Automatic Fiscal Policies to Combat Recessions

Automatic Fiscal Policies to Combat Recessions PDF Author: Laurence S. Seidman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317476271
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Drawing on the most prominent research in the field, this timely book offers bold new fiscal policies that can complement current automatic stabilizers and counter-cyclical monetary policy to help combat recessions. Dr. Seidman argues for an independent fiscal policy board or the Federal Reserve to decide changes in the magnitude of Congress's fiscal policy package of stimulus or restraint, with recommendations going into effect immediately, subject only to Congressional override.

Automatic Fiscal Policies to Combat Recessions

Automatic Fiscal Policies to Combat Recessions PDF Author: Laurence S. Seidman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317476271
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Drawing on the most prominent research in the field, this timely book offers bold new fiscal policies that can complement current automatic stabilizers and counter-cyclical monetary policy to help combat recessions. Dr. Seidman argues for an independent fiscal policy board or the Federal Reserve to decide changes in the magnitude of Congress's fiscal policy package of stimulus or restraint, with recommendations going into effect immediately, subject only to Congressional override.

Fiscal Policy in the U. S.

Fiscal Policy in the U. S. PDF Author: Glenn Follette
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437939880
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Examines the effects of the economy on the gov¿t. budget as well as the effects of the budget on the economy. Provides measures of the effects of automatic stabilizers on budget outcomes at the fed., state and local levels. At the fed. level, the deficit increases about 0.35% of GDP for each 1 percentage point deviation of actual GDP relative to potential GDP. For state and local gov¿t., the deficit increases by 0.1% of GDP. Examines the response of the economy to the automatic stabilizers by comparing the response to aggregate demand shocks. The authors find that federal policy actions are somewhat counter-cyclical while state and local policy actions have been somewhat pro-cyclical. Illustrations. This is a print on demand publication.

Stress Test

Stress Test PDF Author: Timothy F. Geithner
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0804138605
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description
New York Times Bestseller Washington Post Bestseller Los Angeles Times Bestseller Stress Test is the story of Tim Geithner’s education in financial crises. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makers—in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakes—helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one won’t be the last. Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firm’s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administration’s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europe’s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss. Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politics—the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political and financial systems.

Law and Macroeconomics

Law and Macroeconomics PDF Author: Yair Listokin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674239849
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A distinguished Yale economist and legal scholar’s argument that law, of all things, has the potential to rescue us from the next economic crisis. After the economic crisis of 2008, private-sector spending took nearly a decade to recover. Yair Listokin thinks we can respond more quickly to the next meltdown by reviving and refashioning a policy approach whose proven success is too rarely acknowledged. Harking back to New Deal regulatory agencies, Listokin proposes that we take seriously law’s ability to function as a macroeconomic tool, capable of stimulating demand when needed and relieving demand when it threatens to overheat economies. Listokin makes his case by looking at both positive and cautionary examples, going back to the New Deal and including the Keystone Pipeline, the constitutionally fraught bond-buying program unveiled by the European Central Bank at the nadir of the Eurozone crisis, the ongoing Greek crisis, and the experience of U.S. price controls in the 1970s. History has taught us that law is an unwieldy instrument of macroeconomic policy, but Listokin argues that under certain conditions it offers a vital alternative to the monetary and fiscal policy tools that stretch the legitimacy of technocratic central banks near their breaking point while leaving the rest of us waiting and wallowing.

Fiscal Policy and Economic Activity During Recessions in Advanced Economies

Fiscal Policy and Economic Activity During Recessions in Advanced Economies PDF Author: Richard Hemming
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
Using data for advanced economies, this paper investigates whether factors identified in the theoretical and empirical literature explain the effectiveness of fiscal policy in responding to recessions. The results are informative about the fiscal response to recessions but provide only a partial explanation of the impact of fiscal policy on economic activity. Overall, it would appear that fiscal multipliers are very small.

Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis

Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis PDF Author: Alberto Alesina
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022601844X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description
The recent recession has brought fiscal policy back to the forefront, with economists and policy makers struggling to reach a consensus on highly political issues like tax rates and government spending. At the heart of the debate are fiscal multipliers, whose size and sensitivity determine the power of such policies to influence economic growth. Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis focuses on the effects of fiscal stimuli and increased government spending, with contributions that consider the measurement of the multiplier effect and its size. In the face of uncertainty over the sustainability of recent economic policies, further contributions to this volume discuss the merits of alternate means of debt reduction through decreased government spending or increased taxes. A final section examines how the short-term political forces driving fiscal policy might be balanced with aspects of the long-term planning governing monetary policy. A direct intervention in timely debates, Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis offers invaluable insights about various responses to the recent financial crisis.

