Spring Break
Letter to the editor
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Opinion
To the Editor:
The front page article "CSU Skeptical of Stimulus Plan" from Feb. 18 is inaccurate and misleading.
The only member of the CSU community cited in the article is "professor Jessie Gastelle." Gastelle is a graduate student, not a professor. He does not speak for the economics department, let alone all of CSU. The claim in the headline is baseless and, frankly, ridiculous.
Gastelle said he believes that we should cut government spending in response to the recession. He is entitled to his opinion, but most economists would argue that government spending should be increased to offset the decline in consumption and investment.
The economic slowdown is global, and the interdependence of national economies could magnify its effects into a worldwide collapse. The most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, Paul Krugman, believes that the stimulus plan is too small relative to the magnitude of the problems it is meant to solve. I and many other members of the CSU faculty agree with him.
CSU is not skeptical of the stimulus plan. Your paper has done a disservice to my department and to the community at large by making this false claim.
Steven Shulman
Professor & Chair Department
of Economics
The front page article "CSU Skeptical of Stimulus Plan" from Feb. 18 is inaccurate and misleading.
The only member of the CSU community cited in the article is "professor Jessie Gastelle." Gastelle is a graduate student, not a professor. He does not speak for the economics department, let alone all of CSU. The claim in the headline is baseless and, frankly, ridiculous.
Gastelle said he believes that we should cut government spending in response to the recession. He is entitled to his opinion, but most economists would argue that government spending should be increased to offset the decline in consumption and investment.
The economic slowdown is global, and the interdependence of national economies could magnify its effects into a worldwide collapse. The most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, Paul Krugman, believes that the stimulus plan is too small relative to the magnitude of the problems it is meant to solve. I and many other members of the CSU faculty agree with him.
CSU is not skeptical of the stimulus plan. Your paper has done a disservice to my department and to the community at large by making this false claim.
Steven Shulman
Professor & Chair Department
of Economics
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 6
Peace Love
posted 2/19/09 @ 10:39 AM MST
Dear Steven Shulman,
You and the other members of the CSU faculty who agree with Paul Krugman are blind to history and are an embarrassment to the study of economics. (Continued…)
Skeptical White Man
posted 2/19/09 @ 6:13 PM MST
Professor Shulman,
The fact that a largely liberal government is spending money surprises no one. The fact that "most economists," believe that deficit spending is a GOOD thing, goes to prove that economists understand neither history, nor basic math. (Continued…)
Skeptical White Man
posted 2/19/09 @ 7:26 PM MST
"Thomas Jefferson
The projections through 2012 were made before the current Congress unleashed its hell fury. The chart is now vertically challenged, topping out at a mere $14 trillion. (Continued…)
MoralMoney
posted 2/19/09 @ 11:10 PM MST
The right wing has now entrenched itself into a big steamy pile of rhetoric as any witness to this discussion of ad hominems can see. It's unbelievable how so many armchair economists react with so much veracity when their selective reality is challenged by somebody who has spent a lifetime trying to objectively understand the economy. (Continued…)
Print Procedures?
posted 2/20/09 @ 4:44 PM MST
The economic debate may be interesting but I find it possibly as interesting that the university reporter posted a front page article with a grandiose notion that the person they interviewed could speak on behalf of the entire university as implied by the headline. (Continued…)
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