dav-ycombinator

4 ms·

1.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
Economists agree much more often than not. But that doesn't seem to matter, even when nearly 100% of economists agree on something, the public think it knows better... http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-econ
2.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
Ok. With that kind of argument, I suppose anything can make sense.
3.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
You are looking at a car driving on a hilly road. The car's engine is not powerful enough. You observe that on the uphills, the driver is flooring the gas pedal and yet the speed of the car is decreasing. Confusing correlation and caus
4.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
The stance of monetary policy can't be assessed by looking at the level of interest rate (or the amount QE) -- otherwise you'd conclude that inflationary basket case Argentina has much tighter monetary policy than deflationary bas
5.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
> Maybe if you think government and society are the same thing. No, I just think that neutral monetary policy which leads to full employment (defined as natural employment under given tax/regulatory regime) is good for society. Also
6.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
Nope. Every currency can have low interest rates at the same time. It's not rates relative to each other that matters that impacts nominal activity, it's the absolute rate of each. All currencies could have -10% rate at the same t
7.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
ZIRP is a massive wealth transfer as opposed to what? Positive rates? ZIRP is a wealth transfer in the opposite direction if you compare it to what should be in place right now: very negative rates. The wealth transfer argument makes no sen
8.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
It'd be better if it did.
9.
by dav-ycombinator 11y ago
No need to ban cash for arbitrarily negative rates to work. Simply introduce an exchange rate between physical currency and deposits. Simply introduce an exchange rate between the dollar and it's physical representation. Barriers are l