Category Fiscal policy
The 30 years non-war over the debt burden. Plus Samuelsonian NGDP bonds.
I thought we all had this debt burden stuff sorted out 30 years ago. Obviously we didn't. We should have had a bigger argument about it 30 years ago, which would have sorted it all out. But we didn't. Maybe because we spent all our time arguing about other stuff 30 years ago, and didn't […]
Does Dwight Duncan Believe in Magic?
Ontario is Canada’s largest province and befitting its status as the Queen of Confederation, now has the largest provincial debt and deficit in the country. In dealing with the provincial fiscal situation, much rests on the program spending review being conducted by economist Don Drummond. Due to be delivered by the end of January, it […]
Debt is too a burden on our children (unless you believe in Ricardian Equivalence)
So, I was out there shovelling snow, thinking about writing a post on the burden of the debt on future generations. And about how macroeconomists' beliefs on this question had silently shifted about 30 years ago, and about how we as a profession have engaged in a sort of "memory falsification" (like Timur Kuran's concept […]
Italian Public Finance
It is odd how ideas, thought and reading evolve over the course of a day. I started off early this morning reading Nick Rowe’s post on structural deficits in the Eurozone and assorted news stories on the European crisis. I then began working in my office and while shuffling a few books on my desk […]
What is a (Eurozone) “structural deficit”, again?
I don't have much to say about the latest EU "agreement" that hasn't already been said. To me, it looks just like the old "stability and growth pact" warmed over, and with a bunch of judges having to approve budgets. (Does this mean we are going to leave fiscal policy to the lawyers? Do they […]
Could the ECB become the central fiscal authority?
There is only one way to save the Euro now. The ECB acts as lender of last resort to the 17 Eurozone governments. But nobody would want to act as lender of last resort to a deadbeat, and the ECB wouldn't want to act as lender of last resort to a fiscal deadbeat. With the […]
Negative natural rates of interest and NGDP targets
My colleague and co-blogger Frances Woolley doesn't do macroeconomics and monetary theory. It's not her cup of tea at all. But when I started to write a response to Steve Waldman's very good post on NGDP targeting, I found myself writing about Frances' also very good post on demographics and saving for retirement. Steve: meet […]
Canada’s Provincial Debt Divide
The release of the 2011 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables is a good opportunity for me to refresh myself with an assortment of public finance statistics. What caught my attention this year was the evolution of the east-west divide in provincial public debt.
The world wants more US government debt. The US Treasury should supply it.
This fascinating story came out during the psychodrama of the US debt ceiling: U.S. Treasury debt prices soared on Friday on fears a U.S. default could trigger a shortage of Treasuries and even push the world's largest economy back into recession. On the face of it, this makes no sense. The market's reaction to a […]
My answers to Steven Landsburg’s two questions
Steven Landsburg asks two questions, in two related blog posts. I'm going to give my answers, taking the two questions in reverse order.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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