Scott Sumner, public choice, and Karl Polanyi all meet up

Through Interfluidity, where else?  Here is one bit:

Consider NGDP targeting. Under this policy rule, Treasury securities would become risk assets, whose real return would be geared to the health of the economy. (NGDP path targeting implies that shortfalls in real growth must be matched by increases in inflation.) Treasuries become low-beta index funds, diversified claims on the real production. Nominal yields would be more stable, but the real value of a future payment becomes as uncertain and volatile as the business cycle.

Read the whole thing.  In American politics, old people usually get their way.  In Western Europe, those governments have been obsessed with protecting insider interests for decades and they are not suddenly swept up with an enthusiasm for free market economics.  The problem isn’t “the Austerians”; do you really think that Pete Boettke is in charge?