are the best of all possible set ups in a liberal democracy
"....have become a bit obsessed as a result of the widespread adoption of austerity policies, and their remarkable persistence despite apparent failure"
"... would it make much difference if the vast majority of economists thought fiscal stimulus was both effective and a good policy?"
" One way to judge this is to look to other areas where science and politics clash, like climate change,
"there is a tendency to revert to the old line that academics must communicate more and better, and glide over some of the
"structural weaknesses in the transmission mechanism"
that mean it would make little difference if they did. "
"My own current view is that these structural weaknesses are to a large extent inherent in liberal democratic societies, where restrictions on what money can do are very limited. "
"That has led me to be much more favourably disposed to the delegation of economic decisions, even though this appears less democratic"
" the problem is real enough..... where some of macro economics most basic findings - understood for more than half a century- can be brushed aside so easily, and millions of people are worse off as a result,"
