J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2286
June 13, 2010
David "Herbert Hoover" Cameron and George "Andrew Mellon" Osborne Destroy Business Confidence in the British Economy
And no sooner did Paul Krugman start worrying about the effect of rapid deficit reduction on business confidence than this came across the luminiferous ether:
BBC News - UK business confidence sees 'record drop': Business confidence among UK firms has seen its biggest drop since 1995 due to the government's rhetoric on spending cuts, a survey suggests. The Business Trends survey from accountants BDO fell to 97 in May from 103.3 the previous month - the largest drop since the survey...
We Read Duncan Black on a Failure of the Obama Administration
The only thing that you needed to know to understand the Principles of Animalism in Animal Farm was "four legs good, two legs bad"[1:].
Similarly, the only thing you needed to know to understand the macroeconomic policy line of the Obama administration--or, rather, what the macroeconomic policy line should be--is "short-run deficit spending to speed short-term recovery, long-run budget balance to enable long-term growth."
That is the right economic policy for the country.
And that is a...
Costs of Fiscal Austerity
Paul Krugman writes:
Does Fiscal Austerity Reassure Markets?: For the most part, this debate has been between those like me and Brad DeLong, who assert that budget-cutting should be postponed until we’re no longer in a liquidity trap, and those who insist that we must cut immediately, even though it would inflict economic damage and do little to improve the long-run budget position, because immediate cuts are necessary to achieve credibility with the markets.
I would add that we...
DeLong Smackdown Watch for June 13, 2010: Tax Lawyer on Robert A. Heinlein
Hoisted from Comments: Tax Lawyer writes:
Tax Lawyer: Brad, I am a big fan of yours, and read your blog every couple of days. But you have got my goat in your Starship Troopers post. First, the movie and the book are very different. Second, Heinlein wasn't a war-mongering conservative. Spider Robinson, my second favorite author behind Nancy Kress, posted this defense of Heinlein criticism, and I can't agree with him more http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/works/articles/rahrahrah.html
Liveblogging World War II: June 13, 1940
Churchill: "We fight alone."
Ismay: "I am glad of it. We will win the Battle of Britain."
Churchill: "You and I will be dead in three months' time."
June 12, 2010
DeLong Smackdown of the Day for June 12, 2010: Robert Waldmann New Deal Unemployment Edition
Hoisted from Comments: Robert Waldmann writes:
I'm with Michael Darby on This One: As a certified angrybear, I thank you for the link (growl). As someone who used Lebergott's numbers without reading the footnotes, I suggest [i.e., wy didn't you do this already? you messed up:] cutting and pasting the methodological footnote in which Lebergott assertst that it is reasonable to considert the WPA to be essnetially the same as Buchenwald, Dachau and the gulag (I am not exaggerating at...
I'm with Michael Darby on This One...
Those working for the government on relief projects during the Great Depression certainly didn't act as though they were unemployed--it was, in fact, rather difficult to pull them into higher-paid private employment.
This is important because whether those employed by relief agencies and projects during the New Deal are best thought of as "employed" or "unemployed" does a lot to drive views of Roosevelt's New Deal as successful or unsuccessful.
Mike Kimel at Angry Bear:
Winston Churchill Liveblogs World War II: June 12, 1940
Churchill:
During the night of the 11th-12th fog prevented the ships from evacuating the troops.... The French corps capitulated at 8, and the remains of the Highland Division were forced to do so at 10:30 AM. Only 1350 British officers and men and 930 French escaped; 8000 British and 4000 French fell into the hands of the 7th Panzer Division.... I was vexed that the French had not allowed our division to retire on Rouen in good time, but had kept it wainting till it could neither...
June 11, 2010
links for 2010-06-11
John Stuart Mill: Essays on Some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy
Barry Ritholtz on Art Laffer: Make Up Your Own Facts Here | The Big Picture
Matthew Yglesias: Future Lobbyist Evan Bayh Is a Blot Upon the Nation
MY reads this in the National Journal: "Another key swing voter, retiring Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind....
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