History Matters
In a video discussion with the Institute for New Economic Thinking, economist Barry Eichengreen of UC-Berkeley explains why economists need to pay attention to history.
No Reason For Optimism Here
From an article in The New York Review of Books written by Elizabeth Drew …
In the end, the President had made the Republicans look bad, but what did he get for it? He ended up agreeing to new restrictions that will hamstring his policies for as long as he serves in office. His own actions will have led to new laws that forbid him to borrow money for any government policy—unless, at some time, he goes out and campaigns hard for raising taxes in any form. His actions so far shed light on how likely that is.
…
This country’s economy is beset with a number of new difficulties, among them that recovery from the last recession remains more elusive than was generally expected, while the US is confronting a variety of international economic instabilities, especially the large debts and possible default of several countries in the eurozone, bringing on unpopular austerity measures. Recent experience with what should have been a simple matter of raising the debt ceiling, normally done with no difficulty, is reason for deep unease about our political system’s ability to deal with such challenges.
Around The Dial – July 26, 2011
Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
- Economix speaks of “loopholes and potholes.”
- Paul Krugman isn’t into “messing with Medicare.”
- Rortybomb doesn’t like bond-rating activism.
- Dani Rodrik thinks about “the future of economic growth.”
- The New York Times reports on discrimination against unemployed workers.
- Giles Merritt wonders what happened to the EU’s foreign policy.
A Crisis Only If You Make It One
In the video interview below, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism argues that the U.S. debt crisis is a manufactured one intended to force cuts to entitlement programs. And, she manages to work in a reference to Blazing Saddles in the process.
Fighting Global Poverty
The Economist has a cup of tea with economist Abhijit Banerjee of MIT and discusses ideas for addressing global poverty.
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