Just Like The City Manager Of Coral Gables

July 5, 2011 Leave a comment

The city manager planned–as was bought into later by the city commissioners (except one)–and hid his designs for a huge post-election investment program and, and along with one commissioner (real estate broker and banker), distorted the real cost of the financing the program by stating that since the debt payments had been budgeted, there is no additional cost to the city of the refinancing.

A first year economics student at UM can tell you that this is pure baloney.

Indifference to public opinion in Miami-Dade, including Coral Gables, is because of voter indifference and politicians’ dislike for good, transparent and participatory government.

Of course neither the White House nor congressional leadership has shown the slightest interest in keeping the American people informed about any step of this process, and they have evinced even less interest in reflecting the values and opinions of the American people. Public opinion counts for almost nothing these days in guiding public policy.

via Jeffrey Sachs: Restoring American Democracy.

Filed under Coral Gables, Finance, Government, Miami-Dade County, National

More On Keeping Up The Spending

July 3, 2011 Leave a comment

..Keynes denied that the market system had any internal mechanism for maintaining full employment. This meant that economies could drift on for years in a state of semi-slump. Governments should therefore assume responsibility for maintaining full employment. They could do this by securing enough spending power in the economy to employ all those who wanted to work. He invented macroeconomics. This was much more than just ‘sound money’: it involved fiscal and regulatory policy too.

 

via Robert Skidelsky – Keynes for the 21st century.

Filed under Economy, National

Put Off Deficit Cutting For Now

July 2, 2011 1 Comment

…The long-term budget problem in the US is driven mainly by rising health costs, and we have many years to go before this begins to create big budget problems. Thus waiting, say, two years to begin reducing the deficit will not substantially change the probability of big problems down the road. But delaying austerity measures avoids placing a further drag on an already struggling economy, so the likely benefits are relatively large.

via Gridlock in Washington is hurting the US economy | The A-List | Must-read views on today’s top news stories – FT.com – FT.com.

Filed under Economy

Basic Economics of Trade Agreements (Krugman)

July 1, 2011 Leave a comment

The case for free trade is about microeconomics, about raising efficiency. There’s no particular reason to think that trade liberalization is good for fixing problems of inadequate demand. I mean, you learn in Econ 101 that aggregate spending is Y = C+I+G+X-M; that is, consumer spending, plus investment spending, plus government purchases, plus exports, minus imports. Trade liberalization raises X, but it also raises M. For any individual county it can go either way; for the world as a whole it’s a wash, since total exports equal total imports.

via Wrong To Be Right – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Business and Commerce, Economy, International

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