Tufte’s Short Post # 13: A lot of other countries have tried fiscal stimulus, and it hasn’t worked there either

A lot of other countries have tried fiscal stimulus, and it hasn’t worked there either. Of course, the classic example here is Japan over the last 20 years. But, we could also include China over the last 10-15 years in this group (and while China has grown very well, it’s much harder to assert that it has grown faster than other countries with its level of development, many of which have not resorted to Keynesian policies).

There’s an arthouse film called Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. You’re getting Twenty-Six Short Posts from Dr. Tufte. :) These are on why it’s difficult to understand the current macroeconomic situation. Joe Baker is not a macroeconomist, but we all do a little bit of everything at SUU, so he has to teach principles of macroeconomics sometimes. The other day he asked for pointers about summing up for his students why we can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with the economy. I came up with 26 reasons, most of which have been discussed in class, and all of which are now required.