Laura Harrison

What's Best for the Economy: Monetary Policy, Government Spending or Tax Cuts?

Why is so little attention paid to the desirability - perhaps need - for any stimulus (be it monetary or fiscal, tax cuts or government spending) to be coordinated internationally? The Keynes of "The General Theory" and after certainly believed in the importance of this, as Markwell's book on Keynes and international forces makes clear. Brilliant though Skidelsky's writing it, it would be good to supplement it with reference to Moggridge's biography of Keynes ("An Economist's Biography") and/or Markwell's book ("Keynes and International Relations"). The case for the international context, including the importance of international economic institutions like the IMF and World Bank and for free trade, is really important to make at this stage, when the world needs the Obama administration to provide effective US economic leadership (just as Keynes looked to FDR for this in the 1930s and during the wartime design of the post-war international economic order).