Paul Krugman piles on:Hum....War and non-remembrance: As I’ve already pointed out,the prospect of a Keynesian stimulus is having a weird effect on conservative economists, as first-rate economists keep making truly boneheaded arguments against the effort. The latest entry: Robert Barro argues that the multiplier on government spending is low because real GDP during World War II rose by less than military spending.
Actually, I’ve already taken that one on. But just to say it again: there was a war on. Consumer goods were rationed; people were urged to restrain their spending to make resources available for the war effort. Oh, and the economy was at full employment — and then some. Rosie the Riveter, anyone?
I can’t quite imagine the mindset that leads someone to forget all this, and think that you can use World War II to estimate the multiplier that might prevail in an underemployed, rationing-free economy.
[ cf: Paul Krugman on Robert Barro ]
There they go again, trying to limit the debate to merely the factual, actual, and the History that was lived in this Reality...
Oh hold it, not that one...
There they go again, dissing our valiant fighting forces who would be in a war equivolent to world war II, if the attack had been against one of our exterior colonial possessions, and had been followed up with an actual declaration of war, and a conversion of the economy to a war Footing with the massive sale of War Bonds to suck up any possible inflationary pressure....
Which we would have done, but that would have required a break with the already established Klintonesta Policies, not to mention the GreenSpanianisms that advocatd for a Homeland Security Investment Bubble to replace the frailty of relying on a Houseing Bubble after a Tech Bubble...
oh, not that one, since no one is buying the GreenSpanianIsm, and let uus be honest, if they had bought the whole WWII thing, without the WWII economics, uh, then there would never have been the dirth of boots on the ground, and there would have been a commitment to an Actual Marshal Plan for Iraq, et al, rather than more of the same old failed Disaster Capitalism....
So, uh....
BAD DRUGS!!! No Cookie!!!
Do NOT DO BAD DRUGS!!! Bad Drugs make Bad Economics...