Tufte’s Short Post # 9: Tax cuts work better than spending increases

Tax cuts work better than spending increases. Obama’s CEA Chair, Christina Romer, published new estimates of multipliers (while she was in office) showing that tax cuts appear to have about 3 times the effect of spending increases. Obviously the stimulus package got this backwards.

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.