Lateefah Simon: “Mr. Bartlett writes: Without exception, stimulus programs have failed to moderate the recessions at which they were…”

“Mr. Bartlett writes: Without exception, stimulus programs have failed to moderate the recessions at which they were aimed, and have often sowed the seeds of the next recession. These programs have not been simply worthless, but harmful. It would have been better to do nothing. Then he writes: President Carter's Office of Management and Budget presented a study that reviewed the postwar experience with such programs. And they reached the same conclusion. Then, listen to this: Later, [Senator Lloyd] Bentsen issued a unanimous report from the Joint Economic Committee which concluded that by the time a recession is recognized, it is too late to be treated. Efforts to do so are destabilizing. The committee recommended avoiding short-term countercyclical actions, and instead focusing on factors that contribute to long-run growth. "This was good advice then," the author writes, "and good advice now." Even Lord Keynes, the father of countercyclical policy, eventually recognized its limitations. Toward the end of his life, he wrote: "Organized public works . . . may be the right cure for a chronic tendency to a deficiency of effective demand. But they are not capable of sufficiently rapid organization (and above all cannot be reversed or undone at a later date), to be the most serviceable instrument for the prevention of the trade cycle." "The U.S. economic experience provides ample confirmation," the author of the article says.…”