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Fractal

684
jamesfirecat2/11/2010 9:47:07 am PST

re: #670 Aceofwhat?

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.

Okay then, I suppose this in turn brings up the question of, who is the “mechanic” we should hire to make sure that our private sector is a “robust economic engine”?

Because if its a dud, then might we just end up sitting around waiting for a natural recovery that will never come?

(Not trying to play “why is the sky blue?” just trying to make sure we’ve got all the possible angles covered)