMF chief economist Michael Mussa suggested that consumer spending wouldn't lead this recovery, but that business investment ...
Can We Afford All This Spending? No We Can’t.
cato-at-liberty.org 1/22/2009 —
President Obama says that “our economy is badly weakened,” partly because of “our collective failure to make hard choices.” And that when government programs don’t work, “programs will end.” Yet he ...
Less Spending, More Savings in December
calculatedriskblog.com 2/3/2009 — From the WSJ: Consumers Spend Less, Boost Savings U.S. consumers cut their spending during December and they increased savings ... Personal consumption fell 1.0% compared to the month before. ... Personal income fell at a seasonally adjusted rate of ...
We Can't Cut Spending
forbes.com 9/18/2009 — Every time I write about the need to raise revenues to pay for federal spending, some nitwit always demands to know why we don't just cut spending. That is not a viable option to deal with our fiscal problem. The first point that people need to ...
Consumer Spending in U.S. Falls 1%, Most in 7 Years (Update1)
bloomberg.com 11/26/2008 — Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Spending by U.S. consumers dropped in October by the most since the 2001 contraction, signaling the economy is sinking into a deeper recession. The 1 percent decline in purchases followed a 0.3 percent drop in September, the ...
More Spending Stimulus Skeptics
gregmankiw.blogspot.com 1/12/2009 — Gary Becker : Perhaps their [Romer and Bernstein's] estimates of the stimulus provided by direct government spending are in the right ballpark, but I tend to believe that they are excessive. For one thing, the true value of these government programs ...
What do we know about infrastructure spending?
macroblog.typepad.com 11/19/2008 — Recently, there’s been a great deal of discussion about developing, legislating, and implementing a second fiscal stimulus. One of the prominent components mentioned in the recent stimulus discussion is investing in infrastructure to create jobs.
...
Is All Spending Created Equal?
thinkmarkets.wordpress.com 4/19/2009 — by Mario Rizzo
“And government spending is as good as anybody else’s.” Brad DeLong seems to think so. But the idea is only plausible because it has been repeated many times and because it is a politically convenient “truth.”
I think everyone would ...
Dubai Will Boost Spending in 2009
online.wsj.com 1/12/2009 — Dubai will boost spending by 11%, resulting in the city-state's first-ever deficit, in an effort to stimulate the economy amid today's global financial crisis.
Infrastructure Spending as Stimulus
gregmankiw.blogspot.com 1/28/2009 — From Nobel laureate Gary Becker : Some of this infrastructure spending may be very worthwhile-I return to this issue a bit later- but however merited, it is difficult to believe that they would provide much of a stimulus to the economy. Expansion ...
Follow WallStreetBlips on Twitter
