Productivity not Aggregate Demand
“The policy changes in the late 1930s benefited the economy by increasing competition, by bringing wages more in line with productivity, and by improving the incentives for investing.” University of Pennsylvania professor Harold L. Cole and UCLA’s Prof. Lee E. Ohanian suggest temporary stimulus in an effort to increase aggregate demand is no prescription for .. read more
Paul Kasriel: Just the Facts on the Great Depression
This will be a long post, but a very important one. Doug Terry passed along this analysis from Northern Trust which shows that monetary policy is the most important factor to the economy in the short term. I have said as much on other occasions and pointed out that the rise in the LEI is signaling .. read more
FDR Policies Extended the Depression
From the UCLA Newsroom: Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After scrutinizing Roosevelt’s record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new .. read more
Inflation Explained
The consequences of inflation, generally higher prices, are known to most everyone. Most people think that the higher prices are the inflation but as the first sentence indicates the higher prices are just a symptom. There has to be something to drive prices higher. That something is an increase in the supply of money. People .. read more
