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The Guardian view on Covid relief: ideologies matter in democracies — Editorial

Summary:
Guardian editorial based on MMT economists Randy Wray and Yeva Nersisyan.As Yeva Nersisyan and Randall Wray of the Levy Institute have pointed out, the US government is engaged in relief, not stimulus, spending. It is offering much-needed assistance to the devastated balance sheets of households, school districts and local governments. Rescuing public services, making sure people don’t starve and building Covid-testing systems is not an economic stimulus but a necessary antidepressant. Reducing the size of the relief package would prolong the recession, which, given the virus’s capacity to surprise, may last longer than the experts predict. President Joe Biden was right to rebuff criticism that Democrats risked overheating the economy, saying the problem was spending too little, not too

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Guardian editorial based on MMT economists Randy Wray and Yeva Nersisyan.
As Yeva Nersisyan and Randall Wray of the Levy Institute have pointed out, the US government is engaged in relief, not stimulus, spending. It is offering much-needed assistance to the devastated balance sheets of households, school districts and local governments. Rescuing public services, making sure people don’t starve and building Covid-testing systems is not an economic stimulus but a necessary antidepressant. Reducing the size of the relief package would prolong the recession, which, given the virus’s capacity to surprise, may last longer than the experts predict. President Joe Biden was right to rebuff criticism that Democrats risked overheating the economy, saying the problem was spending too little, not too much. There is slack in the US economy: 400,000 Americans left the labour market in January....
The purpose of stimulus is to increase lagging demand in an underperforming economy, and that of relief is to support an economy failing owing to external shock. The need now is relief, not stimulus.

The Guardian — Opinion
The Guardian view on Covid relief: ideologies matter in democracies
Editorial

Mike Norman
Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds and ran a prop trading desk for Credit Suisse.

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