> Intuition suggests that about half the time raising taxes (or interest rates, or whatever policy lever) might help whatever economic problem you have, and hal

> Intuition suggests that about half the time raising taxes (or interest rates, or whatever policy lever) might help whatever economic problem you have, and half the time cutting them is better. I think it's far more complicated than that. There are basically two competing models for economics, and yes while politics is involved here, both have deep philosophical arguments about the way economics works. One group believes that Government (G) intervention in the markets is bad (reduction in G spending, permanent tax cuts). The other group believes it is good (G spending on infrastructure, graduated tax code). So there's short term economics, and there's year to year economics. And now with Piketty we have generational economics. If we really don't want to return to the Gilded Age, the things we think are good in the short term, are very damaging in the long term, that might include tax cuts and G spending.