Why does the behavior of the Greek government have anything to do with taxpayers in Germany? Why did the original Maastricht Treaty have rules about fiscal policy as part of the criteria for monetary union? The answer is that the euro is a fiat currency.
Just as the interventions of the Hoover administration in the early 1930s led to a massive increase in government under the New Deal and the abandonment of the gold standard, so too have the "stimulus" packages gotten us to the point where raw money printing is a policy option.
Robert Lucas misses two important reasons why government/Keynesian stimulus schemes fail miserably.
If pushing down the short-term interest rate doesn't seem to be fixing the economy, let's push down long-term rates and see what happens. Shucks, we might as well try! It would be a shame to not use this shiny printing press.
Bernanke's policy gun is out of bullets. His policies have brought low growth, high unemployment, and a 7.2 percent increase in producer prices over the last 12 months. Attempts at stabilization have instead wrought chaos.
The Fed's entire policy program suffers from the same defect that all market interventions suffer from. The moment you stop intervening, the underlying problems come to the surface again. Administrative price setting does not change economic reality, at least not for the better.
Banks can and do make clients shift from short-term deposits.
Bernanke figures he's done the stimulating; consumers need to put on a happy face and start spending.
