Tag Archives: Supply side economics

Die Laffer-Kurve

Was man so findet wenn man ein paar Bilder für die Folien der Kurse im nächsten Semester zusammensucht! Das ist die Original-Laffer-Kurve mit einem Autogramm für Don Rumsfeld (kennt den noch jemand?), na ja jedenfalls macht die gegenwärtige Politik ja auch den Eindruck auf der Serviette gedacht worden zu sein.

Posted in Blog | Tagged | Leave a comment

Germany’s Rocky Road To Full Employment

(co-posted at RGE Europe EconoMonitor)

The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter once wrote on Marx’ economic theory that “…Marx’ economic ideas are embedded into a variety of very hot (in German: “dampfende“) phrases which gives them a temperature which is far from the own temperature” (from “Kapitalismus, Sozialismus und Demokratie“, own translation). The same can be said about the structural reform debate in Germany.

FT Deutschland’s chief economist Thomas Fricke collected a number of quotations, which are worthwile to be translated (own translation, German version in brackets):

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The German Turnaround: The reform story revisited, part III

in cooperation with Sebastian Dullien

Last Thursday, the leading German economic research institutes have published their semi-annual diagnosis of the state of the German economy. Similarly to Michael Burda’s post on RGE Monitor, they warn that the Grand Coalition must not fall into a "reform pause". Just like Michael Burda, they credit part of the German turnaround to the Agenda 2010 reforms (never mind that they did not see any significant growth impact from them when they were passed – see this comment by Thomas Fricke at FT Deutschland’s website).

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The German Turnaround: The reform story revisited, part II

(in cooperation with Sebastian Dullien)

Today, the German tabloid "Bild" ran a story that a number of top German employer federations have written a joint memorandum warning the government of rolling back even parts of the "Agenda 2010" reforms enacted by the Schröder government. According to them, the recent upswing in German can at least partly be credited to these reforms, much as Michael Burda has argued. Any change would thus endanger the recovery.

We have already written a post on Monday in which we question this wisdom, stating that such an interpretation of the origins of the German turnaround is not covered by developments into the German labour market.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The German Turnaround: the reform story revisited, part I

by Sebastian Dullien, in cooperation with Ulrich Fritsche.

With politicians from right and left in Germany discussing a possible new extension of the duration of unemployment benefits for the elderly, a new debate in Germany has started concerning the reasons of the recent upswing. The central question of the argument is: What role did the labour market reforms of the Schröder government play for the "Teutonic turnaround" as Michael Burda calls the recent development in his first post for this blog?

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Are we all supply-siders now? cont’d.

Paul Krugman responded to the discussion “Are we all supply siders now?”:
Here is the post. Brad De Long offers another position. Galbraith takes the “vulgar Keynesianism” position.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Are we all supply-siders now?

An interesting and lively debate following an op-ed of Bruce Bartlett in “The New York Times”. Here is the original paper: How Supply-Side Economics Trickled down. By Bruce Bartlett. A discussion is documented here or here. I think the original paper summarizes the actual state-of-the-art mainstream view on macroeconomics quite well.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | 1 Comment