August 22, 2011
Okay, that is just not true. Congress can do another big round of stimulus. It could mandate a reduction in the value of the dollar in order to boost net exports. Or it could push an aggressive work sharing program like the one that has led the unemployment rate to fall below pre-recession levels in Germany.
The Fed could target a long-term interest rate. For example it can set a 1.0 percent target for the 5-year Treasury rate. Or it could target a higher rate of inflation, committing itself to throw out enough reserves as necessary to raise the inflation rate to 4.0 percent, a policy that Bernanke advocated for Japan back when he was still a professor at Princeton.
It is simply wrong to claim, as NPR did in this piece, that there is nothing more than Congress and the Fed can do to boost the economy. If it wants to say that none of these measures are politically viable, that may well be a true statement. But then the problem is with the people who dominate politics in the country. It is a political problem, not an economic one and NPR should clearly identify it as such.
[Thanks to Jonathan Lundell.]
Comments