Fiscal Policy Lags Management of the National Economy In the United States there are only a few avenues available to the government for management of the economy. These opportunities fall under the broad headings of monetary and fiscal policy. Monetary policy is under the primary control of the Federal Reserve Board. Its tools include interest rates and the supply of money. Fiscal policy, on the other hand, is open to the purview of the legislative and executive branches of government. It refers to government policy using taxes and spending to influence the economy . The subject of controlling the national economy presents professionals and ordinary citizens alike with fodder for lively discussion and debate. It is also a topic whose popularity ebbs and flows with the times. The focus in recent years has been on the use of monetary policy. But do not tell that to the politicians. Some people will not let go of what they are familiar with and to what gets them votes. So Congress and the President constantly battle to find the most “correct” fiscal policy to pursue given their assessment of the economic conditions at any point in time. And therein lays a potential weakness in the argument that favors the use of fiscal policy to smooth the troughs and peaks of the United States economic machines. Fiscal Policy Lags In order for there to be a reasonable chance of achieving the outcome desired from the application of particular economic policies it is important for there to be an ability to recognize the existence of a challenge, to correctly diagnose the condition, to take action in accordance with the approved policy, for all of it to be timed appropriately and to have some luck. This one rather tedious sentence encompasses the array of arguments against the use of fiscal policy for control of our national economy. Put another way, we are describing recognition lag, decision lag, implementation lag and take-effect lag. These “lagging” concepts are fairly self-explanatory. Recognition lag speaks to the relative difficulty of identifying economic conditions in “real time”. The National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Business Cycle Dating Committee is generally considered to be the official arbiter on the timing of broad economic cycles. The mere definition of a business cycle as representing changes, spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, visible in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale trade suggests that it is something that will be recognized officially a good bit after it starts.
Throughout Eveline Adomait and Richard Maranta’s Dinner Party Economics there is continuous discussion surrounding the problems that economies face around the world and the various methods that can be used to alter the state of the current economic conditions. Changes in consumer spending patterns can become a problem for the economy as a whole, potentially resulting in over-inflation or recession. Implementing discretionary policies such as monetary policy through changing interest rates, and fiscal policy through taxation and government spending, makes it possible to fix these economic problems.
In conclusion, regardless of Macropoland’s current economic condition, it is fair to say that it is all part of the business cycle. The business cycle has three parts: peak, trough, and peak. The peak is the date that the recession starts. In Macropoland’s case, the peak would be at the beginning of 1973, its trough somewhere between 1973 and 1974, and then its peak again at 1974. In the second scenario, Macropoland is either at its trough, where it is about to head up again because of its low inflation rate, or it is at its expansion, on its way to heading to its next peak.
Monetary Policy is another policy used in Keynesianism which is a list of protocols designed to regulate the economy by setting the amount of money that is in circulation and controlled interest levels. The Federal Reserve system, also known as the central banking system in the U.S., which holds control of this policy. Monetary policy has three tools used by the Federal Reserve to enforce this policy. Reserve Requirement is the first tool that determines the lowest amount of money a bank must possess and is not able to lend out. The second way to enforce monetary policy is by using the discount rate or the interest rate a bank will charge.
The Federal Reserve and Macroeconomic Factors Introduction The Federal Reserve controls the economy of the United States through a variety of tools. They use these tools to shape the monetary policy of the United States in order to promote economic growth and reduce the rate of inflation and the unemployment rate. By adjusting these tools, the Fed is able to control the amount of money in the supply. By controlling the amount of money, the Fed can affect the macro-economic indicators and steer the economy away from runaway inflation or a recession.
..., monetary and fiscal policy will work in different ways. People aren’t stupid and they aren’t super intelligent; they are people. If the government uses an activist monetary and fiscal policy in a predictable way, people will eventually come to build that expectation into their behavior. If the government bases its prediction of the effect of policy on past experience, that prediction will likely be wrong. But government never knows when expectations will change.
