The important thing about this is that Summers is lying. It isn't that he's wrong about this, it's that he doesn't believe it. He does not think that $2000 checks relative to any baseline or other policies will "overheat" the economy.he’s right about there being conceptually better uses for the money, but the idea that we risk “a temporary overheat” of the economy from a round of $2k checks is just silly.
— Zach Carter (@zachdcarter) December 24, 2020
That was just a reason he grabbed for. If it was some other policy he didn't like he'd put on his frowny economist face and say it had a "low fiscal multiplier," arguing essentially the opposite, that the spending wouldn't boost the economy enough. For something else, he might go full concern troll and argue that the policy wasn't progressive, relative to some other policy he also wouldn't support if it was being offered.
Appeals to the astrological charts that only the economist possesses is common, but in this case it's bullshit that even he doesn't believe.
More great moments from a real genius:
I guess $2000 checks is just too fucking agressive (again, he's lying, he just doesn't want that kind of stimulus, he wants to make rich people even richer).I have the optimistic guess-but it’s only an optimistic guess-that the recovery can be faster than many expect b it has the character of the recovery from the depression that hits a Cape Cod economy every winter or recovery in American GDP that takes place every Monday morning.
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) April 3, 2020
This you? pic.twitter.com/NxyfMaCCwP
— Drone Striker in Chief (@aturtlenamedbo1) December 25, 2020
Merry Xmas.