Monday, June 20, 2011

Who listens to Alan Binder

No, that's not a typo. House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans regularly rail against "job-killing government spending." Think about that for a minute. The claim is that employment actually declines when federal spending rises. Using the same illogic, employment should soar if we made massive cuts in public spending.. WSJ

Alan Binder is a dunce:
For example, how is it that public purchases of computers destroy jobs but private purchases of computers create them?

Answer: The amount of energy needed to produce the last batch of computers make it uneconomical in the market. So, Congress, when spending on computers is buying computers whose production causes layoffs as energy is unnecessarily consumed. Now, California is hit with excessive federal debt service for computers we never needed. That is called multiplier less than one.

Take at look at the rise of federal debt since 1980, and also look at ten year yields and wage distribution. What does it tells us? Productivity and GDP lower when Congress spends excessively via debt.

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