Australia has a 2-3% inflation target and faster trend RGDP growth than the US. That sort of nominal growth would be beyond my wildest dreams for the US. Rather think about how proactive they are. Unemployment is low and inflation is in the sweet spot. But they are easing monetary policy because they see the global slowdown, which for some reason the much more sophisticated Fed and ECB don’t quite comprehend. They aren’t cutting rates because 5.5% NGDP growth is too low, they are cutting rates to make sure that 5.5% NGDP growth happens.
The Fed seems content to wait until our recovery is off the rails, and then pull out still another QE, each one less stimulative than the last, because they mostly work via signalling. Every time the Fed fails to carry through it losses a little more credibility. And the biggest irony is that the credibility loss they are worried about is too much inflation! That’d be like Mitt Romney worrying that people will regard him as too spontaneous and reckless.
(via DeLong)
A commenter at DeLong's blog notes that the Rudd government also enacted a giant stimulus plan.
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