[lbo-talk] Friedman's helicopter money comes into vogue

[Marv Gandall]

Kemal Derviş is a former Turkish cabinet minister and UN official, now a vice president at the Brookings Institution. His view is representative of the growing sentiment within elite circles - extending well beyond Keynesians - that reliance on monetary policy has proved ineffective and that a turn to fiscal stimulus is necessary to stave off a deepening crisis. 

They’re strongly opposed to negative interest rates, the latest experiment with monetary policy, and propose instead to transfer money directly from the state to individuals by such means as a guaranteed annual income, wage rises by legislation or “moral suasion”, and job-creation programs.

“The fact that economists whose views typically fall nowhere near those of the far left are even thinking about such interventionism shows just how extreme circumstances have become”, Derviş says.

The problem, as always, is that the long-range interests of the global ruling class are typically subordinated to the immediate and often conflicting interests of its component corporations, nation-states, and regional trading blocs, inhibiting effective coordinated action on the economy, environment, and other pressing matters.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/coordinated-monetary-policy-revive-growth-by-kemal-dervis-2016-03?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5ce32503be-Roubini_2008_Revisited_3_6_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-5ce32503be-93630617 <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/coordinated-monetary-policy-revive-growth-by-kemal-dervis-2016-03?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5ce32503be-Roubini_2008_Revisited_3_6_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-5ce32503be-93630617>