Saturday, January 28, 2017

Reagan, too tight monetary policy, appreciating dollar

Must-Read: Dani Rodrik: What Did NAFTA Really Do? by DeLong
As I wrote to Dani: The U.S. went from 30% of its nonfarm employees in manufacturing to 12% because of rapid growth in manufacturing productivity and limited demand, yes? The U.S. went from 12% to 9% because of stupid and destructive macro policies–the Reagan deficits, the strong-dollar policy pushed well past its sell-by date, too-tight monetary policy–that diverted it from its proper role as a net exporter of capital and finance to economies that need to be net sinks rather than net sources of the global flow of funds for investment, yes?

Wednesday, January 25, 2017