The Macroeconomics of Fiscal Policy

The Macroeconomics of Fiscal Policy PDF Author: Richard W. Kopcke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Leading academics and former policy makers assess the effectiveness of postwar American fiscal policy as questions about the role of fiscal policy once again come to the forefront of economic research and debate. The United States's post-World War II emphasis on activist fiscal policy for short-term economic stabilization was called into question in the 1960s, and by the late 1980s was superseded by the view that fiscal policy should focus on long-run structural concerns. For the past two decades both public policy and economic research emphasized monetary policy as a stabilization tool. But there remain issues in American macroeconomic policy having to do with budget deficits, present and projected, as well as a recent revival of interest in fiscal policy as a stabilization tool. Overall, the academic pendulum is swinging back towards a renewed consideration of fiscal policy. This volume brings together leading researchers and policy makers to assess the effectiveness and consequences of fiscal policy. Drawing on postwar policy experience and recent economic research, this book offers a state-of-the-art consideration of where fiscal policy stands today. Contributors address both the appropriateness of fiscal policy as a tool for short-run macroeconomic stabilization and the longer-term impact of fiscal decisions and economic policy. Topics covered include the legacy of the Reagan administration's tax cuts; whether public policy has encouraged such behavior as "overconsumption," which may foster persistent budget and trade deficits; and, in light of recent experience, how and when fiscal policy might be appropriate as a short-term stabilization tool. Contributors Alan J. Auerbach, Susanto Basu, Olivier J. Blanchard, Alan S. Blinder, Barry P. Bosworth, W. Elliott Brownlee, William H. Buiter, Jonathan Coppel, Jean-Philippe Cotis, Luiz de Mello, James S. Duesenberry, Douglas W. Elmendorf, Eric Engen, Jeffrey A. Frankel, Benjamin M. Friedman, Richard W. Kopcke, Catherine L. Mann, Van Doorn Ooms, Rudolph G. Penner, Alice M. Rivlin, Christopher A. Sims, C. Eugene Steuerle, Geoffrey M.B. Tootell, Robert K. Triest, Edwin M. Truman

Great Recession and Fiscal Squeeze at U.S. Subnational Government Level

Great Recession and Fiscal Squeeze at U.S. Subnational Government Level PDF Author: Jiri Jonas
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475505329
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
The paper discusses the fiscal impact of the Great Recession of 2007-08 on state and local governments in the United States. It documents the sharp decline in tax revenue and discusses how states responded to close the budget gaps in order to obey the balanced budget provisions. It highligts the procyclical nature of this policy response, provides a brief comparison with subnational policy stances in other advanced economies, and discusses some options for making subnational fiscal policy less procyclical within the framework of current rules.

How to Combat Recession

How to Combat Recession PDF Author: Laurence Seidman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190462183
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Recessions are a recurring phenomenon and there are repeated debates about how to combat them when the crisis hits and after the economy begins to grow again. Laurence Seidman argues that currently we are not ready to combat the next recession. A recession involves a plunge in aggregate demand for goods and services which compels producers to cut production and employment. Fortunately, a large boost in demand can be achieved by a large fiscal stimulus-primarily a temporary large increase in tax rebates for households plus several fiscal supplements. But fiscal stimulus has always involved a large increase in government debt, something Congress understandably resists. The assumption that a large fiscal stimulus requires an increase in government debt is false, Seidman asserts in this thought-provoking book. In fact, it is astonishingly easy to implement even a very large fiscal stimulus without any increase in government debt. All it takes is for Congress to enact a fiscal stimulus and the Federal Reserve to make a transfer (not loan) to the Treasury roughly equal to the fiscal stimulus so the Treasury doesn't have to borrow. Stimulus-without-debt consists of a transfer (not loan) from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury so that the Treasury does not have to borrow to finance fiscal stimulus enacted by Congress. Seidman explains all aspects of this new way to combat recession, "stimulus-without-debt." He presents evidence that fiscal stimulus works in a recession-it increases aggregate demand which stimulates production and employment. He explains why the fiscal stimulus should consist primarily of tax rebates for households plus several fiscal supplements. His analysis covers basic foundations as well as implications for inflation, central banks, and how to address secular stagnation. When the next recession hits, we will be ready to combat it if we know how to use fiscal stimulus without increasing government debt. Seidman shows us how.

The Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy in Stimulating Economic Activity

The Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy in Stimulating Economic Activity PDF Author: Richard Hemming
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the effectiveness of fiscal policy. The focus is on the size of fiscal multipliers, and on the possibility that multipliers can turn negative (i.e., that fiscal contractions can be expansionary). The paper concludes that fiscal multipliers are overwhelmingly positive but small. However, there is some evidence of negative fiscal multipliers.