This article is about, as the author says, getting the United States’ financial house in order, but it is also somewhat a cautionary tale. The author examines four countries (Zimbabwe, Japan, Greece, and France) that economic policy-makers should keep in mind as America moves forward to improve the current economic situation.
Some of the comparisons may seem a bit strange, especially Zimbabwe and its excessive hyperinflation, but overall I like the article. Things like hyperinflation or Greece’s economic crisis may seem almost unimaginable for the US, but no one can tell what the future will hold. Because of that I believe that it is generally wise to look to past because there is so much to learn from history, so overall I think the author’s point is strong.
I agree the author's point is strong. I think the U.S. fails to learn from other countries as much as it should. The U.S. needs to realize other countries might not be as big as us but they can still teach us something. People in other countries are just as smart as Americans. Hopefully the U.S. will learn over time but only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI like how the author describes four very different problems that countries around the world have had. He shows that some of the big economic concerns are supported by examples of other countries. However, at the same time, there are examples of countries that counter this concern or would lead to the opposite concern. In the end, there is not one solution that would guarantee that our economy would get better.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an interesting article and getting a glipse of other nations and how they delt with their economic struggles. We need to continue to analyze the the ways in which countries worked to pull themselves out of their recessions and apply those ideas to our economy.
ReplyDeleteIt is a really interesting article and very important for us to be able to learn from another country's economic situation as we try to figure out how to fix our own. However, it is important to keep in mind that our economy is a bit different from other countries, most importantly in the effect that the American economy has on others. It's important to consider the state of our economy and take more careful action than these countries, because it will have so much more of a worldwide effect.
ReplyDeleteAmericas deficit has been a huge topic of political debate. The continuous government spending has only encouraged political debate over the economy. It seems clear after this article that America needs to raise their taxes, specifically on the ultra rich. There has been noise in America recently about the ultra rich 1%, and it seems rational to increase the taxes if there is such inequality in the system. The current deficit cannot be solved by increasing taxes but it seems like a obvious place to start coming out of this recession.
ReplyDeleteI think that right off the bat, it is interesting to note that the author of this piece is Gregory Mankiw, who is also the suthor of our textbook. I think this gives the article a little bit more credibility than an article written by any random reporter. Additionally, I think Mankiw makes a really good point about Japan here. As much as inflation can be a scary economic concept, deflation is far scarier, because it is so much less understood. Historically, there are many more cases of inflation to study than there are cases of deflation. This means that although there are many theories, few economists really agree about what should be done in Japan to stop their trend of deflation. The end result is that I think that US policy should be aimed at trying to avoid deflation more than trying to avoid inflation.
ReplyDeleteWhile simplifying things in terms of models, learning from the past, and avoiding the errors of other nations have their benefits, these benefits have always been recognized to be marginal. This is compounded on the fact that trying to fix the U.S. economy by looking at Zimbabwe for example is like trying to build a corporate building out of stones and clay. The U.S. economy is so much more complex.
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