Monetary policy

Brad De Long delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU
Tue Jun 27 15:51:01 PDT 2000



>There are, however, even more direct indications that a first-class
>political issue is at stake here. in the great depression in the
>1930s, big business consistently opposed experiments for increasing
>employment by government spending in all countries, except Nazi
>Germany. This was to be clearly seen in the USA (opposition to the
>New Deal), in France (the Blum experiment), and in Germany before
>Hitler. The attitude is not easy to explain. Clearly, higher output
>and employment benefit not only workers but entrepreneurs as well,
>because the latter's profits rise. And the policy of full employment
>outlined above does not encroach upon profits because it does not
>involve any additional taxation. The entrepreneurs in the slump are
>longing for a boom; why do they not gladly accept the synthetic boom
>which the government is able to offer them?

In the United States today Kalecki's question is a non-starter: the National Association of Manufacturers is among the most pro-inflation and low interest rate-desiring organizations in the country...

Brad DeLong



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