There's an interesting counterpoint between Christina Romer's new piece in the Economist on the lessons of 1937 and the poll results, which are alarming some commentators, showing that a majority of Americans give deficit reduction a higher priority than rescuing the economy. First of all, Ms. Romer's point -- that a premature return to orthodoxy can be deadly in this kind of crisis -- is one I might have made myself. In fact, I just did. I also liked her admission that As someone who has written somewhat critically of the short-sightedness of policymakers in the late 1930s, I feel new humility. I can see that the pressures they were under were probably enormous. My version of that admission is the statement that we owe the Japanese an apology: their stop-go policies in the 90s, the reluctance to reform banking, are a lot easier to understand now.
There's an interesting counterpoint between Christina Romer's new piece in the Economist on the lessons of 1937 and the poll results, which are alarming some commentators, showing that a majority of Americans give deficit reduction a higher priority than rescuing the economy.
First of all, Ms. Romer's point -- that a premature return to orthodoxy can be deadly in this kind of crisis -- is one I might have made myself. In fact, I just did.
I also liked her admission that
As someone who has written somewhat critically of the short-sightedness of policymakers in the late 1930s, I feel new humility. I can see that the pressures they were under were probably enormous.
My version of that admission is the statement that we owe the Japanese an apology: their stop-go policies in the 90s, the reluctance to reform banking, are a lot easier to understand now.
