Here.
And I'm still not sure exactly what he's criticizing. Dismissing Keynesians on savings, he concludes with "Physical goods (and services) and the medium of account—focus like a laser on those two things, and macro becomes incredibly simple."
Right... isn't that why Keynesians talk about physical goods and services and the unit of account? I'm really baffled by what he's thinking of what he talks about Keynesianism.
Off topic, but Boudreaux goes full tard on the Krugman/debt issue here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/boudreaux/s_775944.html
I can't tell, but to me it seems like he's crossed the line into saying things he knows aren't true.
IB
Sumner was on EconTalk recently and this disucssion you are having have helped clarify Sumners think a lot for me. Sumner seems to be insisting that literally nothing but NGDP matters to an economy.
ReplyDeleteRelevant to this dicussion, the composition of NGDP doesn't matter beyond that its increasing or decreasing. In keynesian economics investment/savings is essential because that's where the economic breakdown occurs in Keynsian theory. But it seems to me that for Sumner the actual mechanism of the pathology that causes disruptions in NGDP are irrelevant.
I dunno, I could be wrong, but definitely from that quote Sumner is saying nothing matters but the level of Real GDP + Prices as a function of the money supply.
Whoa, badly edited post, my apologies. That's a function of knowing that I should not be posting blog comments but should be working on my dissertation.
ReplyDeleteThe edited version:
Sumner was on EconTalk recently. That conversation and this disucssion you are having here have helped clarify Sumners thinking a lot for me. Sumner seems to be insisting that literally nothing but the level of the NGDP aggregate matters.
Relevant to this dicussion, the composition of NGDP doesn't matter beyond that its increasing or decreasing. In Keynesian economics investment/savings is essential because that's where the economic breakdown occur. But it seems to me that for Sumner the actual mechanism of the pathology that causes disruptions in NGDP are irrelevant.
I dunno, I could be wrong, but definitely from that quote Sumner is saying nothing matters but the level of Real GDP + Prices as a function of the money supply.
Sumner has just been trained to regard Keynes as wrong, even when he's agreeing with him. His posts on Keynes are so strange that I don't know where to begin (mind you, all of his posts are pretty strange).
ReplyDeleteThe Keynesian model suggests that macro policy *can* impact real GDP - a lower rate of interest will stimulate sustainable investment. Sumner needs to realise this as he thinks that it can only affect NGDP.
ReplyDelete