Preliminary steps toward a universal economic dynamics for monetary and fiscal policy

TL;DR

This paper proposes a universal dynamic framework for understanding economic activity and policy interventions, emphasizing the importance of balancing fiscal and monetary policies to optimize growth and stability.

Contribution

It introduces a response theory-based approach to economic dynamics, highlighting the insufficiency of money supply control alone and proposing a balanced fiscal-monetary strategy.

Findings

Identifies a regime shift in 1980 from consumption to investment oversupply.

Shows that inflation trends are linked to this regime change.

Suggests policy shifts to promote demand-driven investment growth.

Abstract

We consider the relationship between economic activity and intervention, including monetary and fiscal policy, using a universal dynamic framework. Central bank policies are designed for growth without excess inflation. However, unemployment, investment, consumption, and inflation are interlinked. Understanding dynamics is crucial to assessing the effects of policy, especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Here we lay out a program of research into monetary and economic dynamics and preliminary steps toward its execution. We use principles of response theory to derive implications for policy. We find that the current approach, which considers the overall money supply, is insufficient to regulate economic growth. While it can achieve some degree of control, optimizing growth also requires a fiscal policy balancing monetary injection between two dominant loop flows, the consumption and wages loop, and investment and returns loop. The balance arises from a composite of government tax, entitlement, subsidy policies, corporate policies, as well as monetary policy. We show empirically that a transition occurred in 1980 between two regimes--an oversupply to the consumption and wages loop, to an oversupply of the investment and returns loop. The imbalance is manifest in savings and borrowing by consumers and investors, and in inflation. The latter increased until 1980, and decreased subsequently, resulting in a zero rate largely unrelated to the financial crisis. Three recessions and the financial crisis are part of this dynamic. Optimizing growth now requires shifting the balance. Our analysis supports advocates of greater income and / or government support for the poor who use a larger fraction of income for consumption. This promotes investment due to growth in demand. Otherwise, investment opportunities are limited, capital remains uninvested, and does not contribute to growth.