Simon Johnson: belief

Transcript context

…Here’s a reader question, and I’m quoting: “Ask him if Indonesia’s money-financed fiscal program in which their central bank monetized national debt has worked. The nation’s currency has modestly appreciated. The program seemed to get them through the pandemic without ill effects.” Opinion? Well, I’m not an expert on Indonesia, but I do think they’ve come a long way in the past 20 years in terms of responsible macro management. Of course, if you have a good reputation for keeping your budget under control . . . The joke of the IMF and elsewhere is that IMF stands for It’s Mostly Fiscal. If you’re credible on the fiscal side, I think you do create space, Tyler, for extraordinary operations at a time of crisis. COVID was a time of crisis, a pretty severe crisis in some places. Let’s hope that the Indonesians can keep that going. I think you’ve got to be very careful when it comes to money-financed deficits anywhere, and use those kinds of measures only when there’s no alternative. Okay. Now turning to your new book with Daron Acemoglu, Power and Progress. Could you please summarize that book for us as a high-quality GPT-4 program might? That’s my prompt.…

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