tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948982521501107752.post8124583304502825613..comments2023-10-21T09:03:15.270-04:00Comments on Rogue Economist Rants: Recent economist writeups on John Maynard KeynesRogue Economisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03439817966760459091noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948982521501107752.post-9059538761436466242009-06-02T15:58:28.346-04:002009-06-02T15:58:28.346-04:00Ironically, the spending intended to stimulate the...Ironically, the spending intended to stimulate the economy ARE pork projects and "bridges to no-where".<br /><br />Keynesian Fiscal Policy is hard to achieve in this manner, as a majority of projects done merely to stimulate the economy result in nothing done but money being spent and no worthwhile gain otherwise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948982521501107752.post-5354141489790286622008-12-01T07:18:00.000-05:002008-12-01T07:18:00.000-05:00Robert Reich argues that we need a debate on how b...Robert Reich argues that we need a debate on how best to apply Keynesian policies in the US today. I agree with the thrust of what Laura Harrison writes - that we also need a debate about the fact that the revival of the United States economy depends on the revival of the global economy, and vice versa. So the US needs to provide leadership to the rest of the world economy, and this needs to encourage other major countries to act in ways that will be helpful to us. To give leadership in this, we need to stand firm against protectionism ourselves, as well as coordinating our fiscal (tax cuts or spending) and monetary stimuli with other major economies. Markwell's book on Keynes and international relations leads me to believe that this is precisely what Keynes had in mind in the 1930s (after he got over his short temptation to protectionism) and would again today. Keynesianism has to be internationally focussed if it is really to work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948982521501107752.post-61410082612203135622008-12-01T06:44:00.000-05:002008-12-01T06:44:00.000-05:00In the love/hate blogathon of Paul Krugman and Gre...In the love/hate blogathon of Paul Krugman and Greg Mankiw...<BR/><BR/>It is significant that Greg Mankiw, an economist with links to Bush and Romney, should in his excellent article encourage us to approach the current economic crisis through the eyes of John Maynard Keynes. <BR/><BR/>However, his answer to the question "what would Keynes have done?" ignores an element that would clearly have been uppermost in Keynes's mind - how to get international action to solve the crisis. <BR/><BR/>Keynes would clearly have wanted international coordination of economic policies (monetary and fiscal) between the major economies, and would have wanted international economic institutions (the World Bank and the IMF, both of which he helped to found) to act in ways to free individual countries to take action (e.g. fiscal stiumulus) to overcome the crisis. <BR/><BR/>Anyone wanting background to this integral part of Keynes' thinking should read Donald Markwell's path-breaking study of "John Maynard Keynes and International Relations, Economic Paths to War and Peace", published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. <BR/><BR/>Mankiw's argument that it is hard to see how to get effective stimulus to consumption, investment, net exports and even government purchases makes it even more important that the United States provide leadership and encouragement to international action to overcome the crisis - and all the more surprising that in this otherwise compelling article he neglects to say anything about US leadership to get international stimulatory action. <BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, Krugman's response to Mankiw - in his blog on Saturday - does not make this point about the need for international cooperation on economic policy. He does make it, in effect, in his excellent article in the NY Review of Books, where he talks of a "global rescue",etc. <BR/><BR/>It is a shame Krugman does not (as Keynes would have done!) argue the case for international action in his blog and NY Times articles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com