links for 2010-06-20

• Ball and Romer: Real Rigidities and the Non-Neutrality of Money
• Ball and Romer: Real Rigidities and the Non-Neutrality of Money
• Andrew Leonard: In the hot tub time machine with Alan Greenspan: The "Maestro" tells Americans we can't afford our future. Ten years ago, he sang a different tune
• Matthew Yglesias: The Unavoidability of Long-Term Austerity
  MY: "It’s a real problem. And a big one.... 1. The public sector has assumed responsibility for financing the health care of old people. 2. The cost of health care relative to the rest of the economy is rising. 3. The proportion of old people relative to the rest of the population is rising. This trend bodes ill for our fiscal future.... As we saw during the debate over the Affordable Care Act, it’s very difficult to pass measures that reduce the incomes of doctors, the profits of medical device makers, the profits of pharmaceutical firms, or the incomes of hospitals. And yet it’s difficult to see how you could reduce health care without reducing the revenue flows that go to medical professionals and the firms that employ them. It’s a big problem. But the problem doesn’t get any smaller if we refuse to extend stimulative tax breaks. And the problem doesn’t get any bigger if we think up a public works employment scheme for the long-term jobless."
• Bill C: Super-Asinine Propensities
  John Maynard Keynes: "every person in this country of super-asinine propensities, everyone who hates social progress and loves deflation, feels that his hour has come and triumphantly announces how, by refraining from every form of economic activity, we can all become prosperous again."
• Paul Krugman: Talking To A Dining Room Table
  PK: "Gah. I’m still in Germany, and the event was lovely. The policy conversations, not so much. We talk about the euro crisis. They say, “Clearly, this was about fiscal irresponsibility, and we need to enforce much stricter rules.”... No fiscal rule would have constrained the Spanish housing bubble and its consequences. And they say, “Thank you for your contribution. Clearly, this was about fiscal irresponsibility, and we need to enforce much stricter rules.” Oh, and on monetary policy — I find myself recalling how Rudi Dornbusch came down to breakfast one day and greeted a German central banker — I don’t remember who — with a cheery “And stable prices to you, sir!”"
• Williamson: National Crisis and National Government: British Politics, the Economy and Empire, 1926-1932
• Keynes: The General Theory of Employment
• Robert Skidelsky: Politicians and the Slump: The Labour Government of 1929-1931
• Arvind Subramanian: G-20 Rules; Time for Germany-Bashing
• Maggie Mahar: What Many Liberals Don’t Understand About Health-Care Reform
• Sam Mellinger: Manute Bol deserves more recognition for his work in Sudan