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".