re: #663 jamesfirecat

Interesting stuff.

So the secret to fixing a depression is finding the right technoligy?

(Non sarcastic)

Well…i’ll quote Prescott directly for you.
“We learned that business cycle fluctuations are the optimal response to real shocks. The cost of a bad shock cannot be avoided, and policies that attempt to do so will be counterproductive, particularly if they reduce production efficiency.

During the 1981 and current oil crises, I was pleased that policies were not instituted that adversely affected the economy by reducing production efficiency. This is in sharp contrast to the oil crisis in 1974 when, rather than letting the economy respond optimally to a bad shock so as to minimize its cost, policies were instituted that adversely affected production efficiency and depressed the economy much more than it would otherwise have been.

Basically, the secret to fixing a depression is to do what i said earlier…get the government the F@#$ out of the way, assuming of course that your private sector was and can reasonably expected to be a robust economic engine.