Ah-ha! Mr. DeLong commits the notorious "lump-of-tricks fallacy", the gloomy idea that there are only so many macroeconomic tricks to go round. History has shown, however, that an increase in the supply of new macroeconomic problems always produces its own demand for new macroeconomic solutions. Instead of a fixed "bag" of macroeconomic tricks, there is an ever-increasing flow of new ones.
It is depressing that a supposedly well-trained economist would continue to pretend to be unaware of the old "'lump-of-tricks fallacy": the illusion that the output of economists and hence the total amount of tricks available are fixed. On 8/3/06, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
By Brad DeLong What can be done to head off the danger? Unfortunately, very little. The bag of macroeconomic tricks is empty.
-- Sandwichman
