People in my camp have repeated until we’re blue in the face that the case for fiscal expansion is very specific to circumstance — it’s desirable when you’re in a liquidity trap, and only when you’re in a liquidity trap. Structural Flashbacks – NYTimes.com Keynesian Economics 101
Category: economics
Robert Reich: The Answer Isn’t Socialism; It’s Capitalism that Better Spreads the Benefits of the Productivity Revolution
Francois Hollande’s victory doesn’t and shouldn’t mean a movement toward socialism in Europe or elsewhere. Socialism isn’t the answer to the basic problem haunting all rich nations.
The answer is to reform capitalism. The world’s productivity revolution is outpacing the political will of rich…
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I am not a defender of the economic policies of the Emperor Diocletian. Don’t Know Much About (Ancient) History – NYTimes.com
Robert Reich: How Europe’s Double Dip Could Become America’s
Robert Reich: How Europe’s Double Dip Could Become America’s
A large debt with faster growth is preferable to a smaller debt sitting atop no growth at all. And it’s infinitely better than a smaller debt on top of a contracting economy.
Venezuela Faces Shortages in Grocery Staples
Venezuela Faces Shortages in Grocery Staples
By 6:30 a.m., a full hour and a half before the store would open, about two dozen people were already in line. They waited patiently, not for the latest iPhone, but for something far more basic: groceries. “Whatever I can get,” said Katherine Huga, 23, a mother of two, describing her shopping list. She gave a shrug of resignation. “You buy what they have.” Venezuela is one of the world’s top oil producers at a time of soaring energy prices, yet shortages of staples like milk, meat and toilet paper are a chronic part of life here, often turning grocery shopping into a hit or miss proposition.
If the economy is this messed up with oil at historic highs, what happens if oil drop by 10% or 20%? Price controls don’t work. As far as I can tell, Chávez’s has turned to really radical and awful price controls to reign in inflation. They should be raising interest rates to control inflation and opening up to free trade.
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If austerity worked, the trend lines would not look they way they do. Maybe it doesn’t? (via Brad DeLong: The “Recovery” in the G7)
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Britain is officially in double-dip recession, and has achieved the remarkable feat of doing worse this time around than it did in the 1930s. Cameron’s Remarkable Achievement – NYTimes.com The first rule of austerity club is that you don’t talk about anything except austerity.
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If public employment had grown the way it did under Bush, we’d have 1.3 million more government workers, and probably an unemployment rate of 7 percent or less. (via American Austerity – NYTimes.com)
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Mr. Romney constantly talks about job losses under Mr. Obama. Yet all of the net job loss took place in the first few months of 2009, that is, before any of the new administration’s policies had time to take effect. So the Ohio speech was a perfect illustration of the way the Romney campaign is… Continue reading Untitled
Robert Reich: The Significance of Citigroup’s Shareholder Revolt
Robert Reich: The Significance of Citigroup’s Shareholder Revolt
The shareholders of Wall Street giant Citigroup are out to prove that corporate democracy isn’t an oxymoron. They’ve said no to the exorbitant $15 million pay package of Citi’s CEO Vikram Pandit, as well as to the giant pay packages of Citi’s four other top executives.
The vote, at Citigroup’s annual meeting in Dallas Tuesday, isn’t binding on Citigroup. But it’s a warning shot across the bow of every corporate boardroom in America.
Shareholders aren’t happy about executive pay.