Stimulus is a term being used these days by a wide range of people across the political divide. Unions, business groups, Fine Gael, Labour—everyone has a stimulus plan. Everyone, of course, apart from the poor old government. And, indeed, the vast majority of mainstream economists in the country. Since the term keeps popping up everywhere, I thought it might be useful to open a debate about it here, outlining why I have not joined the public clamour calling for stimulus.
This is exactly why people were arguing for coordinated stimulus programmes earlier this year.
The IMF has released a new staff position note which focuses on the fiscal implications of the global crisis. It provides very useful comparative data on various dimensions of fiscal interventions, including the costs of banking sector policies. You can download it here.
The IMF is running a workshop on fiscal policy today: many of the conference presentations can be found here.