Last week, the CBO updated some of its calculations and methods for estimating the effects of “automatic stabilizers” on the deficit. These are Keynesian concepts whereby the government increases spending or redistribution (redundant) without discretion as the economy falls into the downside of a cycle. For the CBO’s purposes, the agency measures automatic stabilizers not on their effects, intended effects [...]
I haven't yet commented on the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin option to avoid the debt ceiling because it is so stupid that I couldn't fathom that anyone might actually take it seriously. Silly me. It appears that I underestimated the desire of certain politicians to keep spending ever larger amounts of our cash. No less than Paul Krugman - Nobel [...]
Suzy Khimm has a post at the Washington Post's Wonkblog that says if you're worried about the fiscal cliff, you are by definition a Keynesian: The reason the fiscal cliff is such a threat to 2013′s economy isn’t that it’s too little deficit reduction — it’s that it’s too much all at once, totaling about $720 billion, or 5.1 percent of GDP [...]
Targeted, timely and temporary. That was the clarion call of the Keynesians during the debate over the stimulus plan enacted at the beginning of President Obama's current term. Stimulus was reckoned to be most effective when these three principals were embraced. We all know now that timely wasn't much of a consideration in the structure of the stimulus and even [...]
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