New Mechanisms for Fiscal Stimulus

New Mechanisms for Fiscal Stimulus

May 3, 2020

Idea: A Direct Payments System to Eligible Citizens with Built in Spending Conditions. Essentially, direct payments to individuals that can only be used to pay for services and certain goods. Creating greater control over what people spend their money on, allows for targeting of sectors and products to maximize each stimulus dollar and promote a greater multiplier effect for each dollar.

Problem: Ideas around Fiscal Stimulus by the government are based and built off of the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, specifically the idea of the Keynesian multiplier. In a gross oversimplified explanation, Keynes’s main goal was to jump start consumer spending to aid the economy. Keynes advocated for the government to spend when consumers could not or were unwilling to spend. Government spending would employ more people or keep more people employed and earning an income. They would intern spend the money they earned on goods and services therefore supporting business and industries, who intern employ people. So when a person buys a shaving razor or a radio, purchase helps the company making that item and the American workers they employ to make that item. This is the basic logic of the Keynes multiplier, government spending with have a multiple effect on the economy. Keynes' ideas worked very well for decades.

Federal Stimulus Reserve

Federal Stimulus Reserve

May 3, 2020

Idea: Create an Independently Administered Financial Reserve used for Fiscal Stimulus

Problem: Speed matters, when combating an economic crisis that can become a recession. The two instruments the government uses to combat a recession are Monetary Policy and Fiscal policy. Monetary Policy is provided by the Federal Reserve and Fiscal Policy is provided by Congress. The Federal Reserve has proven able to respond to economic crises with great speed and creativity to meet new challenges, especially during the financial crisis of 2007/2008. The Federal Reserve acts without political considerations and makes decisions based on economic facts. While a modest fiscal stimulus was passed by Congress in response to the 2007/2008 financial crisis, it was not big enough or passed in a timely manner to prevent a recession. In general, Congress takes a great deal of time to act, often politicizes stimulus funding, and allocates funding based on politics not economic need. During times of economic crisis, the economy needs money injected into trouble areas quickly and with precision. The Federal Reserve can do much of this, but only within the confines of monetary policy. Economic Crises require a coordination between monetary and fiscal policy that focuses on economic need

An (Incomplete) Guide to Life: Meditations on the Flyleaf

An (Incomplete) Guide to Life:

 Meditations on the Flyleaf

Pocket Guide

by

Fernando Giannotti

Have a Pleasingly-Fine Day

Bonjour.  I'll be traveling abroad for awhile.  If you don't hear from me, you can probably assume I decided to stay in the Galapagos near Bali.  Please continue to treat this free blog as a shrine.

Have a pleasingly-fine day.

FG

Who is Flash-Ryan Danger Fox?

Who is Flash-Ryan Danger Fox?  No one really knows.  He’s constantly changing.  If he were a drink he’d be one part Hugh Hefner, two parts Joseph Schumpeter, one part Hunter S. Thompson, one part James Dean, one part Keynes, one part Henry David Thoreau, and two parts Riccardo De Nuzzo.  He is the most exciting man in the world who recognizes the excitement of and lives within the world of everyday banality.  He will grow old, but remain timeless.  Never forgets to play.  Often is nothing more than a whisper, but leaves a lasting impression on every person who spends time with him.  Only you can decide for yourself who is Flash-Ryan Danger Fox.  He already knows who he is…       

Ferguson as a Catalyst for Constructive Change

            The St. Louis county Grand Jury’s decision not to indict Officer Wilson in the incident involving the altercation with Michael Brown which lead to Brown’s death has caused a great deal of animosity and protest throughout the United States.  As protests are playing out, interviews are being conducted with experts across all mediums of media, and every person within reach of a computer is weighing in with their thoughts.  It has become abundantly clear that the case involving Officer Wilson and Michael Brown has come to embody more than just what transpired during those fateful less than 2 minutes of their encounter.  For many, this case has become a referendum on desired ethical change to municipal police departments across the United States as well as the United States criminal justice system.  Officer Wilson and the county prosecutor have become a representation that embodies all perceived injustices of how police forces fail to uniformly apply the law to minority groups and the perceived biases present in the criminal justice system against minority citizens.  The grand jury’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to indict Officer Wilson is seen as a referendum on the much larger issue of systemic problems within many municipal police forces.  Since the incident in Ferguson has touched a deeper problem in the United States, it is logical for us to focus on solving this deeper problem.  Even if the evidence had been sufficient for the Grand Jury to indict Officer Wilson, his indictment would not have solved the larger problems with municipal police departments across the United States.  The national attention and debate given to Ferguson should be used as a catalyst for the constructive, effective reform.  For the previously mentioned purposes of finding constructive reform, I will seek to offer three ways of correcting problems between municipal police forces and the communities they serve. 

On Creating a Pareto Optimal Resolution to the Washington Redskins Name Dispute

On Creating a Pareto Optimal Resolution to the Washington Redskins Name Dispute

            The debate or controversy, depending on the view one takes, surrounding the NFL franchise Washington Redskins[1] has become one of the rare sports controversies that has permeated into overall society.  Individuals who have never watched a single NFL game have an opinion on whether the Washington Redskins should change their name.  Whether the Washington Redskins should keep their name has become a societal debate.  In this essay I will argue that it is in the best interests of the NFL and the Washington Redskins to change the official name of the Washington DC NFL franchise to a less controversial name.  The NFL must play an integral role in facilitating this transition and for compensating the Washington Redskins organization for a loss of brand equity a name change will entail.  I will argue that there exists a pareto optimal scenario for the Washington Redskins organization and supporters of changing the name.