A CALL FOR FISCAL STIMULUS TO AVOID A RECESSION. Kids, Professor Larry Summers had an article in The Financial Times for January 6 (link via RealClearPolitics) calling for a fiscal stimulus—in particular, temporary benefits consisting of payments to taxpayers and increases in unemployment benefits. This is an important voice taking the position that a recession in 2008 is likely enough that action is required. I would point out three of the reasons that Summers gives for using fiscal policy (e.g. tax cuts) as well as monetary policy (lower interest rates) to stimulate spending: (i) it’s hard to get the impact of policy measures right and using two instruments will reduce the uncertainty of outcomes; (ii) it is easier to target benefits to those hit by the recession; and (iv) excessively low interest rates can lead to bubbles in asset prices.
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Being in London I’m constantly reminded of how the dollar is getting absolutely murdered. It’s been a while, and I certainly get the feeling that, “Something needs to happen to change things. The status quo is not acceptable.”
The Financial Times was lying on the table we had dinner at the other day. I was reading the front article about Clinton and Super Tuesday. They called it “Tsunami Tuesday” in such a context as to imply that that was what we called it. I have never heard it called that. Secondly, it was riddled with typos. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Could Nick be encountering the variant Brtitish spellings?
I don’t think the British spell “election” as “electon” as a matter of novelty or dialectical variance. Although on one of my comments here I wrote “endeavour” accidentally.
Whenever I go to South Africa, I almost automatically ride on “lifts,” stop my car at “robots,” and take my luggage out of the “boot,” etc. After a small fender bender, I asked someone where I could find a body shop and was indignantly told that “we don’t do that kind of thing in Ladybrand.” (They did. I’m sure!) What I wanted was a “panel beater!”
I hope that Nick comes home from London with some British expressions. I remember hearing frequently “He’s coming on a treat”, which I think means, “He’s catching on.”
Dick, what’s a robot? A stoplight?
When my teacher’s groups in South Africa see the sign “robot ahead”, they expect R2D2, but you’ve figured that out, Phil.
There’s one phrase Nick might learn that I did from an attractive girl in a London pub in the 60’s, but it’s probably not appropriate for a very polite blog. The clue is: a British synonym for “stop by and see me.”
I do like it that this is a very polite blog. I hope this doesn’t change things, but Mary Jane (almost always very polite) asked whether you were referring to the phrase, “knock you up.” I gathered from Rumpole that if one is pregnant, one is “up the spout”, so the British have an alternative to use and can save “knock you up” for other occasions.
Right on again. In this case she said “Knock me up next time you’re in the neighborhood.” I wonder what look passed over my face!
I’ve been telling that story since the sixties. When I told it to Brits on our NZ trip, they said it was a very old joke. But it happened and I wondered if my tale had come full circle after so many years.
But we’re stretching the realm of “politeness,” (if not by current standards.) In South Africa one “falls pregnant.”
From a VERY impolite source, I learned that in Victorian England, among the lower classes, when one got with child, the expression was, “She be poisoned.” Considering my memories of morning sickness, perhaps that isn’t so strange after all.