a (merciful) slog

Robert Levine:

And melioration is crucial: left alone as they were before 1933, the downsides of Schumpeter/Kontratieff waves and lesser cycles have in the past caused immense human misery and immense, if pre-nuclear, wars. They must be meliorated better than they were in the first half of the 20th century.

And I will end this comment on comments as I did my initial contribution. Depending on Schumpeterian innovation on the one side, and developing-country competition on the other, we may be in for a long trough—the “secular stagnation” of the 1930s.

In that case, I am firmly on the ultra-Keynesian (and what may be the Krugman) side with regard to means of melioration. Secular stagnation may mean secular deficits; so be it, it is better than the alternatives.