The Fed Succession

[Ideologue]

No, but fed spending has increased while state spending has receded.

Additionally: the running deficit, such as it is, is in large part thanks to the collapse of the tax base during a recession, while entitlement expenditures automatically increased.  I'm not sure food stamps and UI count as a deliberate "stimulus."

[Razgovory]

How does that compare to contraction at the state level?

Pretty sure no state is running a surplus.

http://www.businessinsider.com/27-states-project-budget-surplus-by-the-end-of-the-year-2012-6

There might be a few.

[Admiral Yi]

No, but fed spending has increased while state spending has receded.

Additionally: the running deficit, such as it is, is in large part thanks to the collapse of the tax base during a recession, while entitlement expenditures automatically increased.  I'm not sure food stamps and UI count as a deliberate "stimulus."

Keynesian theory is not dependent on the level of spending, rather on the amount of spending that is financed by borrowing.  If the public sector were 80% of GDP (i.e., Cuba) one could still run at a surplus and be contractionary in Keynesian terms.

[DGuller]

Yeah... I'm not sure that the argument that goldbugs, Austrian school followers, and ignoramuses won't harm the American economy because "common sense says they won't have any influence" (that's a rephrasing) is that convincing.

Fahdiz is clearly picking on Raz on inertia, and not because he has a good argument.

[Ed Anger]

Speaking of Silver, I've lost 10 bucks an ounce since I let a friend repay a debt in Silver. TEN BUCKS AN OUNCE. WHARGARBLL.

[garbon]

since I let a friend repay a debt in Silver.

WTF?

[Razgovory]

since I let a friend repay a debt in Silver.

WTF?

He had to buy a flagon of mead.

[CountDeMoney]

since I let a friend repay a debt in Silver.

WTF?

Ed Anger, SVP, Bazaar Finance and Administration.

[Ed Anger]

since I let a friend repay a debt in Silver.

WTF?

I didn't know commodity prices were going to go into the toilet.

[Ed Anger]

I did buy a shitload of ammo for a bit of it. LOL BARTER SYSTEM

[MadImmortalMan]

Any good stuff yet from any non-crazies either in favor of or criticizing either Yellen or Summers?

[The Minsky Moment]

John Taylor, inventor of the "Taylor Rule" for central bank management, and with impeccable conservative credentials - just expressed a preference Yellen over Summers on his blog.  It was far from a full-throated endorsement for Yellen but a clear vote over Summers.

http://economicsone.com/2013/07/29/about-rules-based-monetary-policy-summers-versus-yellen/

[The Minsky Moment]

Have we?  Where are all the Obamajobs?

They are there. 
Let's say the response to 2008 had been to do all the wrong things, like we did in 1929-30.  Then we could have well seen the 25% unemployment rates we say then.
Let's say we didn't do that but there was no TARP, no QEs and no stimulus.  Then we would have see unemployment go well abvoe 10%, which didn't happen.
Avoiding a "worse bad" may not look spectacular but the effects are very meaningful.

[citizen k]

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."

Ernest Hemingway, The Next War

[citizen k]

I'm not saying that we should put people in camps, but if we were going to start putting people into camps, a professed belief in "hard money" would be a good category to start with.

"There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes." 

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls