Jay Powell at the helm of the Federal Reserve and Janet Yellen, his predecessor and now Secretary of the Treasury are pushing hard to get people safely back to work as soon as possible. Amen.
If you're interested in the history of the fight for full employment, you might like this 1966 report to congress on the ever present worry of robots taking our jobs. In which they find its probably not a big deal but that we absolutely should implement a Job Guarantee program because any form of involuntary unemployment is a moral failure and leaving economic growth on the table. It likely also played a role in getting the dual mandate.
Just finished your Hexapodia episode - great stuff! Also pleased someone at the NYT knew enough to ask you to do that piece on the New Fed.
Hope Noah and Brad have you back to do automatic stabilizers. I’m old enough to recall them fondly, and they might even be (barely) within DeLong’s living memory. He’ll certainly know their history and how they disappeared from the macro toolkit.
As a non-economist who follows several economic writers I am not sure what your message is about inflation. Perhaps I haven't read the right stuff from you but I would like to clarify what you are saying. It is clear you think inflation fears are very overblown. But I am unclear whether you think the stimulus packages will not cause price inflation or will cause minor inflation but be, nonetheless, a true stimulus or will cause more than minor inflation (short-term or long term) but such inflation is of no concern for our long run economic welfare.
Perhaps you can direct me to a more detailed argument of your position. For example, in this article you mention that inflation actually helps main street even if it hurts Wall Street by devaluing the dollars used to repay debt. By one interpretation you are saying there will be (or may be) price inflation but it can be a good thing for some people.
Thanks for your thought provoking writings. Different from what I am used to seeing - which is a good thing.
If you're interested in the history of the fight for full employment, you might like this 1966 report to congress on the ever present worry of robots taking our jobs. In which they find its probably not a big deal but that we absolutely should implement a Job Guarantee program because any form of involuntary unemployment is a moral failure and leaving economic growth on the table. It likely also played a role in getting the dual mandate.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924050772056&view=1up&seq=13
Just finished your Hexapodia episode - great stuff! Also pleased someone at the NYT knew enough to ask you to do that piece on the New Fed.
Hope Noah and Brad have you back to do automatic stabilizers. I’m old enough to recall them fondly, and they might even be (barely) within DeLong’s living memory. He’ll certainly know their history and how they disappeared from the macro toolkit.
Keep the hits coming,
Another Claudia
As a non-economist who follows several economic writers I am not sure what your message is about inflation. Perhaps I haven't read the right stuff from you but I would like to clarify what you are saying. It is clear you think inflation fears are very overblown. But I am unclear whether you think the stimulus packages will not cause price inflation or will cause minor inflation but be, nonetheless, a true stimulus or will cause more than minor inflation (short-term or long term) but such inflation is of no concern for our long run economic welfare.
Perhaps you can direct me to a more detailed argument of your position. For example, in this article you mention that inflation actually helps main street even if it hurts Wall Street by devaluing the dollars used to repay debt. By one interpretation you are saying there will be (or may be) price inflation but it can be a good thing for some people.
Thanks for your thought provoking writings. Different from what I am used to seeing - which is a good thing.