Reynolds is a supply-side economist who has been commenting on macroeconomics in The Wall Street Journal since the 1980s.
His piece from January 28 entitled "$646,214 Per Government Job". Given his background, he's obviously going to be against the stimulus package, but even so he raises some interesting points.
I liked this one:
The December unemployment rate was only 2.3% for government workers and 3.8% in education and health. Unemployment rates in manufacturing and construction, by contrast, were 8.3% and 15.2% respectively. Yet 39% of the $550 billion in the bill would go to state and local governments. Another 17.3% would go to health and education -- sectors where relatively secure government jobs are also prevalent.
Actually, my first articles in Reason and National Review were in 1971, and my first Wall Street Journal piece was in 1975. This particular piece is closest to "new classical" economics, although the microeconomics of public finance (supply-side economics) fits well within that framework.
ReplyDeleteAlan