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Lively articles on the fiscal stimulus debate
17th February 2010
“Around the world over the last century, the typical financial crisis caused the jobless rate to rise for almost five years, according to work by the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff.”
David Leonhardt - writing in the New York Times - praises the employment effects of the Obama stimulus programme in a super piece. Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success
And over at the Financial Times, the ever-readable Martin Wolf considers the thickness of the fiscal tightrope facing the US government and other leading economies.
“The argument is, rather, that the benefits of the higher output today exceed the costs of debt service tomorrow ....high-income countries face huge fiscal challenges. And yes, the crisis-hit countries start from grossly unsustainable fiscal positions. But the US is not Greece. Moreover, a massive fiscal tightening today would be a grave error.”
More here
And here is the link to last week’s feature in the Independent on the views of economist Joseph Stiglitz: The Money Man: Super-economist Joseph Stiglitz on how to fix the recession
All three of these articles will stretch and challenge A2 economists wanting to understand more about the big fiscal issues facing governments at the moment.
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.