Simon Wren-Lewis: Yes, governments are cyclic

In particular, if we have a demand gap of X that lasts for Y years, we can fill it by raising government spending by X for Y years, and pay for it by reducing government spending in later years. A practical example of what I call a pure government spending stimulus would be bringing forward public investment.

Anyone with an eight grade education can open up any Fed chart and see that, yes indeed, the aggregate governments of North America are cyclic. What is his friggin point? And why does he think there is mysterious magic in cyclic governments?  In North America, the Southwest government is cyclic, the Great Lakes government is cyclic, and the East Coast government is cyclic.

I mean, we have gone past this observation, some 100 millions different voters have looked at a Fed chart and discovered that governments are cyclic. What we need is a North American economist who can figure out the cycles. For example, why does the California government have a 8 year flounder and a 3 year growth period? Why is the long term cycle for the Great Lakes down? Why does Central America cycle along with North American governments?

If this is the best that Simon Wren-Lewis can do in terms of econometrics, then he should get out of the class room.