Mark Thoma has a new post “Starving the Beast in Recessions” that links to his article in the Fiscal Times: “How GOP Lawmakers have the Fed Over a Barrel.” Mark’s post backs up the concern I expressed in “Preventing Recession-Fighting from Becoming a Political Football” that traditional stimulative fiscal policy–tax cuts or increases in goverment spending–entangles recession fighting in political disputes about the size and scope of government. In that post, I wrote:

By avoiding big changes in taxes or spending, I hope my Federal Lines of Credit proposal can help to depoliticize stabilization policy. 

“Preventing Recession-Fighting from Becoming a Political Football” is a difficult post. For more accessible posts on Federal Lines of Credit, go to my second post “Getting a Bigger Bang for the Buck in Fiscal Policy” or to “My First Radio Interview on Federal Lines of Credit.” I plan to do a set of index posts for my sidebar giving links to all of my posts by topic area soon. At that point, the index post on “Short-Run Fiscal Policy” will link to all of my posts on Federal Lines of Credit.