http://www.project-syndicate.org/about_us/rss en 23:57:41 14-Mar-2010 webmaster@project-syndicate.org http://www.interglacial.com/rss/about.html http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong99/1 The Harvard economist Robert Barro, writing in The Wall Street Journal, recently made an intelligent argument against America’s fiscal stimulus. But Barro misreads how his own evidence applies to the current situation in the US, and he wrongly dismisses the importance of the timing of government borrowing. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong98/1 Some countries – China, for example – implemented job-creation policies a year ago that relied on boosting demand for goods and services, and are now reaping the benefits in higher employment. Other countries, like the US, did not, and now face the need to fight unemployment directly, through government job programs or tax credits to businesses that hire new workers. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong97/1 Financial bailouts are understandably controversial, because they reward those who bet on risky assets. But a policy that leaves owners of risky financial assets impoverished is a policy that shuts down dynamism in the real economy. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong96/1 From the day after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year, the policies followed by the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Bush and Obama administrations have been sound and helpful. But they have also been politically unpopular with Americans, owing to opponents' extraordinary intellectual and political dishonesty, which the press refuses to see. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong95/1 Economic policy in the aftermath of the financial crisis hasn't been ideal, especially in the US, where banks that were on the brink of collapse are back to business-as-usual, raking in profits and opposing urgently needed reforms. Nevertheless, economic policy has been good enough to prevent an inexorable slide into a 1930's-style depression. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong94/1 When modern economic historians explain why the world is currently in the grips of a financial crisis and a deep economic downturn, they point to a long train of similar bubbles, crashes, crises, and recessions. Macroeconomists, by contrast, either profess ignorance or offer models that are utterly implausible. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong93/1 As the re-appointment of Ben Bernanke has once again deminstrated, it is more remarkable for a US president not to reappoint a Fed chairman named by the opposite party than to reappoint one who wishes it. But even if Bernanke were not now the incumbent, he would be one of the best possible choices for the position. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong92/1 Conservatives around the world, especially in the US, have bitterly opposed the massive upsurge in government intervention since the start of the financial and economic crisis. But almost everything that governments have done has followed a policy path that is nearly 200 years old, dating back to the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong91/1 Many observers believe that Alan Greenspan’s decision in 2001-2004 to push and keep nominal US interest rates very low in order to keep the economy near full employment led to today's crisis by fueling a housing bubble. But there were plenty of other mistakes that generated the catastrophe that faces us today. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong90/1 High finance, which enables us to save, accumulate, and diversify our wealth, is based on the delusion that our investments are secure and liquid. Moreover, that delusion is what makes possible another purpose of high finance: indulgence of our love of gambling. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong89/1 Are the world’s governments capable of keeping the world economy out of a deep and long depression? The problem is not that governments are unsure about what to do, but that that investor demand for safe, secure, and liquid assets – and thus their value – is too high, while demand for assets that underpin and finance the economy's productive capital is too low. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/delong88/1 Unemployment is currently rising like a rocket, because businesses that normally would be expanding and hiring are not, and those businesses that would normally be contracting and shedding workers are doing so very rapidly. Governments should respond with measures that increase financial asset prices, so that firms can borrow money or sell bonds on profitable terms.