tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post9215624330553823839..comments2024-03-28T04:29:22.717+00:00Comments on mainly macro: Some thoughts on Paul Mason’s McDonnell road show talkMainly Macrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09984575852247982901noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-38617222019140023702016-04-26T08:15:17.026+00:002016-04-26T08:15:17.026+00:00This looks like an ad hominem attack, but it reall...This looks like an ad hominem attack, but it really isn't. Paul Mason can have a whole day to prepare and underarm bowling from Guru-Murthy, and he still ties himself in knots, stammering in his explanation of what should be straightforward and grabbing a hold of the word "Basically" as if it was a life jacket. Channel 4 News skirts with Ofcom censure in nearly every broadcast. Mason was recruited from the BBC for reasons that I've never understood. His main talent, in my opinion, is to do a more than passable "You are the messiah, and I should know I've followed a few", whenever he meets someone like Varoufakis who reassures him that even if he doesn't understand the details about "recycling", or co-co bonds, or Basel Rules, or whatever, he's still right because Yanis (or whoever) agrees with him. Mason's a type. I can't see him without thinking about trying to walk up the steps to Glasgow University's Queen Margaret Union and having to push past some Socialist Worker seller who - to paraphrase Healey - "Had read [a line of] Marx at 18 and thought it rather good". Craig Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12679887749816299173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-70288851062435231892016-04-25T09:28:43.246+00:002016-04-25T09:28:43.246+00:00"presiding over strong growth .... I also thi..."presiding over strong growth .... I also think we may see rapid Eurozone growth before then."<br /><br />Huh? The IMF and OECD warn there is a need for “urgent collective policy action” to avoid a synchronised downturn. Larry Summers says a recession in the US, which is the remaining major economy with OK growth, is a 50% chance in the next 2-3 yrs and they weon't get the 0.4% interest rate cut needed and will have to start preparing for a fiscal stimulus today to be ready when it happens. (Good luck since Democrats will never get the House if Clinton is the candidate for President, and today's Republicans are not the stimulus-happy ones of the good old Bush days!)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-87810913303959428972016-04-25T08:39:00.297+00:002016-04-25T08:39:00.297+00:00The Tories are not idiots - having witnessed Brown...The Tories are not idiots - having witnessed Brown, they will not make GO PM.StuartPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13748038209546648459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-20708345177653288222016-04-24T08:07:47.134+00:002016-04-24T08:07:47.134+00:00Many years ago central bankers spoke little and di...Many years ago central bankers spoke little and did even less. Nowadays we have arguments about whether central bankers should target inflation at 4% rather than 2%. Don't you find this rather odd? After all they are saying that a central plank of monetary management is an increase in the cost of living!<br /><br />Now I appreciate that, at the back of this, is a desire (perhaps unstated) to inflate away the debt burden but, again, as it's lower interest rates that have been a prime factor in the increase in the debt burden we appear to be recommending higher inflation to clean up what could be termed earlier negligence.<br /><br />It seems to me that the institutional framework for economic and monetary management is getting weirder by the day ( the Japanese are the poster boys for this) and people, including yourself, just seem to accept the slowing moving and ever yet more incomprehensible, policies that emerge.<br /><br />I certainly disagree with your comments re the economy over the next few years. It seems to me inconceivable that we won't have some sort of crash and I think both DC and GO will be gone in the next two years, and not of their choice. Robert Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03593742130088640939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-42541268176900858502016-04-23T19:18:56.191+00:002016-04-23T19:18:56.191+00:00Or even strong UK growth, in the face of continuin...Or even strong UK growth, in the face of continuing austerity and the drive towards a surplus.gastro georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-62330306334140990842016-04-23T07:56:30.123+00:002016-04-23T07:56:30.123+00:00Dear Simon, Although it is not the main topic coul...Dear Simon, Although it is not the main topic could you elaborate just a little on the possibility of seeing strong eurozone growth in the next 4 years? What would be the trigger in the absence of any fiscal stimulus?David Belayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18104613548562361802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-29918976333228934662016-04-22T18:05:12.221+00:002016-04-22T18:05:12.221+00:001. Lucky you never, ever, do predictions.
2. &quo...1. Lucky you never, ever, do predictions.<br /><br />2. "Centre left". McDonnell? Mason? Arf.<br /><br />3. "What I thought was wrong with Corbyn’s QE was that it appeared either to negate central bank independence, or make a National Investment Bank conditional on the Bank wanting to do QE"<br /><br />Which is odd as the more basic thing wrong with it was that Corbyn proposed it as a general tool for financing nice stuff, rather than as an alternative to monetary policy at the zlb.SpinningHugonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2546602206734889307.post-80238363255874042572016-04-22T13:16:02.789+00:002016-04-22T13:16:02.789+00:00Mason was hostile to Krugman while writing on his ...Mason was hostile to Krugman while writing on his BBC blog, and now seems to have embraced Krugman's 4% inflation target. <br /><br />Only the eight years too late.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com