Austerity, Recovery, and Macroeconomic Analysis: In Which I Refuse to Write the Column the Honchos of Project Syndicate Wish Me To
Over on Twitter:
- @ObsoleteDogma: Niall Ferguson, still a huge hack: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/niall-ferguson-british-austerity-by-robert-skidelsky-2015-05
- @delong: .@ObsoleteDogma will it brighten or darken my day if I read Skidelsky?
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@splinterknight: @delong @ObsoleteDogma Hopefully brighten. And, @delong, it would be great if you jumped into the debate with your next @prosyn piece
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@delong: .@splinterknight What debate? Back in 2007 we thought that austerity was probably a bad idea at the ZLB for economies without foreign-denominated debt, and with their own central banks, that could print reserve-currency assets. Everything since 2007 has strengthened confidence in that view. Nothing has weakened it. For such economies, at current interest rates, it is highly likely that money- and bond-financed infrastructure broadly defined, and likely that general government spending or tax reduction initiatives pay for themselves. Such economies should undertake them. Those that worry about interest-rate risk should borrow long and lock low rates in. Those with confidence in monetary control should do normal debt management. At the level of the ideas, there is nothing to debate. At the level of public discourse, there is nobody on the other side worth debating. Skidelsky has it right. Full stop. @ObsoleteDogma @ProSyn
- @splinterknight: @delong This is exactly the column I’d love to read from you.
- @splinterknight: fair enough