Captured in its entirety at NYT:
My heart goes out to Brad DeLong, who debated Alan Reynolds and discovered that his opponent really doesn’t understand at all how either fiscal or monetary policy work.
But here’s what I find remarkable about Reynolds and people like him: they have a track record. Here’s Reynolds in 2009 ridiculing my claims that we were in a liquidity trap, so that even large increases in the monetary base would not be inflationary. Here he is in 2010 declaring that Ireland’s embrace of harsh spending cuts will produce an economic boom.
And here we are in 2013, with the Fed’s balance sheet up by more than 200 percent and no inflation, with Ireland still mired in a deep slump with at best slight hints of an upturn. And Reynolds remains quite sure that he knows The Truth about macroeconomics and that Keynesians are fools.
It’s quite impressive, really.
If you're gonna have a debate that actually means something, then both sides hafta know what they're talking about.
In way too many instances, the "conservatives" keep trying to tell us they know something when it's obvious they don't.
I imagine we'll eventually hear somebody come right out and say, "Austerity didn't fail - we failed austerity".
Speaking of Getting It Wrong
But here’s what I find remarkable about Reynolds and people like him: they have a track record. Here’s Reynolds in 2009 ridiculing my claims that we were in a liquidity trap, so that even large increases in the monetary base would not be inflationary. Here he is in 2010 declaring that Ireland’s embrace of harsh spending cuts will produce an economic boom.
And here we are in 2013, with the Fed’s balance sheet up by more than 200 percent and no inflation, with Ireland still mired in a deep slump with at best slight hints of an upturn. And Reynolds remains quite sure that he knows The Truth about macroeconomics and that Keynesians are fools.
It’s quite impressive, really.
If you're gonna have a debate that actually means something, then both sides hafta know what they're talking about.
In way too many instances, the "conservatives" keep trying to tell us they know something when it's obvious they don't.
I imagine we'll eventually hear somebody come right out and say, "Austerity didn't fail - we failed austerity".
I would be more than delighted to debate Krugman in print or in person or on TV or on radio about Ireland and/or the liquidity trap. I have answered his gross errors several times (it's all at the cato website), but Paul writes more than he reads.
ReplyDeleteAlan
I really appreciate you droppin' by, Mr Reynolds. And I'll pass your challenge on to The KrugMan. Maybe we can get like some kinda Cage Match thing goin'. Thanks again.
DeleteIf we were in a liquidity trap, as Krugman says, then Ben Bernanke's "quantitative easing" could not raise the growth of nominal GDP (whether real growth or inflation). So, his call for higher inflation is contradictory.
DeleteOn September 30, 2010, Ireland announced a massive bank bailout that pushed spending up to 69% of GDP. Did Trichet or I know Ireland would do that in March-June 2010? No we did not. Krugman's recent graph shows real GDP was rising before the insane bank bailouts, then suffered a big setback.
Even in 2012, after that passed, spending/GDP was more than 6 percentage points higher than it was in 2007. That's austerity?
Meanwhile Iceland pulled spending down from 57.6% of GDP in 2008 to 46.1% in 2011, and the economy then began to produce what Krugman calls a "unorthodox. . . economic miracle." Krugman prefers name-calling to evidence for obvious reasons.
Things are going great in America now. The economy is wonderful and we only have Keynesians to thank. I get those stacks of money they print, how about you?
ReplyDelete