I believe that it's’ important to use our constitution as a guiding tool to help appoint the correct people for the job.John Maynard Keynes was a British economist where he fundamentally changed the theory and practices of macroeconomics and economic policies of government. Although he was revolutionary most of his policies were controversial and used Keynesianism economic to get people to stay away from them . His approach to macroeconomic management was different since the previous traditional laissez-faire economists believed that an economy would automatically correct its imbalances and move toward a state of equilibrium, They expected the dynamics of supply and demand to help the economy adjust to recession and inflation without government action. Laissez-faire economics thus regarded layoffs, bankruptcies and downturns in the economy not as something to be avoided but as elements of a natural process that would eventually improve. However that was not the case for the great depression. Keynes also believed that a given level of demand in an economy would produce employment however he insisted that low employment during the depression resulted from inadequate
In the study of macroeconomics there are several sub factors that affect the economy either favorably or adversely. One dynamic of macroeconomics is monetary policy. Monetary policy consists of deliberate changes in the money supply to influence interest rates and thus the level of spending in the economy. “The goal of a monetary policy is to achieve and maintain price level stability, full employment and economic growth.” (McConnell & Brue, 2004).
This essay seeks to explain what are monetary and fiscal policy and their roles and contribution to the economy. This includes the role of the government in regulating the economical performance of a country. It also explains the different features and tools of monetary and fiscal policy and their performance when applied to the third world countries with a huge informal sector.
The spending by the government has elicited controversial discussions regarding how to ensure that the economy is affected positively. The government spending is a bad way to stimulate the economy. This issue is described by various persons especially the impact the government spending has on the economy of the United States of America. The point of discussion of this paper focuses around the quote made by Thomas Sowell, an American economist and a political philosopher.
After analyzing the data and the theory, we have provided our conclusion weather tax cut is better for the stimulation of growth or Government spending is? This report explains the big macroeconomic debates of the present times. It seeks to explore the debate within fiscal policy itself between tax cuts and government spending. We have tried to explain the argument through some theories and through some data collected from Indian econ...
Whereas Milton Friedman argued that consumption is related to permanent rather than current income. He was therefore more sceptical about he usefulness of a tax change for stabilisation purposes than one who believes that consumption depends on current disposable income. Policy makers usually use Fiscal policy to alter the level, timing or composition of government expenditure and/or the level, timing or structure of tax payments. And they use Monetary policy to alter the supply of money and/or credit and also to alter interest rates. But some policies are not always successful; a good example was the decision to use monetary policy to solve the liquidity trap.
The appropriate role of government in the economy consists of six major functions of interventions in the markets economy. Governments provide the legal and social framework, maintain competition, provide public goods and services, national defense, income and social welfare, correct for externalities, and stabilize the economy. The government also provides polices that help support the functioning of markets and policies to correct situations when the market fails. As well as, guiding the overall pace of economic activity, attempting to maintain steady growth, high levels of employment, and price stability. By applying the fiscal policy which adjusts spending and tax rates or monetary policy which manage the money supply and control the use of credit, it can slow down or speed up the economy's rate of growth in the process, affecting the level of prices and employment to increase or decrease.
Economic policies, the foundations in which our country 's taxation and economy may be made or broken in a short or long run as a whole. There are many sides to the argument of economic policy, some on the side of the rich, others the poor, and some simply stand in a neutral position to help provide the best they can. The ideas of supply-side, demand-side, and monetary policies each have their own unique and individual strengths that have given many different advantages to the country over the years. However, they also are always at odds with each other over which policy works the best, how we can monetize the country, and how we can secure income and jobs for everyone. Through each of their individual merits each policy grants a purpose that
The Social Studies Help Center (n.d.). Monetary and Fiscal Policy. Retrieved November 5, 2011, from http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/eco_mon_and_fiscal.htm
It is difficult for government to achieve all the macroeconomics objectives at the same time. Conflicts between macroeconomics objectives means a policy irritating aggregate demand may reduce unemployment in the short term but launch a period of higher inflation and exacerbate the current account of the balance of payments which can also dividend into main objectives and additional objectives (N. T. Macdonald,