This week and next, I’m going to be guest-blogging over at Megan McArdle’s place. In my first post (after a brief personal introduction), I get back on my hobby-horse about whether the Fed can solve our economic problems. As shouldn’t surprise long-time readers, my answer is no – in this case, because there’s a real possibility that our long-term real growth potential has slowed, and arguments that the Fed can engineer a return to the pre-crisis nominal growth trend implicitly assume that this hasn’t happened (that is to say, that the pre-crisis growth trend was “normal” in spite of the bubble).
Anyway, come visit me there this week and next, though I’ll still try to post in this space as much as I can.
well-wisher 
Rantly McTirade 
Johnny F. Ive 
Sumner is nuts. He’s so in love with his models that they have replaced reality.
I once tried to point out that it would be better to investigate the actual reasons why businessess are not hiring and not investing in growth despite huge cash balances rather than simply assert that they lacked money. He said asking businesses was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard of.
His theory explains everything to him. Facts and reality are simply distractions from the beauty he sees in his model.