Santa-Barbara political economy professor Benjamin Cohen proposes new fiscal stimulus to complement the current low-interest-rate monetary policy.

Daphne Basel

2019-08-28 14:46:00 Wed ET

Santa-Barbara political economy professor Benjamin Cohen proposes new fiscal stimulus to complement the current low-interest-rate monetary policy. Cohen finds that global interest rates persist at low thresholds in the current decade. In OECD and several other economies, low interest rates cannot bounce back too far from the zero lower bound during the global financial crisis.

In Europe, Japan, and Switzerland, the risk-free interest rates fall below zero. In this context, most central banks have little room for new interest rate reductions as the global economy gradually moves toward the next recession. In response to the current Sino-U.S. trade truce and Brexit economic uncertainty, Cohen proposes new countercyclical fiscal stimulus as a key alternative policy instrument for global economic revival. This new fiscal stimulus can manifest in the generic form of tax credits, transfer payments, and public expenditures in health care, infrastructure, education, and technology. Nevertheless, Cohen adds the cautionary caveat that lawmakers may remain reluctant to increase core fiscal deficits on top of post-crisis national debt mountains. To the extent that legislators become wary of backlash in parliamentary elections, it is important for politicians and technocrats to strike a better balance between democratic accountability and elite interest entrenchment.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

We can decipher valuable lessons from the annual letters to shareholders written by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Becky Berkman

2019-07-19 18:40:00 Friday ET

We can decipher valuable lessons from the annual letters to shareholders written by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

We can decipher valuable lessons from the annual letters to shareholders written by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Amazon is highly customer-centric because the wor

+See More

Platforms benefit from positive network effects, scale economies, and information cascades.

Rose Prince

2019-07-25 16:42:00 Thursday ET

Platforms benefit from positive network effects, scale economies, and information cascades.

Platforms benefit from positive network effects, scale economies, and information cascades. There are at least 2 major types of highly valuable platforms: i

+See More

President Trump floats generous 10% tax cuts for the U.S. middle class ahead of the November 2018 mid-term elections.

Jacob Miramar

2018-10-21 14:40:00 Sunday ET

President Trump floats generous 10% tax cuts for the U.S. middle class ahead of the November 2018 mid-term elections.

President Trump floats generous 10% tax cuts for the U.S. middle class ahead of the November 2018 mid-term elections. Republican senators, congressmen, and

+See More

President Xi seeks Chinese congressional approval for abolishing his term limits of strongman rule with better trade deals and economic ties.

Jacob Miramar

2018-03-03 11:37:00 Saturday ET

President Xi seeks Chinese congressional approval for abolishing his term limits of strongman rule with better trade deals and economic ties.

President Xi seeks Chinese congressional approval and constitutional amendment for abolishing his term limits of strongman rule with more favorable trade de

+See More

Buffett discusses Berkshire's cash ambition, its reinsurance business, and his succession plan.

Becky Berkman

2018-02-23 09:35:00 Friday ET

Buffett discusses Berkshire's cash ambition, its reinsurance business, and his succession plan.

Warren Buffett releases his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders as of February 2018. Buffett discusses Berkshire's core cash ambition, its

+See More

Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism.

Jonah Whanau

2019-04-21 10:07:54 Sunday ET

Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism.

Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism. In accordance with the dual mandate of

+See More