Meaning Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, of course, both of whom appeared on the PBS New Hour November 2 (fast forward to about minute 27), talking about our financial crisis in the context of historical crises. Rogoff’s first sentence is about “ignorance and arrogance.” By the end, they are talking about prospects for sovereign debt defaults.
Commenters on this blog have said that my worries about U.S. indebtedness are overblown, because other countries also have high indebtedness. From Rogoff’s perspective, that is a reason to worry about sovereign debt defaults in other countries, not to be sanguine about our prospects. As always, keep in mind that both R&R and I would count a large unanticipated inflation as a default.
Pointer from Kalpa
READER COMMENTS
Brian Schwartz
Nov 4 2009 at 9:50am
The transcript of the Reinhart/Rogoff segment is here.
Arnold mention their view on inflation. I did a text search and did not find “inflation” or “inflate.” Do they mention it here, or somewhere else? (Sure, I could look myself, but if anyone knows of the top of their head, I’d appreciate it.)
I’d like to find some economists who are concerned about inflation, but who are not ideologically free-market. (To convince some non-free-market types, it’s more credible to use sources who aren’t biased to think government will mess everything up. …)
Thanks,
Brian
Arnold Kling
Nov 4 2009 at 10:31am
Brian,
Read their book.
Matt
Nov 4 2009 at 7:45pm
Wasn’t that the same kind of mentatlity that led to the mortgage crisis?
Brian Schwartz
Nov 5 2009 at 12:59am
“Read their book.” Ah, thanks Arnold. I’d heard of This Time is Different, (…probably at EconLog, probably one of your posts), and thought it sounded interesting. Thanks!
Comments are closed.