Saturday, February 19, 2011

Should The Central Bank Support Partisan Fiscal Policy?

link here to article

The Guardian has an article on this issue. The current head of the Central Bank in England made recent comments in support of the conservative government's fiscal policy. Central Banks manage the money supply and interest rates and they have usually taken a non-partisan stance in setting monetary policy. Otherwise monetary policy could be used to stimulate the economy when the "right" party is in office and it could be used to contract the economy when the "wrong" party is in office. Since Central Bankers are not elected to office, many feel that it would distort democracy to have Central Bankers aligned with a political party. The Central Bank in England is currently keeping interest rates low, which should stimulate the economy, while fiscal policy is being used to reduce the role of government in the economy. Many have been critical of Alan Greenspan's role as head of the US Fed when he was the Chairman. His comments on the economy were held in high regard by Congress and he tended to support Bush's fiscal policy, which led to very high budget deficits since large tax cuts were not paid for by cuts in spending.

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