The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
Problem with this is a person with a high debt load would be better off using this central bank credit to pay down debt rather than consume.
Another proposal I have seen notes that, were the current $85 billion/month distributed on a per capita per month basis it would constitute an additional $300/month income for all individuals. For a family of three that would be an additional $900/month. If we have been doing this for years for the financial sector why can't we do it for the private sector - at least until we start seeing inflation. "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
More from Krugman's post: So you might be tempted to say that monetary policy has consistently been too loose. After all, haven't low interest rates been encouraging repeated bubbles? But as Larry emphasizes, there's a big problem with the claim that monetary policy has been too loose: where's the inflation? Where has the overheated economy been visible? So how can you reconcile repeated bubbles with an economy showing no sign of inflationary pressures? Summers's answer is that we may be an economy that needs bubbles just to achieve something near full employment - that in the absence of bubbles the economy has a negative natural rate of interest. And this hasn't just been true since the 2008 financial crisis; it has arguably been true, although perhaps with increasing severity, since the 1980s. OF COURSE all the growth since Reagan can be associated with bubbles. When wages are suppressed in all but the financial sector almost all discretionary income ends up in the hands of the already well off. Wealth holders seek profitable employment for their wealth and find it in a series of asset bubbles. And this is largely invisible to 'Mainstream Economics' as it wants to 'look through the veil of money' and take a Net Money View, which treats all debts and credits between private domestic sector agents as merely debts owed between agents INSIDE the economy which should be netted out. Nothing to see there. Move on folks. It is unseemly for you to stare at the wealth of the rich. They stole their money fair and square - right before your eyes. You couldn't see it because of the economics they had spent so much of their wealth teaching you - if you did not remain a confused, ignorant wretch.
So you might be tempted to say that monetary policy has consistently been too loose. After all, haven't low interest rates been encouraging repeated bubbles? But as Larry emphasizes, there's a big problem with the claim that monetary policy has been too loose: where's the inflation? Where has the overheated economy been visible? So how can you reconcile repeated bubbles with an economy showing no sign of inflationary pressures? Summers's answer is that we may be an economy that needs bubbles just to achieve something near full employment - that in the absence of bubbles the economy has a negative natural rate of interest. And this hasn't just been true since the 2008 financial crisis; it has arguably been true, although perhaps with increasing severity, since the 1980s.
But as Larry emphasizes, there's a big problem with the claim that monetary policy has been too loose: where's the inflation? Where has the overheated economy been visible?
So how can you reconcile repeated bubbles with an economy showing no sign of inflationary pressures? Summers's answer is that we may be an economy that needs bubbles just to achieve something near full employment - that in the absence of bubbles the economy has a negative natural rate of interest. And this hasn't just been true since the 2008 financial crisis; it has arguably been true, although perhaps with increasing severity, since the 1980s.
OF COURSE all the growth since Reagan can be associated with bubbles. When wages are suppressed in all but the financial sector almost all discretionary income ends up in the hands of the already well off. Wealth holders seek profitable employment for their wealth and find it in a series of asset bubbles. And this is largely invisible to 'Mainstream Economics' as it wants to 'look through the veil of money' and take a Net Money View, which treats all debts and credits between private domestic sector agents as merely debts owed between agents INSIDE the economy which should be netted out. Nothing to see there. Move on folks. It is unseemly for you to stare at the wealth of the rich. They stole their money fair and square - right before your eyes. You couldn't see it because of the economics they had spent so much of their wealth teaching you - if you did not remain a confused, ignorant wretch.
To impose deflation today to compensate for inflation yesterday is industrial-grade distilled insanity.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
by Frank Schnittger - May 31
by Oui - May 30 25 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 23 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 27 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 5 22 comments
by Oui - May 13 66 comments
by Oui - Jun 221 comments
by Oui - Jun 17 comments
by Oui - May 3137 comments
by Oui - May 3025 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 273 comments
by Oui - May 2737 comments
by Oui - May 24
by Frank Schnittger - May 233 comments
by Oui - May 1366 comments
by Oui - May 913 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 522 comments
by Oui - May 450 comments
by Oui - May 312 comments
by Oui - Apr 30273 comments
by Oui - Apr 2652 comments
by Oui - Apr 895 comments
by Oui - Mar 19145 comments