dimelab dimelab: shrinking the gap between talk and action.

Paul Krugman Blog Topic in The Credit Debacle Catalog

Wed 2010-07-21 10:30 EDT

More On Deficit Limits - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

Jamie Galbraith responded to this post in comments; what he said, and my counter-response...Galbraith: ...The so-called long-term deficit is not a real problem. And the capital markets demonstrate every day that they agree with this judgment, by buying long-term Treasury bonds for historically-low interest rates. My response: there's no question that right now there is no problem: if the Fed issues money, it will in fact just sit there...But we won't always be in this situation -- or at least I hope not!...At that point, money that the government prints won't just sit there, it will feed inflation, and the government will indeed need to persuade the private sector to make resources available for government use...

com; deficit limit; NYTimes; Paul Krugman Blog.

Wed 2010-07-21 10:28 EDT

I Would Do Anything For Stimulus, But I Won't Do That (Wonkish) - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

...there's a school of thought which says that deficits are never a problem, as long as a country can issue its own currency. The most prominent advocate of this view is probably Jamie Galbraith, but he's not alone...OK, I don't think that's right. To spend, the government must persuade the private sector to release real resources. It can do this by collecting taxes, borrowing, or collecting seignorage by printing money. And there are limits to all three. Even a country with its own fiat currency can go bankrupt, if it tries hard enough...

com; NYTimes; Paul Krugman Blog; stimulus; wonkish.