The Fiscal and Economic Effects of Austerity
Committee Hearings - Senate Budget Committee: Jun 4 2013 10:30 AM:
SD-608: There will be a hearing of the Committee on the Budget on Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 10:30 AM in Room SD-608 to consider The Fiscal and Economic Effects of Austerity
Witnesses:
Larry Summers, PhD, President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University
Simon Johnson, PhD, Ronald A Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship MIT Sloan School of Management and Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Salim Furth, PhD, Senior Policy Analyst, Macroeconomics, The Heritage Foundation
And Matt O'Brien (ObsoleteDogma) on Twitter:
"I don't think the tenor is conducive to further productive discussion." —Heritage analyst refuses to defend himself over data questions
The Senator is demanding that the Heritage analyst write a letter apologizing for "meretricious" testimony.
Heritage flack getting destroyed by a Senator who did his homework: Most European austerity, per OECD, has been spending cuts, not taxes.
"If history teaches us anything, it's that those who think their ends justify extreme means are on the wrong side of history" —Larry Summers
Pretty amazing that economists have to tell politicians that we shouldn't default just for fun, but they do.
"It seems to me that repudiating our debt should be off the table." —Larry Summers, on the debt ceiling.
Jeff Sessions talks up the big pay cuts Estonian doctors took during austerity. So I guess he wants to cut Medicare payments?
Larry Summers: Debt to GDP at the end of 2013 will be no lower with sequestration than it would be without due to slower growth.
Heritage policy analyst thinks euro austerity is fake because transfer payments have gone up. O-kay.
Heritage policy analyst thinks Alesina & Ardagna have "UNANIMOUSLY" shown spending cut austerity works. Case closed.
The best way to tell someone has no idea what they're talking about is if they cite Jens Weidmann unironically. #JeffSessions