Group items tagged

stimulus spending, as prescribed by mainstream economic theory, to create jobs and promote growth."

Obama intends to ignore the path for getting the economy back to full employment that most economists advocate.

interest rates did fall, it is difficult to believe that it would have much impact on either investment or consumption

theory as to how budget cuts could boost growth

lower deficits in the present and/or near future will reduce fears that government spending will be crowding out private economic activity. This would lead to lower interest rates. Lower interest rates will provide a boost to investment and consumption. Also, lower interest rates in the United States will make dollar assets less attractive to investors. This will cause the dollar to decline against other currencies, improving our trade balance.

no part of this story makes sense in the current economic environment. US interest rates are already at ridiculously low levels,

vast amounts of excess capacity.

doesn't matter at the White House any more.

Consumers remain heavily indebted due to the collapse of house prices.

The dollar continues to be a safe haven in uncertain times.

keep the dollar from falling too much against their currencies no matter how low interest rates fall.

unlikely that cutbacks in government spending will do much to lower the dollar and reduce the trade deficit.

Obama is apparently not listening to economists anymore, so he wouldn't care, in any case.

politicians who think that biology has no place in teaching the origins of species, we now have politicians who think that economics has no place in designing economic policy.

tens of millions of lives stand to be ruined.

Keynes's basic insights have been supported by a vast amount of economic research over the last seven decades. And we have solid evidence showing (pdf) that the limited stimulus pushed through by Obama in 2009 worked pretty much as predicted in generating growth and jobs.

policy will be determined by people with no knowledge of economics whatsoever.

evidence,

Jobs for low-skilled workers in manufacturing

lost to international competition

The path to recovery now lies

in upgraded skills, increased exports and public investments in infrastructure and low-carbon energy.

US and Europe have veered

consumption-oriented stimulus packages and austerity without a vision for investment.

good social policy does not mean running big deficits.

globalisation has not only hit the unskilled hard but has also proved a bonanza for the global super-rich

able to convince their home governments to cut tax rates on profits and high incomes

expand investments in human and infrastructure capital

First

through better skills and technologie

Second

Third

balance budgets in the medium term, in no small part through tax increases on high personal incomes and international corporate profits that are shielded by loopholes and overseas tax havens

projects will not add to net financial liabilities if they are repaid through future revenues.

Export-led growth is the other under-explored channel of recovery

cut wasteful spending, for instance in misguided military engagements

through better financial policies.

last missing piece for any recovery

clarity of purpose from the political class

Europe’s fate has been decided by German state elections and small Finnish parties

US has similarly devolved into a mélange of sector, class, and regional interests.

Obama is the incredibly shrinking leader

There is no growth strategy, only the hope that scared and debt-burdened consumers will return to buying houses they don’t need and can’t afford. Sadly, these global economic currents will continue to claim jobs and drain capital until there is a revival of bold, concerted leadership. In the meantime, the markets will gyrate in pangs of uncertainty.