[I'm sorry if I repeat some of what raghu said.] Eugene Coyle wrote: > >From the NY Times: > > "For context, the economy now produces as many goods and services — more, in > fact — as it did before the downturn officially began in December 2007. But > it does so with almost five million fewer jobs." > > full at > http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/04/business/economy/us-added-163000-jobs-in-july-jobless-rate-ticked-up.html?_r=1&hp > > Do you think monetary and fiscal policy it going to produce as many jobs as > the public desires?
both fiscal and monetary policy is stymied by political conflict, with the Fed being blocked by the Wall Street/banking bloc, which irrationally fears inflation. It's possible that neither would work (as with monetary policy hitting the minimum possible interest rates, banks being loath to lend and firms & households reluctant to borrow, no matter what the rates), but they're not going to be given a chance to try, except maybe after the election. (Then, it's possible that we'll see intensified fiscal austerity combine with impotent monetary policy.) > What if you throw in devaluing the dollar? The trade-weighted US$ exchange rate (vs. major currencies) been falling since 2001 and it's one of the reasons that the US export sector and manufacturing are (relatively) bright spots in the US economy. But in a stagnant world economy, further depreciation of this sort would simply be stealing demand from Europe, etc. There's a good chance of "beggar thy neighbor" via competitive depreciation. I don't see why Dean Baker is so optimistic about depreciation as a cure. Instead, if the world capitalist elite really wants recovery, they should have a conference to organize coordinated expansion of the major countries, perhaps with the US as the "locomotive" pulling the "train." > Or is it time to introduce a drastic cut in the work week? good idea, but is there a political movement of sufficient strength to push this program (hopefully without weekly pay-cuts)? did anyone advocate this program as part of the Occupy movement? -- Jim Devine / If you're going to support the lesser of two evils, you should at least know the nature of that evil. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
