Fiscal Sustainability - I Don't Agree

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Paul krugman and others argue that because interest payments as a share of u s g d p ar stable or sometimes even declining, that our current path is fiscally sustainable. Do you agree? No, i don't. It is certainly true that if long term interest rates remain at or near their current levels, then the fiscal burden associated with any given debt level is much more, much more sustainable. I would use the current market environment as a way to lock in those interest rates,. We know that we're going to have a high government debt level for a very long period of time. And much better it not be a burden pandemic....

Benjamin Friedman has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, whose accomplishments include writing 150 papers, producing more than dozen books, and teaching Tyler Cowen graduate macroeconomics at Harvard in 1985. In his latest book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Ben argues that contrary to the popular belief that Western economic ideas are a secular product of the Enlightenment, instead they are the result of hotly debated theological questions within the English-speaking Protestant world of thinkers like Adam Smith and David Hume.

Ben joined Tyler to discuss the connection between religious belief and support for markets, what drives varying cultural commitments to capitalism, why the rate of growth is key to sustaining liberal values, why Paul Volcker is underrated, how coming from Kentucky influences his thinking, why annuities don’t work better, America’s debt and fiscal sustainability, his critiques of nominal GDP targeting, why he wouldn’t change the governance of the Fed, how he maintains his motivation to keep learning, his next big project on artificial intelligence, and more.

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Recorded December 4th, 2020 Other ways to connect

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