tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6666208467022745303.post9243369891857790..comments2024-03-13T02:17:39.644-07:00Comments on Restating the Obvious: The follies of austerityHarry Eagarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04196202758858876402noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6666208467022745303.post-82091989610587988102013-05-15T20:32:15.466-07:002013-05-15T20:32:15.466-07:00Bret, I was looking the whole time. You tell me wh...Bret, I was looking the whole time. You tell me when business confidence was higher.<br /><br />Where I sat, businessmen were paying $750 million for a property later valued by the free market at $55 million. To take just a local example.Harry Eagarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04196202758858876402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6666208467022745303.post-83052716770881142752013-05-15T16:20:40.731-07:002013-05-15T16:20:40.731-07:00I think it odd that Harry's portmanteau is use...I think it odd that Harry's portmanteau is used to characterize Europe's response to its fiscal problems. <br /><br />Now, as it happens, I kind of agree with Krugman on this; Europe is nowhere close to demand-pull inflation. Also, it took decades of sclerotic collectivist policies to dig there hole, so there is no way to get out in a hurry.<br /><br />However, from what I have read, he gives short shrift to moral hazard problems -- in particular, Greece and Italy.<br /><br />Also, couldn't help but notice this:<br /><br /><i>What you see is that the widespread belief that we are experiencing runaway government spending is false—on the contrary, after a brief surge in 2009, government spending began falling in both Europe and the United States, and is now well below its normal trend. The turn to austerity was very real, and quite large.</i><br /><br />It is amazing how content free that sentence is. I don't think "fallen" means what he says it does. The "normal trend" was already bad enough, and getting worse, because of unsustainable entitlement spending, which is still a problem.<br /><br />As for the US, I remember clearly the claims of impending disaster with the sequester. Except for the ones imposed by politicians, how is that working out?Hey Skipperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10798930502187234974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6666208467022745303.post-81250647943503336272013-05-15T10:51:13.865-07:002013-05-15T10:51:13.865-07:00Harry wrote: "When is [business] confidence h...Harry wrote: "<i>When is [business] confidence highest? Right before a crash.</i>"<br /><br />No. Look again.Brethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15063508651955739056noreply@blogger.com