Things to Read on the Morning of February 3, 2015
Must- and Shall-Reads:
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(2013): John Taylor the Republican Contradicts John Taylor the Economist: “John Taylor… [says] we would be better off with tighter monetary policy, and greatly tighter fiscal policy. And the other smoking guns causing the crisis (lax regulation, global imbalances, irrational exuberance, politically motivated lending to subprime borrowers, etc) were a sideshow…. Taylor’s remarks sounded like a classic Republican critique of monetary and fiscal policy… objected to QE, fearful that it would stoke up inflation… objected to the stimulus package because it went against their preference for small government. But this Republican critique flies in the face of Taylor’s… work took on the causes of the business cycle, what monetary policy can do about it, and, by very close analogy, what fiscal policy can do too…” -
: Persistent Overoptimism about Economic Growth: “Since 2007, Federal Open Market Committee participants have been persistently too optimistic about future U.S. economic growth. Real GDP growth forecasts have typically started high, but then are revised down over time as the incoming data continue to disappoint. Possible explanations for this pattern include missed warning signals about the buildup of imbalances before the crisis, overestimation of the efficacy of monetary policy following a balance-sheet recession, and the natural tendency of forecasters to extrapolate from recent data.” -
: Who’s Unreasonable Now?: “Yanis Varoufakis is saying that he and his colleagues don’t care what happens to the headline value of the debt…. What they want instead is… reducing the amount of resources transferred to creditors from 4.5 to 1-1.5 percent of GDP… flexibility to achieve these surpluses with a mix that includes more revenue and less spending austerity. This is a dastardly ploy by those left-wing radicals. You see, it’s completely reasonable…”
Should Be Aware of:
- : “‘Merits of [Jeet Heer’s](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120884/new-republics-legacy-race) story aside, it is hard to evaluate the decision to publish it outside of Chris Hughes’s desire to justify his mismanagement and ineptitude,’ Jonathan Chait, one of the contributing editors who left, said in an interview…” <– Jonathan Chait makes his play to become the Mickey Kaus of the twenty-first century…
- : David Brooks Auditions For Graham Greene
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: Defining Issue of 2016?): “Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton: The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest”