Every "C" student in every Economics 101 course in every college in every state of this country knows that a national economic policy has both a monetary policy and a fiscal policy. Monetary policy are those actions taken by the central bank (Fed) to affect the economy. Fiscal policy are those actions taken - or not taken - by the central government to affect the economy.
There is general agreement among economists that monetary policy has been the only tool available to recover from the Global Financial Crisis. Fiscal policy has been absent. It has been a one-fisted fight! My fantasy has been to grab Obama and Boehner by their shirt collars, knock their heads together, and use my precision Army vocabulary to verbally assault them, as well as insult their entire bloodline . . . loudly.
However, at a recent conference, I heard Alice Revlin speak. She is the former director of the Congressional Budget Office as well as Vice Chair of the Fed. She emphasized that the death of fiscal policy is not recent and, in fact, has been dead since 1974. I've been reading and thinking about that comment and think she is right, but with the caveat that it has been a slow, gradual death since that time. Past sins of Congress do not approach the uselessness of the present Congress.
But her point is well made. While grabbing their shirt collars, I should not fantasize about saying "Mr. Obama & Mr. Boehner, your inability to compromise is seriously hurting our country both now and in the future" (translated loosely from my precision Army vocabulary). Instead, I should address them more respectfully as "Mr. President & Mr. Speaker" because their predecessors were also guilty, even if less so.
It makes me wonder if the sins of partisan redistricting compound, like interest, and increase over time. If Republican voters are corralled into one political district, doesn't that tend to make the congressman more highly partisan than a district that is only 50% Republican? (Of course, the same logic applies when you corral Democratic voters into one district.) Maybe my new fantasy should be that the cancer of partisan redistricting would be removed from the body politic? Maybe then we could see a rebirth and recovery of fiscal policy.
There is general agreement among economists that monetary policy has been the only tool available to recover from the Global Financial Crisis. Fiscal policy has been absent. It has been a one-fisted fight! My fantasy has been to grab Obama and Boehner by their shirt collars, knock their heads together, and use my precision Army vocabulary to verbally assault them, as well as insult their entire bloodline . . . loudly.
However, at a recent conference, I heard Alice Revlin speak. She is the former director of the Congressional Budget Office as well as Vice Chair of the Fed. She emphasized that the death of fiscal policy is not recent and, in fact, has been dead since 1974. I've been reading and thinking about that comment and think she is right, but with the caveat that it has been a slow, gradual death since that time. Past sins of Congress do not approach the uselessness of the present Congress.
But her point is well made. While grabbing their shirt collars, I should not fantasize about saying "Mr. Obama & Mr. Boehner, your inability to compromise is seriously hurting our country both now and in the future" (translated loosely from my precision Army vocabulary). Instead, I should address them more respectfully as "Mr. President & Mr. Speaker" because their predecessors were also guilty, even if less so.
It makes me wonder if the sins of partisan redistricting compound, like interest, and increase over time. If Republican voters are corralled into one political district, doesn't that tend to make the congressman more highly partisan than a district that is only 50% Republican? (Of course, the same logic applies when you corral Democratic voters into one district.) Maybe my new fantasy should be that the cancer of partisan redistricting would be removed from the body politic? Maybe then we could see a rebirth and recovery of fiscal policy.
